by Sasha Sibree
For all the former Bulldogs, Bulldogs supporters and current players, I’ve got a couple of minutes before work, I’ll try and recap the weekend for you. It really was a tremendous team effort, forgive me if I forget to acknowledge the occasional individual.
First game was against Boston. It had been raining most of Friday and at 9am the fields still had puddles.
What I remember most was it was challenging to stay on your feet and be able to hold on to the footy. At half time it was a close game, maybe one point in it.
The second half was a little better and we pulled away. Final score Denver 4.7-31 Boston 1.2-8.
A win is a win but it was an expensive one for us. Ben Harling received a compression blow to his neck. He suffered a fracture to one of his neck vertebrae. Luckily no spinal cord injury. He was out of hospital Saturday night. He’ll be in a neck brace for 6 weeks. Tommy did his MCL, and I got forced into a pretzel position and did my hammy. This match-up also saw Willi play in his 100th USAFL game.
Click through to read the entire recap.
Second game was against Golden Gate. They had beaten Vancouver in their earlier game. This was going to decide who would remain unbeaten.
This was the game we needed. It was Bulldog style footy. It started with the defence. Timmy, Feds and Rich were a wall at the half back line. Dom at fullback, with Byron, and a combo of Charlie, Bob, ad I think Jersey all having a run in the other pocket over the weekend. Teams had a hard time getting it down into their forward line and an even harder time scoring. Only 35 points scored against all weekend.
Our center started clicking. Lok, Candy and Barnsey leading the charge in their usual dominating style. Jason winning tap after tap, with Dan & TBone on the wings.
It was great to have some talls in the forward line again. LeValley and Mossy were especially brilliant this game.
Our wall in the forward line was also top notch. Teams had a very difficult time getting it out of their backline.
Great solid win for Denver 6.2-38 defeating Golden Gate 2.1-13.
Sunday, in the other pool we watched Baltimore Washington, who were awful on Saturday, absolutely destroy an undefeated New York. In all fairness, NY, OC, and Baltimore, did show glimpse during the weekend of probably having the best teams I think I’ve ever seen them have. The NY Vs OC game was a great game.
Our next game was against Vancouver, defending national champions. Revenge time for last year.
It was another awesome Bulldogs footy display. Defence was rock solid, their was so much pressure to the ball, Benny V went off at full forward, must have kicked close to half a dozen goals. Tate got his first goal in 10 years. Barnsey was on fire in the middle.
Even our the new guys were getting into it. Nick had a great game in the forwards. Jeff played hard and Adam was out rucking Golden Gate . It was awesome to watch.
Denver 7.10-52 defeated Vancouver 0.0-0
Brings us to the final. Denver Vs Seattle.
I don’t think it is unfair to say we started off a little shaky. We had a few chances to open up an early lead and couldn’t capitalize. I think the pressure Seattle was bringing was the most we had experienced all weekend and some of our handballs and kicks paid the price.
We did enough to have the lead at half time with a goal from Tate and a few points.
The second half, Seattle came back with two goals to firstly level the score and then take the lead. With ten minutes to go the momentum had shifted in Seattle ’s favour.
In true Bulldog never say die spirit, and a little help from a timely 50m penalty, T-Bone produced the most beautiful ugly looking kick I’ve ever seen him do. Scores were now tied.
Bruce came on, and just because you have won a big game with a banana kick doesn’t mean you have to always win a big game with a banana. A few points was enough for us to take the lead back.
Then it was up to the backline to stay strong, and they did. The siren blew with Seattle in their forward line but no chance to score. The crowd booed. It was awesome.
Final Score Denver 2.5-17 defeated Seattle 2.2-14
Dom won a well deserved player of the Grand Final and Feds player of the tournament.
All in all a great weekend of footy. It is good to be 7.
Big congrats and thanks to the board for all their hard work. Great stuff Tommy. Billy, Barnsey, Chook and Wads for all their efforts leading up to and over the weekend, and of course Rich and Amie Kennedy for their US Footy work.
Sasha