Rusty
Bencher
While the majority of Manly fans sat glued to the edge of a Suncorp stadium seat, or to the TV watching the live coverage I had the great pleasure of calling the finals in the local comp from Brookvale Oval yesterday.
The important result, in what was billed by many a Norths region vs Manly region final Narraweena walked away convincing victors with a 33 - 8 scoreline. Personally I felt for the Asquith boys, who were undoubtedly favorites coming into the class having won the previous encounter between the two sides only weeks out from the finals. On the day they had the good fortune of playing in three grand finals across the grades, and the poor fortune of winning none of them.
This was a game of Ying and Yang, two very different football teams, and two very different halves of football. The team that won, was not necessarily the one that played a whole lot better, but simply put Narraweena were able to play to their plan and Asquith were not. We knew coming into the match that Asquith were going to be St George like in their defense, with S.Folkes in the background (A young scion of the family playing in the Asquith 9), their coaching was to play up the middle and allow good forward defense to lay a platform of territory and pressure. Narraweena however were to play a different style altogether, their defense while spirited was nowhere near as powerful, and they relied on their wide players to break the line and make easy meters down the flanks.
Asquith started the better team, and played their own style of defensive football, with a solid pack of forwards who rushed up in defense and kept the lighter more mobile Narraweena team under all sorts of pressure. In the first half Narraweena looked dangerous when they held possession, but Asquith were solid and ensured this was rare, allowing Narraweena just 4 points a couple of minutes out from the break.
After the break and a Cliffy Lyons half time talk that told Narraweena they needed to lift the tempo and really set the pace of the game everything was different.
Narraweena broke the line on many occasions, the heavy pitch wore on the defense and the blues ran away a point a minute until the full time siren.
My conclusions :
1. Cliffy is a hell of a coach, back to back in what is a very tough comp is an achievement to be proud of. In the future I would love to see the club make use of his skill, after today I am entirely convinced.
2. If we are looking for wingers, halves or centers then Narraweena is a great team to be raiding for next years Toyota and NSW cups.
3. For forwards Asquith were by far the better team, injuries and fitness took their toll on the day but in terms of skill and commitment they were the better pack by a long way. Their big loss was an inability to really attack Narraweena as I would have liked to see them land a few more blows themselves.
4. Sunday park football is fantastic. 8500+ at Brookie on a Sunday arvo to watch the local boys run around was huge and the atmosphere while relaxed was great, what better way to spend Fathers day then on the hill.
The important result, in what was billed by many a Norths region vs Manly region final Narraweena walked away convincing victors with a 33 - 8 scoreline. Personally I felt for the Asquith boys, who were undoubtedly favorites coming into the class having won the previous encounter between the two sides only weeks out from the finals. On the day they had the good fortune of playing in three grand finals across the grades, and the poor fortune of winning none of them.
This was a game of Ying and Yang, two very different football teams, and two very different halves of football. The team that won, was not necessarily the one that played a whole lot better, but simply put Narraweena were able to play to their plan and Asquith were not. We knew coming into the match that Asquith were going to be St George like in their defense, with S.Folkes in the background (A young scion of the family playing in the Asquith 9), their coaching was to play up the middle and allow good forward defense to lay a platform of territory and pressure. Narraweena however were to play a different style altogether, their defense while spirited was nowhere near as powerful, and they relied on their wide players to break the line and make easy meters down the flanks.
Asquith started the better team, and played their own style of defensive football, with a solid pack of forwards who rushed up in defense and kept the lighter more mobile Narraweena team under all sorts of pressure. In the first half Narraweena looked dangerous when they held possession, but Asquith were solid and ensured this was rare, allowing Narraweena just 4 points a couple of minutes out from the break.
After the break and a Cliffy Lyons half time talk that told Narraweena they needed to lift the tempo and really set the pace of the game everything was different.
Narraweena broke the line on many occasions, the heavy pitch wore on the defense and the blues ran away a point a minute until the full time siren.
My conclusions :
1. Cliffy is a hell of a coach, back to back in what is a very tough comp is an achievement to be proud of. In the future I would love to see the club make use of his skill, after today I am entirely convinced.
2. If we are looking for wingers, halves or centers then Narraweena is a great team to be raiding for next years Toyota and NSW cups.
3. For forwards Asquith were by far the better team, injuries and fitness took their toll on the day but in terms of skill and commitment they were the better pack by a long way. Their big loss was an inability to really attack Narraweena as I would have liked to see them land a few more blows themselves.
4. Sunday park football is fantastic. 8500+ at Brookie on a Sunday arvo to watch the local boys run around was huge and the atmosphere while relaxed was great, what better way to spend Fathers day then on the hill.
