General News
31 August, 2023
Rough game sends JR to prelims
It was a tough day for the Jeparit Rainbow Seniors at North Park Stawell last Saturday. A large contingent of supporters took the long trip in anticipation of their team testing the undefeated opposition. Harrow Balmoral averaged 153 points over the...
It was a tough day for the Jeparit Rainbow Seniors at North Park Stawell last Saturday.
A large contingent of supporters took the long trip in anticipation of their team testing the undefeated opposition.
Harrow Balmoral averaged 153 points over the home and away season, while only letting their opposition average 34 points, and they took control after the first quarter to run out 83-point winners.
Jeparit Rainbow went into the game with the addition of Nick Yarran, Brad Stokes, Antonio James and Tom Schumann to the team that had played against Taylors Lake two weeks ago.
The players to miss out were Justin Cozens, Jordan Leach, Jake Parry and Lewis Cocks.
The game began with Harrow Balmoral kicking the first two goals.
It evened up for a while when Antonio James kicked Jeparit Rainbow’s first goal, but a late goal to Harrow Balmoral saw them have a two goal lead at quarter time.
The second quarter saw Jeparit Rainbow struggle against their opposition, finding it hard to get their running game, and finding it hard to win the clearances and contested ball.
When they did get the ball forward, too often their long kicks were marked by opposition Michael Close, while Peter Weir had to contend with two opponents for most of the game.
Down by 43 points at half time, things got worse as Harrow Balmoral kicked the first two goals of the third quarter, making eight in a row before Weir scrambled through a goal from the goal square.
A couple of defensive errors saw the margin blow out to 71 points at three quarter time.
The last quarter saw Jeparit Rainbow looking at a 100-point loss, before a mini revival had them kick three goals - two of them to Dan Batson - in a short period halfway through the quarter.
Despite the heavy loss we saw some of the lighter-bodied Jeparit Rainbow players put on some great tackles, with Xavier Oakley and Trent Burgoyne being great examples.
Burgoyne played well in the midfield, trying to give his team some drive.
On one wing, Matt Synoradski ran hard all game and did cause Harrow Balmoral some problems.
Up forward, Ash Clugston was often forced up field to find the ball, but he still won several one-on-one contests with his fierce attacks on the ball.
The backline was under pressure all game, but Simon Clugston stood out to be the team’s best player as he kept James Staude to three goals.
He had good support from Tom Schumann and Tom Long - both of them also giving some run out of defence.
Mention must be made of Matt Thomas who was battling with a sore shoulder. He stood up in the ruck contest, giving away weight and years of experience to Anthony Close, and just kept fronting up to the next contest.
It will be a real test of the playing groups character as they must regroup to front up against Noradjuha-Quantong at Kaniva this Saturday in the preliminary final.
Final score: JR 5.6.36, HB 17.17.119
