The 2017 Rugby League season kicked off for the Bombala & District Rugby League Football Club on Saturday, April 1, with perfect weather conditions down at Batemans Bay.
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The game started off fairly even with both sides defending well. It was the High Heelers captain Patrice Clear who would take first points capitalising on a blind side scoot out to the right. It seemed the Heelers would take note of the captains lead and when the Heelers would get good field possession close to the line, scoots from dummy half would see both Sue Morgan and Monique Perkins claim their own four pointers. Keiarna Rodwell would prove it was also possible to score long range tries as she returned the ball from the kick off with fierce pace, no one would be able to stop her from blistering away to score under the black dot. Newcomers Aimee Badewitz, Abbey Boreham and Sam Stewart all impressed as they easily slotted in and contributed to the game. At half time the Heelers would take to the sheds with a comfortable 16-0 lead.
The second half would see the Bay girls put constant pressure on the Heelers as some unforced errors would creep into their Heelers game. Fantastic tagging efforts from Clear, Brooke Morey and Jade Crouch would help to keep the opposition from scoring after back to back sets. Makayla Standen and Amy Stone were instrumental in carting the ball up to make great yards for the Heelers, where Abbey Kimber would eventually score from another blind side scoot close to the line. Not long after Kimber would combine with Amy Stone to capitalize on an overlap out wide where debutante Georgia Jones would go over for her first try. As the Heelers would gain back their composure, last points would be again collected by Jones as a beautifully executed play would see Monique Perkins wrap around Kimber to send the ball wide to a steaming Stone who would pass off to the safe hands of Jones to score out wide. The girls would take the win convincingly 28-0. Players player and 3 points were awarded to Monique Perkins for her consistent defence and classy ball skills in attack. 2 points went to Amy Stone whose running game has become a real asset to the Heelers outfit and 1 point went to Georgia Jones for her fantastic ability to finish off plays and score 2 tries on debut.
Reserve Grade
A new look Reserve Grade team would take the field headed up by new captain-coach Korie Elton. The likes of Nick Ryan, Mick Sullivan and James Coates was a well anticipated combination in at the halves. Alex Rosten would prove extremely valuable out the back in full back scoring a long range try. Nick Ryan and Digby Walcott would also make great breakaway runs only to be cut down just short of the line. Kitt Bryce and Paul Gimbert proved instrumental in making good metres for the boys as did Slade Newton and Andrew Guthrie with some cracking defence. Korie Elton and Andrew Rutherford would bag their own 4 pointers before half time taking them to the sheds with an 18-10 lead. Whilst things were looking positive Heelers, various injuries would already overshadow the reggies line up and early changes were required to accommodate.
The score would stay locked at 18-10 for much of the second half until the Bay would prove too fast out wide taking the scores to a close 18-16. Mitch Power would show some great skill and pace down the sideline not long after only to be held up close to the line, a couple of plays later though Digby Walcott would find points edging the Heelers closer to victory 26-18. However the Bay was not done yet and as a classy chip kicked was positioned perfectly for the steaming Ron Brown from the Bay he would score, taking the Tigers back to within 2 points. As the Heelers bench numbers faded with further unfortunate injuries they just didn’t quite have the ability to withstand the late onslaught from the home team and as it would seem the clock would stand still – allowing the Bay to claim a late victory with another 4 pointer just on the bell taking the final score to 26-24.
Players Player was awarded to the very consistent Warren Martin and 3 points would go to hard running and defender Slade Newton, 2 points went to Andrew Guthrie who helped steer the boys around the paddock and 1 point to Mitch Power proving very handy out wide.
First Grade
Captain Coach Joe Bobbin would lead the first grade team out onto the paddock, raring to go. Dominating runs from the Fijian duo Sami Buinimasi and Wame Belolevu would prove the efforts from the club and community to get these two lads back onto the field for Bombala was well worth it. Luke Ingram and Adam Rodwell too would add to the big hitting line up. However it would be the Bay who would eventually get some good field possession and a quick step back inside would turn Bombala’s defence inside out allowing the Bay to score in the 16th minute. Paul Perkins kicking game helped bring the Heelers back into good field possession and it would be the unstoppable force of Adam Rodwell that would see the Heelers on the board in the 26th minute locking the score back up 6-6. As the Heelers gained some good momentum through Malcolm Stone and Brett Hodak they would eventually spread the ball wide for lightening fast Bailey Jones to score under the black dot. The boys would head in at half time with a 12-6 lead.
Early in the second half unforced errors and an inability to complete sets saw the Bay Tigers capitalise and score in the 47th minute to even things up at 12-12. Again with poor discipline a penalty would allow the Bay more field possession where they would eventually hit the lead 18-12. As the Heelers began to feel the fire in their bellies, Captain-Coach Bobbin would lead by example as would Luke Ingram - running extremely hard to gain great metres. With a fantastic set in defence seeing them receive the ball back in good field possession, it was the classy play of Paul Perkins that would draw multiple defenders allowing him to pass a precision ball to a steaming Luke Ingram who would score untouched. This would lock the scores up again 18-18.
The next few sets would see some fantastic efforts in defence from the Heelers and with the injection of Nick Ryan from the bench, direction out on the field would allow strategic running from Murray Jackson, Adam Rodwell and Joe Bobbin. This allowed for the brute strength of Wame close to the line to muscle over for a try of his own, taking the Heelers to the lead 22-18. Bobbin would soon make another great break away run but was unlucky to see the ball hit the ground as Zac Slater would have been in for another certain try. However the combination of Perkins with Sami close to the line was never going to fail as the sheer force of Sami would crash over – under the black dot. With a 26-18 lead there would still be another 8 minutes left on the clock – this allowed for the try of the day to occur for the Heelers as the ball would go through at least 9 sets of hands before seeing points scored. Perkins would offload to Malcolm Stone from hooker, Stone made a great run able to off load to Wame supporting him on his outside, Wame would fend multiple defenders to flick to Digby Walcott out wide, Walcott would flick the ball back to Wame just before being taken out over the side line, Wame would tap the ball back to Sami on his inside who would find Perkins supporting him up the middle, just before Perkins would be taken out he would pop the ball over the top to find a flying Zac Slater. Zac had the final support from Andrew Guthrie who would catch the ball and trot untouched over the try-line to score final points for the game in what would be a great testament to the team effort put in from all the boys. The final score was 32-18 in the Heelers favour. Players Player and 3 points were shared between the Fijian duo Wame and Sami, 2 points went to Luke Ingram and 1 point went to Paul Perkins.
With the farthest away game now out of the way early the Heelers look forward to hosting their first home game of the season on Sunday 9th April against the Bega club. The club invites everyone to come along and show their support for the players across the 3 grades in what should surely be a very entertaining day of footy. The club would like to recognise and thank all those sponsors who again have made it possible for senior Rugby League to occur in Bombala especially major sponsors The Bombala RSL Club.