RD1 '17: Demons vs Raiders (Conf)
Tony "Whitey" White | 11.05.17
Clapham Demons 3.7 (25) def by Shepherds Bush Raiders 6.7 (43)
Our conference team, while not able to get the chocolates, had a solid start to the year. Shepherds Bush at their home ground was always going to be a challenging first up contest and in particular given the amount of new players running around for the first time. Added to that it was a learning experience for first time coach!
Kicking with the breeze in the first term, we came out with strong intent but weren’t able to convert some good work in the middle on the scoreboard. We matched the Raiders at every contest and had a number of repeat forward entries but to the Raiders credit they were able to repel each attack and nullify our forwards. The first term ended with both teams failing to register a goal. Unfortunately the first quarter also saw club favourite Casa day end early with a hyper extended hip and will see him side-lined for an extended period of time. All the best with the recovery.
The second term saw the Raiders come out with a bang. They managed to get easy ball through the middle, hitting up their forwards who converted 3 goals to our none. Despite their dominance we were only down by 3 kicks. The third quarter continued in the same vein as the Raiders appeared to be on top. Despite this, we showed that if we can get quick ball in to our forwards we look dangerous as we managed to kick 2 in quick succession to break even for the quarter.
21 points down going into the last we felt that with a little bit of luck we could snatch victory. Unfortunately this wasn’t the case as the quarter ended with both teams scoring a goal apiece and the Raiders running out victors by 18 points.
While not the result, the signs are good and plenty of positives to be taken out of the game. The backline! Despite the Raiders dominance our backline held strong, lead by regulars Fulton, Sharpley and NZ Richie. Special mention to new comer Mangoes in what was a great debut and to Ki for relishing a new role down back in what was probably his best game for the club. In the middle of the ground, first gamer Kraken showed good signs in the ruck and a big shout out to the work Ben Ryan and H did in the middle, I promise we will get some rotations going next time!
Let’s get down to training and get around each other this week.
Big shout out to Jonesy and Harry in first game as assistant coaches and running the rotations despite not knowing many names. Also big thanks to Tayles, Tank, Hoarey, Jez and Conor Conor for their help running messages and water.
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