|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
CLUB RUGBY GRAND FINALS 2008, GOLD PARK TOOWOOMBA ADDED MONDAY 15/09/2008 The Darling Downs junior rugby grand finals yesterday showed some spirited and entertaining rugby across four age groups, U13 to U16. Always good to hear the sideline comments, some that I hate and really grind away, like "get it to the winger" and "two forward rushes then get it to the backs" and "over the top forwards" and "get there forwards". some classic calls from the sidelines, you get them at every match, but they drive me around the twist nonetheless. However, yesterday with big Mike Dillon there coaching the Under 13 ducks to premiership glory, a few old tried and true Goondi calls came to the fore, none more pronounced that "use your feet Jordan" from big Dillo on the sideline. I'm sure Mike meant to use your feet in the 2008 context of how they are to be used, however the 1983/4 version would have been to use your feet to tear flesh from the bodies of opponents lying anywhere in the vicinity of the ball, or anyone lying somewhere on the way to the ruck/maul/tackle. This is now a part of the game we sadly miss, and everyone can lie around and kill the ball, whereas in an era past, backs and some forwards, did not really want to lose any skin in this fashion, so avoided at all costs being in the vicinity of flying feet. The Under 13's was won by the Goondiwindi Franchise, with old prop Mike Dillon in charge. Goondi produced a strong comeback from being dominated in the first half to take out the premiership, defeating Highfields. I do have a couple of pics of Dillo making a speech, I will consider the potential impacts to my health of putting them up, as I was warned yesterday by Michael on mentioning his name, as I always am. Well done to Goondi, their travel commitment over the last period of the premiership round has been immense, with no home games, and to have their name etched on a trophy is hopefully worthwhile. UNDER 14: Highfields played Dalby in the Under 14's, Dalby coached by another old prop in Neil McVeigh, of course father of Morrie. Dalby looked the goods early, with some strong play from some of their dual code operatives, that Neil tells me are enjoying the code. From a College perspective, a couple of them were of great interest. Highfields got this one, after a scrappy first half, developed into an entertaining and see sawing match in the second half. I liked the 5 from Dalby, their fullback and a lad named Fletcher. Plenty of potential there and we would all like to see (well maybe not all but most of us) these lads fronting up to trial for representative sides, both Schoolboy and club stuff in 2009. I thought Nick Leggat played really well, especially given the serious injury he has just returned from, and a young fellow by the name of Ben Rees certainly has plenty of potential to work with. Not sure of the name of the lad wearing the 22 jersey for Highfields, but he also seems to have some potential. UNDER 15: Souths played Warwick in the Under 15 grand final, and proved just too strong for the fledgling southern club. This match up was completely dominated by the big powerful Souths outfit. Warwick, again like Goondi and Dalby, have done all the travelling to be in the competition in 2008, and did well to be able to make it this far. Hopefully towns like Warwick can take their rugby to the next level in 2009, maybe with some more teams. UNDER 16: The Under 16 grand final was fought out between Highfields and Bears, with the Bears side looking to be almost completely drawn from TGS. No problems there, and I imagine they were expected to win. As often happens with expectations, no one passed the message on to Highfields, and with James Gough, Queensland 2 run on hooker leading the charge at inside centre, Highfields ground out an entertaining win, 17 to 10, with Goughy kicking two difficult conversions and a penalty goal. He really has come along way from where he was two years ago and is without question one of the local rugby college's favourite sons. I really am looking forward to watching Goughy play in the nationals in two weeks, it should add to his growth as a rugby player. Of course another of my bugbears from the sidelines is people calling off sides and forward passes from 200 metres away, it's great. I wonder have they heard of angles of parallax. Just let the referee control the game folks, remember law 1, the referee is the sole judge of fact and law, and law 2, the referee shall apply all the laws of the game fairly (it doesn't say correctly). those two laws cover it all. All in all a great day for the DDJRU, finally seeing some rewards for many years of hard work, by many people. I could also say that a number of people in influential places, in the early years did nothing but work against the concept of development of a club system outside the school rugby programmes. That no doubt set the programme back 5 years. Club footy gives people at so called rugby schools an alternate competition to play in, and gives players from other codes, and schools the ability to try rugby, and be seen in another forum by the many people that get around to various venues. Goodness knows the school system cannot supply the depth required for Australian rugby, although most of the purists would disagree with me, but who cares. It looks now like the growth phase may come, let's hope so anyway. I thought there was as many or more people at the Rugby Grand Finals at Gold Park on Sunday as there were at the league Grand Finals on Saturday. There are plenty more pics of all grades to go up, will get to it over the next couple of days, might have some more to say as well, so stay tuned for that to happen.
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
WE DON'T STOP PLAYING BECAUSE WE GROW OLD, WE GROW OLD BECAUSE WE STOP PLAYING. |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
