Coach’s Report – Rnd 4 – Redcliffe 06/04/2009
ROUND FOUR REDCLIFFE
This week was a fly in fly out for the two points because of our travel arrangements being changed to suit the new game time of 2pm. ‘Successful’ was our catch cry as we boarded the plane less than one and a half hours after the final whistle. The Comets this week took a lucky charm in one of our sponsors (Doug Webber) for the battle in Redcliffe. I think Doug thoroughly enjoyed the trip with the lads; I even seem to recall him joining in the team song.
We had an extended squad this week with Mick Esdale missing out due to the shuffle. Mick, who last week was one of our best, was put on standby because of stitches both under his eye and in his noggin. With the side wewere able to field this week, there was no need to put a player on the park who is not fully fit/recovered as in years gone by.
The first half was a see-saw match with the field being heavy under foot. Redcliffe were the first to score off a very well placed grubber, which had seen us again chasing them down. We then started to turn the heat up but it still felt as if our footy was not firing with no less than 5 held ups over the line and 3 disallowed tries. Going in at half time at 10 all, I think Redcliffe got off easy.
Again, our second half defence was something of a revelation with our boys working well as a group and bending Redcliffe backwards on every occasion that they attacked our line. In particular, one defensive effort stands out. That of Tommy Hewitt when they had beat us on the inside only to run into the shoulder of our fullback who not only loosened the ball but also knocked the bloke out…..all this without a penalty.
As history has dictated, the road trip to Redcliffe has always been very difficult with Comets only beating Reddy 5 times out of 24 and only the second time down at Dolphin Oval.
Congrats to our boys and now time to stay focused for Ipswich this weekend at Briggs Road.
