Cobar Blues’ win comes down to the wire
Wednesday July 15, 2009
The Cobar Blues’ wingman Shane Munro provided monumental amounts of run and carry throughout the AFL game against Barellan at Ward Oval on Saturday.
The Cobar Blues took on the travelling Barellan side at Ward Oval on Saturday in a hard fought match that came down to the wire. With Cobar up by five goals at three-quarter time, Barellan fought hard in the final quarter, but all credit goes to the Cobar side with the Blues winning 13-12-90—12-11-83 and also keeping their vague dream of finals football alive.
The day started out second-rate with captain/ coach Murray Robotham burdened by the flu which left the midfield short of a ruckman until Robbie Mitchell was given a crash course in rucking to fill the void prior to the game.
Mitchell, along with Corey Slater, Dan Howard and Greg Brown, laid the platform for some ‘gung-ho’ ball movement into the forward line where Mick Moritz bagged his first five goal haul for the Cobar Blues.
Key defender Karl Powell displayed why he is the best defender in the club with unrelenting success against Barellan’s gun full forward, enabling him to only kick two goals.
Strong marking in defence restricted Barellan’s ability to score and laid a platform for the Cobar attack.
Cobar young gun Clay Neale showed immensely his ability to play anywhere on the ground, whether it be in defence or kicking inside out right foot ‘torpedo goals’ on the run.
Wingmen Shane Munro and Rohan Lloyd provided monumental amounts of run and carry all throughout the ground leaving a tired Barellan unit.
Doug North gets a paragraph of his own in this report as his run off the half back alone was match winning.
Countless times North single-handedly split the game open exposing Barellan straight up the corridor allowing the Cobar forwards every chance to put points on the board.
Goal kickers for the Blues were: Moritz (5), Robotham (3), Terry Pitkin, North, Howard, Will Josephson and Neale.
Cobar’s best players were: Slater, Mitchell, Howard, Brown, Moritz, Munro, Neale and Powell.
The game was a true testament to the home side’s resilience, passion and their tenacity to get the ball, which got the win.
It was a great effort from the Cobar team and a credit to all the younger players who have really turned a corner in the second round of the competition.
The Blues have now had two wins and
three loses in their last five games of the season.
Their loss to Hillston was by a goal; in their match against Ungarie, Cobar led going into the last quarter; and they had Lake Cargelligo, (who are leading the competition and last year’s premiers) down by 20 points after the first quarter and only lost the game in the final stages of the match.
If Cobar can retain Neale, Lloyd, Mitchell, Powell, Munro, Travis Dunlevy and Sam Hardwick who are now playing some great football, then there is a very bright future and exciting prospects for the Blues to come.—contributed
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