Saturday’s glorious weather topped off yet another great day down at the Pumpkin Patch, with a full card of footy from the Under 8’s through to the A-Grade enjoyed by all in attendance.
The Red Bulls were best served by Trent Knight on the day, in both the Reserve and A-Grade clashes…..the moment he appeared from the dressing sheds donning a Devils jersey😜. Mind you, if he was a target for the Bulls, they weren’t able to put him away in either game!
The Reggies were keen to get a good win for their first Wallumbilla home game of the season, and it didn’t take long to register their first points for the day with a length of the field effort from Jimmy Pobar in the opening minutes.. The backs were given plenty of room off the ruck work of Ryan Kehl and Jimmy Pobar in the middle with another stand-out performance from Mitchell Platts, who dominated for the 70 minutes. Darby Knight and Dylan Wilkins were instrumental in setting up 2nd and 3rd phase plays off the back of some direct forward running from Jo Zellars with Timmy Duff and Jack Jones earning meat pies out wide as a result. Although not entirely satisfied with their overall performance, coach Les Allwood was more than happy with his current options knowing that there is still space to improve going into next week’s game against the Bulldogs.
The A-Grade clash was another game dominated by the forwards from the outset and although Nathan Callaghan and Coby Fechner were starved of the ball somewhat in the first half, definitely made the most of the clean ball when things began to open up in the second half. Full credit to Harvey Wright, who once again, was filling in at pivot and proved creative in attack with some pin-point face balls finding their mark and gaining good field position as a result. His introduction of phase plays was a refreshing change to the attacking structure we’ve come to rely on and proved very effective against a gallant Devils defensive effort. It’s always difficult not to mention our forwards in games such as these, with Kurt Rowbotham not knowing how to put in a bad one and John Russo forever on the lookout to gain any advantage he can. Dylan Ogden was impressive in his A-Grade debut tackling whatever moved when on the field and directing his forwards in a display beyond his years and was well mentored by Locke Naprasnick who’s strong defensive effort had the Devils forwards changing their lines in the second half.
A big thanks to Peter Price and the Miles boys for making the trip and for the spirit in which both games were played, particularly when having players backing up against two very strong packs on the day.
Thanks as always to our volunteers in the Merchandise tent, Kel and Renae and to Brucey, Shanene and Justina and the Bar staff for keeping all hydrated. Big thank you to the Benderoo Bulls for staying on in the canteen for the day and to Yorky and young Crawfo for taking on the role of Touchies. Huge thanks as well to Napro and Johnny Saint for their contributions and who just don’t know how to let the club down!
Next weekend we take on the Bulldogs at Wallumbilla and will post game times and match info as soon as confirmed.