Not Just A HalfBack, Not Just A Shield
It was another cracking day at Les George Oval as the Mighty Blue Machine lined up for their first 2nd XV final in over 10 years. The lads were all pumped up before the game, with everyone knowing exactly what needed to be done to get past a Marist team that had thumped Midlands by 50 points in their semi-final.
It’s fair to say that after 10 minutes some of us on the sideline were starting to think the Marist boys needed to be swabbed after the game, as they tore into the match with a ferocity we only just managed to keep out. A penalty after six minutes put them ahead 0-3, and only a fantastic tackle a few minutes later stopped them scoring the first try.
Marist did score the first try, getting across after 14 minutes to make it 0-8, but after absorbing 25 minutes of constant pressure, the Blues lads got themselves back into the game. Nevertheless, our first score came against the run of play.
After 33 minutes, with a two-on-one overlap, Marist chose to pass the ball to Rich “Dags” Little who showed a ton of gas to sprint 80m and score in the corner. Iain Renwick missed a tough conversion, but the try settled our boys who started to dominate. A Josh Brown penalty after 39 minutes was also waved away, but going into halftime everyone was a lot more upbeat after weathering the onslaught.
They were even more upbeat seven minutes into the second half, when a good run by Te Arohatai Matiaha saw Jaykib Holland-Collins get put into space just outside the 22. With the defence coming across, he tried a stab-through kick. If God was a Catholic, this would have skidded off the Marist defenders and gone into touch.
Instead, it bounced off a Marist hip, back into Jake’s hands, and he was able to sprint the last 20m to score and put us ahead for the first time. A nice conversion by Renwick made it 12-8, and a penalty by the Scotsman made it 15-8 after 52 minutes. Marist came back at us, but some clever positional play from the old master Sean Colyer and some excellent mauling and tight play from the forwards kept us away from our goal line.
Marist had a couple of chance, but the outstanding defence seen throughout the game kept them out. With time approaching, the message went out to Sean to have a crack at a droppie just to make things safe. In his excitement, he was unable to add correctly and thought we were safe.
On the 75 minute mark, just adjacent to the posts, his addition skills hurriedly came back to him and he snapped a nice droppie to end the scoring and make it 18-8. The fire went out of Marist a bit then, and the game meandered to a close and a mighty win – the first since 1999 in this grade – and the skipper that day was Mark Sheehan, who made a second-half appearance off the bench to bookend a pretty solid career.
Played 17, won 14, lost three. Points for 429, points against 250 – a season to be proud of.
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