Senior Competition Wrap – Round 5
Coffs Breakers and Sawtell Toormina Saints are starting to put some distance between themselves and the other teams, with Grafton Tigers and Port Macquarie Magpies needing to find some form if they are going to pose a premiership threat.
The combination of Coffs Breakers wanting to bounce back from their first loss of the season and the Grafton Tigers being badly undermanned proved disastrous for the Tigers.
Breakers travelled light to Ballina last week so it was no surprise to see 12 new faces into the team for the clash against Grafton. This meant a return to the line-up that had won its first four matches of the season and marked itself as the early premiership favourite.
Grafton on the other hand were missing key players such as Hamish Ellem, Benny Holder, Sean Duroux, Sam Hardes, and Chris Curthoys.
The writing was on the wall by quarter time when Breakers had posted a 12 goal to 0 opening term. Grafton were never going to be able to bounce back from there and from that point on it was about damage control. Unlike last week’s big loss to Byron where the effort was never lacking, Grafton struggled to find the motivation to keep going, whilst Breakers were ruthless in their execution.
For Breakers, Brenda Norton and Luke Valdes were the chief destroyers with 7 and 6 goals respectively. Nick Stanlan-Velt and Harry Parker each added 4 goals, whilst Luke Symons and Liam Paige contributed 3 apiece.
Luke Stanford had over 50 possessions for Grafton Tigers in what was described as one of the best efforts seen on the North Coast in a badly beaten side. Pat Curtain added a cut under the chin to last week’s split above the eye and finished the match with nearly all of his face covered in tape.
Breakers big win saw them improve their percentage sufficiently to leapfrog Sawtell Toormina Saints at the top of the ladder.
The Grafton players will need to do plenty of soul searching this week and decide what they want to get out of their season. At their strongest they can be competitive in all of the remaining rounds, but at half strength they will need to get used to big beatings. Their maiden win of the season was just over two weeks ago and they need to get back to what they were doing well if they want to go forward.
Coffs Breakers 33.22.220 defeated Grafton Tigers 0.0.0
Sawtell Toormina Saints remain level on points with their near neighbours following their victory over the travelling Port Macquarie Magpies.
Matt Flynn returned to boost the Sawtell defence, whilst Courtney Tune laced up the boots for the first time in two seasons and Aaron Clarke played his first game of the season.
The first quarter was a tight tussle that the Saints shaded by two goals. The second quarter continued in the same vein with Sawtell posting 7 goals to 4 to be up by 36 points at the main break. Sawtell continued to build upon their lead in the back half of the match to run out convincing winners by 72 points.
Malcolm Trotter continued his excellent run of form for the Saints and was in this thick of the action throughout. Dan Pritchard booted 6 majors, Aaron Clarke slotted 4, and Mark Couzens 2.
Jesse Schmidt was his usual reliable self, kicking 3 goals, with Fraser Carroll the other multiple goal kicker with 2.
Sawtell are building nicely and will be happy with the return to the park of both Tune and Clarke. With much of the focus on Coffs Breakers, Sawtell are flying somewhat under the radar and will be happy to be in that position.
Port meanwhile is reliant on young players such as Isaac King, Jakob Gray, Dom Byrne, and Jack Terley who are in their first season of Senior footy. These youngsters are learning each week and giving a great account of themselves and the Magpies just need to find some consistency in personnel.
Sawtell Toormina Saints 20.11.131 defeated Port Macquarie Magpies 9.5.59
Next week’s round sees Grafton Tigers hosting Sawtell Toormina Saints at Ellem Oval under lights on Friday night (7:30pm), and Port Macquarie Magpies hosting Coffs Breakers at Wayne Richards Park on Saturday (2:20pm).
