4 August 2008
With their season and premiership hanging by a thread, Perth-Bayswater first grade played the first half of this game against Wests-Subiaco as if they were 20 points ahead of the pack and didn't care. The team elected to kick into the wind with a game plan of kicking for the corner but failed to compete in the rucks and mauls and consequently were dominated at the breakdown. Veteran Wests flanker Kiti Fuluna had a field day and Perth blew four tries with dropped balls, lost ball in the kick offs and generally tried too hard to score with the pressure on for a bonus point. A very poor first half finished at 0-0.
Coach John 'JT' Taylor let the team have both barrels at point blank range in the half time talk and sent on reserve halfback Sam Moon, on the mend from a hamstring tear. Playing with the wind, the Little General took control and marshalled the troops to new levels. The team changed their approach to the breakdowns and started getting over the gain line, lifting their execution to score five second half tries. Centre Ben James scored five minutes into the half after a series of rolling mauls and rucks, wing Nathan Hunt ran a try in from half way following a set move, and flanker Nathan Swayne scored from a forward drive following a lineout. Later in the half lock Jock Stanley put number eight Cale McCort over after five or six phases of play, and Hunt wrapped up the scoring with his second try when Moon put him through on the blind. Moon added two conversions for the 29-0 win.
In other games, second grade losts to Wests 35-19, third grade lost to Wests 81-7, under 20s defeated Wests 26-7 and Under 18s defeated Cottesloe 36-3.
Fifth Grade - Respect! That's what the fifth grade forgot to show their opposition on Saturday and looked for a while as though they may pay the ultimate price for it. Wanneroo came to play and showed that they were more than capable of taking it up to their more fancied opponents. With the likes of Ken "Porridge" Angus (who played over 100 games for Perth's first grade) leading the forwards and the cunning coaching of Big Bad Billy Watt, we were always going to be up against it.
Despite this Perth scored first when Dwayne "The Train" Barr broke the defensive line and then offloaded to a rampaging Handsome Danny Vella for a 7-0 lead. Wanneroo soon replied with a show of pace by their right winger who left the Perth defence in his wake. The conversion missed and the score was 7-5 -- game on!
Both teams threw everything at each other-- the kitchen sink, Phil Oliver's jock strap, Matt Sefton's dummy, some old person just passing by and even Japie's book on "how to be a cross-dresser without getting caught" but neither team would budge. This continued well into the second half until Mr Vella (who forgot to wash the jumpers last week so we had to play in stinky ones) decided to make it a double when he crashed through the lineout and bowled over all defenders on his way to a great try. Shane "Barr Fridge" converted and finally we had some breathing space at 14-5. The team lifted one more time to send some good ball out to Justin "Stumpy" Lamb who ran over a couple of defenders to score our third try, which was converted by Barr Fridge for a final score of 21-5.