27 August 2008
Fifth Grade managed to lose their preliminary final to the Nedlands All Stars 15-9 at Perry Lakes on Saturday even after leading 3-0 at half time. Both sides were evenly matched throughout the first thirty minutes with Bertie taking good lineout ball against ET and Thommo while Copper, Bushie and Roger held the front row together. The hits were hard and the ball was moved from one side of the field to the other on a hot dusty day which must have made life hard for the two big forward packs. The deadlock was finally broken when Shane "Barr Fridge" popped over a penalty.
The team felt fresh at half time even though the pace had been disgustingly quick for fifth grade and they were confident that they could take it up to their high profile opponents. The lead was extended to 6-0 after another "Barr Fridge" penalty but Neddies replied soon after with one of their own to make it 6-3. Then it happened in just a flash. Just as it looked as nothing was on, Gadget chipped over the Perth defence and of course the ball popped up into his hands as it bounced between the two Baysie defenders. Gadget scored under the posts which was converted and the score was 10-6 in Neddies favour. The ref took pity on the poor old lads in black and promptly put one on Nedlands' players in the bin. Perth took advantage of this and marched up field through some big charges by "Handsome Danny" Vella and Cliff "Man Boobs" Mataseni to again be awarded a penalty which was despatched through the posts by Shane to close the score to 10-9. Things were looking good for Perth when Shannon was put in the bin as well and Neddies were down to only thirteen men. Shane missed the kick but it looked as though it was going to be Perth's day with a two man advantage. Only problem was that to Neddies' credit they lifted and Perth dropped which was really rubbed in when we had a two man overlap only to have the last defender intercept the pass. Jonesy managed to evade Whits (who is 15 years younger) and scored a match winning try to take the match 15-9. The prize for Nedlands is to meet a stacked ARKs side in the final so we wish them all the best. Man of the Match was Chachi.
Fifth grade held a joint barbecue in the car park with the victorious Womens side, who thumped Uni 51-7 in their semi final earlier in the day. They meet Cott in the grade final on Sunday morning at 9.15am while the U18's play Wests in their grand final straight after. Let's get down and support them.
On a personal note this was the last match for Noel "the Flying Fridge" Spittal who has decided after 23 seasons to hang up his boots and join the Westaways plus their side kick Japie on the sidelines next season. It's been an honour to take the field with the likes of Sir Cliff Richard, Rick Boyd, Mike "Prince of Whales" Jones, The Westaways, Finky, Japie, Danny, Rau, the Barr brothers, Bubs Salter, Chachi, Fonz, Phil, Bertie, Dallas, Grunter, Copper and Man Boobs just to name a few from fifth grade over the last twelve seasons.
[Thanks Fridge. The Fifth Grade reports won't be the same without you. In fact, they probably won't exist. Thanks for some great stories over the years.-- The Webmaster].
Some of our fabulous Women's team at the barbie.