Tamworth’s under-14 sides had a tough start to their National Club Championship campaigns at Albury and Canberra on Wednesday.
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Drawn against one of the top sides at the tournament in Wests, the girls went down 17-nil in Albury, but impressed coach Sean Hofman with the way they kept fighting.
The scoreline though didn’t reflect how they played, he said.
“They didn’t give up, they were just a bit outmusculed and outgunned,” he said.
A few “dodgy” decisions didn’t help.
“They were only down 3-nil at quarter time. The score blew out a bit in the second quarter,” Hofman said.
They’ve got Melville Mermaids on Thursday morning in another seeding game.
Meanwhile in Canberra the boys went down 25-1 to the top-ranked Sydney Uni Blue.
It was a similar story to the girls.
“I was happy with the way the boys started the only being down 3-1 after the first quarter,” coach Tim Smith said.
“At half time it was only 7-1 but the second half was not the same – the boys just ran out of legs.”
He said he wasn’t too worried about the result because that’s what the nationals are all about.
“First round games may go that way but then teams get split up into more evenly match groups for play offs,” he said.
They play Queensland Country first-up on Thursday. The result will determine when they play again later in the day.
Several of the players from both sides were involved in the local grand finals played at Scully Park on Saturday.
Tamworth Tigers overturned a two goal half-time deficit to take the A grade men’s honours 7-5 over Southgate Inn.
Tigers scored first but it was Southgate who charged back in to the game scoring the next three goals to lead 3-1 at quarter time. Southgate maintained their advantage at half-time but were held scoreless as the Tigers levelled the scores at three-quarter time.
Tamworth Tigers captain and attacking spearhead Thomas Goodwin was strong for the victors, securing the win with two goals in the last two minutes to clinch the premiership.
The two strongest performances of the day though both came from the losing side. Lachlan Nihell in goals kept Southgate in the match with more than a dozen saves which frustrated the Tigers shooters all the game, and was duly named the player of the grand final.
At the other end, sharp shooter Isaac Moxon showed why he was the top goal scorer for the season with double the goals of second place, with all five of Southgate’s goals despite being double marked and heavily pressed.
The FlippaBall grand final began the proceedings and saw St Nic’s/Calrossy edge out Wests 7-6 with Archie Barnett named mvp.
THS were took strong for the Calrossy Mermaids in the women’s C grade running out 10-nil winners while in B grade Carinya outgunned the GK Rookies 7-1. Lara Taggart was adjudged best in the water in B grade and Mackenzie Abra C grade.
The under-14s boys was an all Farrer-affair. Led by grand final mvp, Farrer Pink thumped their Green counterparts 22-1.
Farrer were also triumphant in the under-16s boys with the Gold defeating Carinya 7-3, Farrer’s Ned Hoath picking up the grand final mvp.
The women’s A grade and open schoolboys deciders were played during the week. The women’s saw the Garry Kelly Veterans victorious over MCC 9-6, while in the open schoolboys MCC accounted for the Farrer Fossils 10-5.
