Kingscliff - 2 . 8 . 20
Tweed Coolangatta - 2 . 8 . 20
A huge thanks to the Robina Roos for hosting our home game (and the Cooly Blues for organising it) with all of the Tweed region AFL fields being closed from the recent rain. After the entire Dolphins team (and umpire Dave) were stuck in M1 traffic, some welcome sunshine appeared just as the game started.
Tweed Coolangatta came out fairly strong but couldn’t get much on the scoreboard which allowed the Dolphins to stay in the contest during the first half. It was a tough day for our ruck unit with the Blues having a very strong (and tall) ruck who was combining with a fast rover to get quite a few clearances. At half time we worked out a strategy to cover these key players which slowed the Blues ball use and gave the Dolphins a better chance around the field.
Similar to last week, every player stepped up when required, and each player had a crack when the ball was near. Daniel had his best game yet, playing some great hard footy across the entire ground, with a lot of clean ball work in the slippery conditions. The prime movers Milan, Ollie and Bohdi worked hard as usual in the contests and got the ball moving. Mason and Tommy H both had a great second half finding a lot of space and getting the ball into our forward line.
With the lead going back and forth, there was some great defensive work by the Dolphins in the last quarter that saved some certain goals. Both teams could have won the game if a few key moments went their way, and the close contest made it a very exciting game to watch from the sidelines, and the final result of a draw summed up the game well.
We are now onwards and upwards with a promotion into divison 3. This means that we will be facing some bigger, stronger and better quality opposition.
One thing we’ll need to focus on is defending across the ground against the stronger teams. Sometimes our boys are caught flat footed and not covering the opposition players when they spread out into space after a turnover or a free kick. It will be a great challenge for the team and the coaches look forward to seeing how the boys go. Go Dolphins!
