A Grade

RUDALL v COWELL…Rudall was always going to be in for a tough day hosting a wild Cats team who were still hissing after their loss the previous week. The umpires for the day were Schaeffer and Schaefer.

The first quarter was a goal feast with eight to Cowell and four to Rudall. The play was fast and open and was entertaining to watch by the good-sized crowd. D. Taylor for the Cats continued on with his good form, setting up many goals around the ground. S. Wildman dominated the forward lines with uncontested marks. C. Mason for Rudall won most of his tap outs from the centre, but the Cowell centre men in N Johnson was reading the ball well and was showing strength in the packs. J. Burton for Rudall was being a strong focal point at Centre Half forward taking contested marks and kicking long goals. J. Siviour was eventually moved on to the damaging Wildman and continuously hassled him until Wildman used him as a step ladder to pull in a spectacular crowd pleasing mark.

The free scoring continued into the second quarter, mostly in Cowell’s favour, with the ratio being two to one and the entertainment value was still high. It is hard to put it nicely, but both defences were having a bad day with the half time score board showing

9–1 to 17–7. Rudall were happy with their scoring but had to tighten up in the back lines to stop the likes of P. Franklin getting a bag of goals.

After half time, the Cats’ defence did tighten up with D. Pratt and T. Franklin mopping up the opportunities when Rudall pushed forward. The perfect weather was showing on the score board with a massive score accumulating mostly for the Cats.

S Wildman was in sizzling form, so exact with hand and foot that the spectators lost count of all his goals. The Rams became rattled and undisciplined giving away too many frees and fifty metres because they were continuously chasing. Cowell won the premiership quarter, kicking 11 goals to two utilising a strong team running game.