THE Bathurst Bushrangers under 18s head into next Saturday's Central West AFL finals series on the back of a valiant performance against the Bathurst Giants.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The Bushrangers lost 7-11-53 to 5-5-35 at George Park 2, but will finish the regular season in second behind the Giants.
The game started with the Bushrangers dominating play early. Jacob Davey was strong in the ruck and he was supported by the ever consistent Michael Long. Anthony Coan played strongly in the forward line and found some space to kick the first goal for the Bushrangers.
Soon after, he copped a stray elbow to the nose and had to leave the field. From that moment on inaccuracy cost the Bushrangers, the Giants took advantage of this by adding two of their own. Samreet Sandhu leads the way in defence and many time repelled any attack that came his way. At quarter time it was a narrow three-point lead over the Giants.
Ricky Webb moved back into full forward and had an immediate impact on the scoreboard in the second quarter. After a great defensive effort by Nick Rosser, the ball fell into the hands of Josh Coyte who dashed down the wing and delivered the perfect left foot pass to Webb, who kicked truly. The Giants threw plenty at the Bushrangers defence, however Isaac Hall stood tall in the last line with Blake Taylor and Andrew Bennett providing plenty of tackling pressure to force errant kicks.
Not long into the third quarter, Coan’s nose had stopped bleeding and no sooner had he been on the ground, the ball found its way into his hands and he kicked truly to take the lead. The Giants responded and the game was back on even terms. The Bushrangers continued to apply a lot of forward pressure on the Giants. This pressure led to Luke Rothnie running onto a loose ball and kicking a great goal. The lead had changed again. Jake Lynch, Nick Seve and Kyle Piper-Hurst worked hard on the flanks in an effort to maintain the lead, however their efforts were unrewarded when some loose marking in defence saw the Giants kick two more goals. Going into the last quarter, the Bushrangers were in arrears by five points.
During the last quarter the Giants were able to lock the ball in the forward line for most of the quarter. Bushrangers went down 5-5-35 to 7-11-53. It was another good game between these two rivals and it will be interesting to watch when they face off in the qualifying final in two weeks’ time.