A fine gesture to be sure but between 15 players it was more cheek than good will. All was not lost though as a Braidwood supporter donated a case of fresh spring water from Woolies.
Now onto the footy... With Captain Coe sitting on the sidelines to start the game, the young forward pack knew it was time to step up and with older heads Nick "Hammer" McGrath and Roydsy leading the way Braidwood's starting kick off ended up with a massive hit from the collected pack that would have scored a 10 on the Richter Scale, so if at 1:31pm on Saturday you felt a shake below don't fret it was just our boys getting one over the Bay early.
>From that hit, Braidwood won the ball and it was time for the backs to show their worth. Doing so from the first play, the ball running abilities of Pat Burke and Seamus Allen seemed to much for the Bay and it was plain to see that gaps were everywhere in their defence and not long into the game, returned star centre Jacob Kain found a gap 10 metres out and barged through to put Braidwood's first points on the board.
With the high spirits that follow any try in our systems the Redbacks continued to put pressure on the Bay and after being awarded a penalty, we decided on a shot at goal. Success, the Redbacks were 10-0 up after 15 minutes.
They were to be the last points we would score in the first half. From then on it was all the Bay attacking and all of Braidwood defending. We held out as hard as we could but due to mistakes from us and one corker from the ref (making half of the Redbacks believe he was awarding a scrum where he was really awarding a penalty, very bloody sneaky), the Bay scored 3 tries, but only converting one, making the score going into half time 17-10 to the home side.
At the break Coey revved the boys up with a much needed kick up the arse. Telling it how it was Coe got the boys hearts and heads back into the game and anyone who witnessed will agree with me when I say that a completely different Redbacks side took the paddock in the second half which saw Coey, Callum and Matty Pearson come on.
Straight away Braidwood was on the attack, with every forward putting their hand up to take a run at the bigger Bay players. It was due to the efforts of these boys that we were able to get up into the Bay's 10 metres and take a quick tap at a penalty and BOOM, The Hammer struck, big Nick McGrath crashed over the line with what will soon become his trademark try, another conversion and the score line was equal.
The fire was back readers and not long after the next kick off Nick Black, who has been playing with busted ribs for the last couple of weeks (although you wouldn't know it by watching him), started what was a sharp blindside attack with Kain flying down the touch line before getting a miracle ball away to Maher, who then found Black again who was storming to the line before he was cut down a metre short, so close to another try, but not to worry, two minutes later we got a penalty and decided to keep the pressure on and go for the try. After another brilliant line out win it was just a matter of pushing the ball closer and closer to the line but the maul fell metres away... Enter Kris Anderson, the youngest player for the Redbacks had been taking runs from the back of the ruck all day and this time he was rewarded for it with his first try for the Redbacks.
With these two quick tries everything started to click for us, tackles were sticking, passes were sticking and even the ball looked like it was sticking, with Joel Bradley making it look like a tennis ball as he picked it off the ground one handed.
The last two tries came from Callum, as the forwards were rewarded with a great push over try from 10 metres out. And Nathan Moffitt, who looked as though Christmas had come early when he picked the ball up from a scrappy play and dived over... with the guided help of Callum.
The only downsides to the second half was when Blacky went off due to his ribs, but Toby Allen then jumped in at half back, where he had a blinder for the last 15 minutes of the game. The other downside was the Bay scoring off a knock on for the final play of the game.
Final Score Braidwood 34 - Bay Red 24.
Points this week went to: 3 Nick Black, 2 Kris Anderson and 1 to Nick McGrath.
I don't know if we had a players player but Mini Burke ended up with the mug. It's always good to win but doing it against the Bay makes it that little bit sweeter.
Speaking of home, that is where you will be seeing us this weekend as we take on Narooma Whales at the Rec at 3:00pm. Narooma have been going well this year and once again it should be another tight game.
Congratulations should go out to Craig Coe, Nick Black and Brendan Maher. All have been selected in the South Coast Representative Squad that will travel to Wagga Wagga on the June long weekend to take part in a 3 day carnival.
The Redback Enthusiast
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