The sky was clear and the day was scorching for Domestic 8. A great training midweek had energised the squad and they couldn’t wait to have a run on the long grass of TSIS Stadium. The Tigers wore black armbands in honour of Sarin “Mody” Armsden who passed away earlier in the week. Mody and her husband Mark “Ralphy” Armsden were both huge supporters of the club during their time in Thailand and as Sammo said in his pre-game speech, the Tigers get around their own.
Big Nate had done some recruiting at the pub on Friday night and convinced Aussie tourists Mitch and Connor to come down for a run. Amazingly they actually showed up, although Connor’s ribs probably wished they hadn’t. More on that later.
Hooey, sporting a camouflaged wide-brimmed hat and with Joy’s jumper stretched tightly across his chest, kicked an early goal. Welby, J-Mac and Kai also kicked goals for the Oleangs but the first quarter was tighter than the scoreboard suggested. The Gek Hueys had the Oleangs trapped in their own half for long spells during the first quarter. The Oleangs couldn’t get it past Hasto who was roaming the backfield. Both the newbies kicked behinds and at the end of the quarter Mani accelerated past his defender and kicked a fine long range goal from out wide for the Geks. At the end of the quarter the Oleangs had a three goal lead.
The Geks had the wind in the second quarter and the scoreboard began to tick over for them. Sammo grabbed a nice round-the-corner snap pass from Nate and kicked the goal before Hasto used the wind to bomb a huge goal out of the centre square. But the Oleangs matched them and more. Hooey dished up a nice pass for Jazza to score. Pez found himself in front of an open goal but unselfishly dished to Jay to walk one in. J-Mac kicked one after a nice interchange of passes with Kai. Jazza and Hooey combined again at the end of the quarter for Jazza to kick his second. The Oleangs were dominant.
Running into the wind the Gek Hueys were unable to trouble the scorer at all in the third quarter but the Oleangs kept coming. Kai sent a nice pass to his Dad down the boundary line for Welby to kick a tough, long range set shot. He kicked another moments later, cleverly soccering it through from 20 metres out. Then came a goal that will surely earn a few lines in Connor’s travel journal. Connor, taking his cue from Hooey’s relaxed attire, decided to wear his sunnies for his first match of Asian footy. This is notable because they really exaggerated the impact of the hip and shoulder he received from a J-Mac. It was one of those moments on the footy field when timing and momentum combine. Connor had bent over to scoop up a loose ball and so was unbalanced, still on his feet but stumbling slightly. J-Mac was coming at full pace, a split second too late to challenge for the ball but just in time to throw his shoulder into the unprotected ribs of the unlucky tourist. Connor got creamed, his sunnies cartwheeled over the boundary line, J-Mac collected the ball and kicked the goal. Connor, clutching his ribs, followed his sunnies off the field and took a well-deserved rest. It was all fair and legal and J-Mac apologised later.
The game was over at ¾ time, the Oleangs were up by 50 points. So coach Gunny made a few changes to even things up. Kai was asked to change jumpers, so were a few others and in the last quarter we witnessed a Gek Huey comeback. They almost won it. They had the wind behind them again and Mani and Hasto ran amok, their huge boots both bombing goals from long range. Mani kicked another beauty from out wide, Hasto bombed another from just outside the centre square. They both kicked two goals in the final quarter, Angel and Kai kicked one each. The Oleangs were stunned and the wheels began to fall off. The Geks were surging forward at will, goals were coming thick and fast, suddenly the scoreboard was a factor and the Oleangs were just holding on. The Geks kicked six goals six in that final quarter and could have won it. Pez’s set shot for the Oleangs kept them safe and in the end they held on to win by nine points.
It was a great game in really tough conditions. Mitch was still red in the face six hours later down at the Clubhouse and both tourists admitted they were ready to pass out in the hot conditions. It was another great game in the Tigers’ run in to the Asian Champs in a few week’s time.
| The O-Leangs 12-3-75 defeated the Gek Hueys 9-10-64 | |
| Goals O-Leangs Welby: 3 J-Mac: 3 Jazza: 2 Hooey: 1 Jay: 1 Kai: 1 Pez: 1 | Goals Gek Hueys Mani: 3 Hasto: 3 Sammo: 1 Angel: 1 Kai: 1 |