Bonus points for Roos’ match-winners after pulsating victory
The heroes of Clarence’s pulsating victory over rivals North Hobart have been rewarded in the TSL player of the year polling. ALL THE VOTES AND MATCH REPORTS >>
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THE heroes of Clarence’s pulsating victory over rivals North Hobart have been rewarded with votes in the TSL player of the year polling.
Youngster Tyler Penwright snagged the three votes for his forward pressure and involvement in the game’s two most critical goals in the final term, one off his own boot and one that set up a Josh Green goal.
Green polled two votes in the clash while the Demons’ Jack Sandric earned a vote for his busy game in the midfield and two goals.
Green’s work in the forward half caught the eye but he also bobbed up in the backline at crucial moments, helping to settle the game down for the undermanned Roos.
He said a move on to the wing as opposed to his typical time as a forward had added the defensive element to his game.
“As a wingman you’ve got to get in behind the ball, and get numbers back to help out the defence. It’s something I’m working on, to get back and help out,” he said.
“I’ve been around a little while, if it’s a tight game or they’ve kicked a couple, that’s my responsibility to take leadership, whether that’s through voice or actions.”
Green looked to have sealed the game off a Penwright assist but the Demons kept coming until the 18-year-old sealed the four points.
“I thought that might have been it but full credit to North Hobart, they just kept coming and coming and coming and it went down to the wire,” Green said.
“Those wins are a little bit more special.
“North have got some really good young kids and so do we. There’s a bit of a rivalry there now.”
The grudge matches continue for the Roos as they host bitter Eastern Shore rivals Lauderdale on Saturday.
“There’s no resting – we’re back into it against one of our biggest rivals,” Green said.
Launceston’s Jake Hinds put in yet another three-vote performance in the Blues’ big win over Lauderdale.
The gun midfielder missed two games with suspension and has polled three votes in each game he’s played.
TSL PLAYER OF THE YEAR
Round 7 votes
Glenorchy v North Launceston: 3 Jay Foon (NL), 2 Alexander Lee (NL), 1 Oliver Sanders (NL)
Clarence v North Hobart: 3 Tyler Penwright (C), 2 Josh Green (C), 1 Jack Sandric (NH)
Launceston v Lauderdale: 3 Jake Hinds (Lton), 2 Michael Musicka (Lton), 1 Alec Wright (Lton)
Leaderboard: 12 Jake Hinds (Lton); 7 Jay Blackberry (Lton), Jay Foon (NL); 5 Dylan Riley (Lton), Baxter Norton (C), Oliver Davis (C), Lachlan Clifford (T), Elijah Reardon (T); 4 Brad Cox-Goodyer (NL).
Ladder leaders continue their winning ways
IT is very rare that a coach can walk away from a 48-point loss with a hint of a smile but that is the case for Lauderdale’s Daniel Willing.
The Bombers travelled north to the TSL’s slaughterhouse, Windsor Park, to take on all conquering Launceston — the unbeaten defending champion with an average winning margin of more than 100 points at home.
Lauderdale was in the midst of a four-game losing streak, and lost about 400 games of senior footy experience prior to the first bounce when former Adelaide Crow draftee Sam Siggins, No.1 ruckman Haydyn Smith, skipper Bryce Walsh and Billy Rolfe all withdrew through injury.
And although they never looked like winning in the 15.13 (103) to 8.7 (55) loss, they never threw in the towel either, like so many others when faced with the Blues’ onslaught.
“We don’t want to lose, and everybody hates losing, but at the end of the day we came up here to give good effort and that’s what we got,” Willing said.
“We haven’t been able to do that for four quarters since Round 1, and we got that today so we can be proud of that.
“But, again, there were some execution things we need to get better at.”
Bombers defender Josh McGuinness had an enthralling battle with the TSL’s best forward, keeping Dylan Riley to three goals.
Riley now has 33 for the season, more than double the next best, teammate Michael Musicka (14), who also booted three in a best afield performance just ahead of ball magnet Jake Hinds.
Northern Bombers clip Magpies’ wings
By Ryan Rosendale
NORTH Launceston has sent a firm reminder to the rest of the TSL that they well and truly remain a premiership contender in season 2021 with a commanding victory over Glenorchy at KGV yesterday.
A wayward Bombers outfit took the Magpies to the sword from the opening bounce — holding them goalless in the first half – before walking away winners 16.23 (119) to 5.4 (34) to set-up a top two clash next week with Launceston at UTAS Stadium.
It was all the visitors from the opening bounce with skipper Jay Foon setting the tone early with plenty of the footy and finishing with two goals while ruckman Alex Lee and coach Brad Cox-Goodyer were at their prolific best, the former finishing with 3.6 for the game.
The second term was much of the same for the Bombers finishing with four goals to zero with a courageous mark from Will Edmunds in defence and the work of Oliver Sanders throughout the middle of the ground the highlight of the second quarter.
A 51-point half time margin threatened to extend early in the third before the Magpies registered their first goal of the day at the thirteen-minute mark though Matthew Joseph with the Pies eventually kicking five second-half goals to bring some respectability back onto the scoreboard. Cox-Goodyer, while pleased with his side’s performance overall, admitted there was still areas of the game they had room for improvement in.
“Our goalkicking really hurt us again but definitely a lot of positives to take out of it, defensively to keep them goalless in the first half was really good,” Cox-Goodyer said.
“We were able to set the ground up really well in that first half and I don’t think they (Glenorchy) would have had too many inside 50’s.”
With the off-season loss of a host of midfield premiership stars, Foon’s switch from prolific half-backer to ball winning midfielder is one paying early-season dividends for last year’s grand finalists.
“Jay continues to get better and better each week,” Cox-Goodyer said. “He’s never really played on-ball so losing a bit of experience in the off-season we’ve shifted him there and it’s working really well for him.”
Bombers big man Tom Bennett finished with three goals while for the Magpies reliable defender Daniel Joseph was his side’s best and brother Matthew finished with two goals in a strong second-half display.
Young Roo seals win in grudge match
By Luke Edmunds
AN 18-year-old in for his first game of the season sealed the deal for Clarence in a one-point win over foes North Hobart.
Tyler Penwright had an interrupted pre-season and had to earn his spot in the Roos line-up, but the hard work paid off in spades as he set up and sealed the deal in an exhilarating 10.9 (69) to 9.16 (70) win.
Clarence led for most of the contest but North Hobart would not give up in a seesawing final term. Ryan Keegan dragged the Demons back to six points back with his second goal before Penwright assisted a Josh Green goal.
North’s Jye Menzie and Jack McCulloch goaled either side of a Green point to make it a one-point game as the game entered time-on.
Enter Penwright, who swooped on a loose ball inside 50, ran the ball to the goal line and slammed the Sherrin through for his second goal, setting up the seven-point margin. North coach Clinton French would respond but the one-point margin held as both sides slogged it out.
Roos coach Jeromey Webberley said Penwright earned his spot with three development league performances.
“He’s like a large part of our group,” Webberley said.
“They’re young, they’ve got exceptional talent. For those guys, it’s about their workrate and doing the basics well, which allows their talent to shine. His last three weeks — his effort and intent to defend and get front and centre in the D-league has been that good that we had to play him. I thought he was outstanding.”
The man of the moment said his focus now was keeping his spot in the side.
“It’s pretty good to get a win. We probably could have done it in better style but it’s good to get it at the end of the day,” Penwright said.
“The coaches told me at the start of the game to get front and centre of everything possible – to try to do that all day – and it worked in the end to get a couple of sealers.”
He said his aim going forward was to “cement my spot and keep moving forward”.
Devastating result for struggling club
A FOOTBALL team in Tasmania’s North-West has kicked a score you would usually see in a game of Test cricket.
In an incredible scoreline, Sheffield booted 69.29 (443) while keeping its opposition Rosebery-Toorak scoreless in the North West Football Association match at Sheffield on Saturday.
The score is believed to be a league record high score.
It is equivalent to a goal every 1.3 minutes, in a competition that plays 23-minute quarters without time-on.
Rosebery-Toorak is yet to win a game this season.
NWFA president Paul Johnson said while the result was devastating, it was not necessarily surprising given the club’s struggle with player numbers.
“They were down to 26 or 27 blokes today (for seniors and reserves), so many obviously doubled up,” he said.
“It makes it very hard. We don’t want to see this happen, but what do you do?
“We’ll do what we can to support them, but there’s not a lot we can do, because they’re just struggling for numbers.”
Mr Johnson said the league had a rule where if a team forfeited a match three times during the season, they were out of the competition.
If a team turned up with less than 28 players three times, they were also out.
But he said the league had tried to support struggling teams with initiatives such as 16-a-side in the reserves competition and 23-minute quarters.
Bombers add extra firepower for intimidating encounter
ON the back of a four-game losing streak, Lauderdale faces the toughest task in Tasmanian football – taking on Launceston at Windsor Park.
The Blues, last year’s champions, sit undefeated atop this year’s ladder with an average winning margin of 94 points.
And this figure is even more imposing at home, with the average difference 109 points.
Lauderdale coach Daniel Willing is only too aware of the challenge facing his young side on Saturday and believes the full story of the day won’t be told just by the scoreboard.
“We are definitely looking at other things,” Willing said.
“At the end of the day the scoreboard is the most important thing, but reality is we’ve got a really young group, we are working on some things that we need to put in place and a lot of that is being the execution part of our game.”
One big bonus for the Bombers is the return of former Geelong and Brisbane small forward Allen Christensen.
Christensen, 29, suffered a bad hamstring injury in round two that was expected to keep him out for up to 10 weeks, but the 133 AFL game veteran has returned after just four weeks.
“Obviously we missed him a fair bit through this period we haven’t been playing well,” he said.
“Not just his ability to play good footy – we all know what his talent is – but his leadership is outstanding and his ability to teach and direct out on the ground, we saw that through the pre-season practice matches and the first round, it is just outstanding.
“He’ll have a massive influence on the group.”
Roos ready to respond to Demons’ fire
IT is official – Saturday’s Clarence v North Hobart clash will be a heated grudge match.
The Roos recruited four former Demons during the off-season in Baxter Norton, Jake Steele, former AFL Demon Colin Garland and Ole Angerstein.
Demons coach Clinton French — who will make his North Hobart playing debut against the Roos — said it was not the departure that cut deep, but how the players went about it.
French said he saw the clash as a grudge match but it was being driven by the playing group, not the coaching staff.
“I don’t think I really need to talk about it,” French said.
“They (the North Hobart players) are aware of the players that have left us and the way they went about it, so we’ll be right.”
Reporter: “Do you think it will be fiery?”
French: “Yeah.”
Reporter: “Are you encouraging it?”
French: “I don’t need to, the boys have got their own feelings.
“Our message is still win the ball, but if you have the chance to obviously nail a good tackle against those guys, you let them know.”
However, only two of the former Dees will be in action with Steele named in the Development League and Garland still missing through injury.
Clarence counterpart Jeromey Webberley said his side was prepared for what was to come at Blundstone Arena on Saturday.
“I’ve no doubt that I’d be expecting a pretty fierce contest from them, especially early on,” Webberley said.
“We should have that back the other way because Angus Baxter and Jake Steele and Colin Garland and Ole … they are Clarence players now, so we need to make sure we represent those guys as well as the individuals.
“I’d be very disappointed if our group didn’t go back just as hard as they are going to come at us.”
Meanwhile, Lauderdale has received a huge boost for its daunting trip north to take on Launceston at Windsor Park with former Brisbane Lion Allen Christensen returning.
Christensen injured a hamstring in just his second game for the Bombers that was initially feared would keep him sidelined for up to 10 weeks, but he has missed just three games.
Rebounding Roos ready for Demon fire
CLARENCE coach Jeromey Webberley is welcoming a “grudge” TSL clash against North Hobart this weekend as some new Roos square off against former teammates for the first time.
The Roos ruffled the feathers of the Demons by signing several of the club’s top-line talent in the off season, with Baxter Norton and Jake Steele — who is stuck in the development league — crossing to the Eastern Shore.
They joined former Demons spearhead Colin Garland, who walked out on North in 2019.
It sets up a potential spiteful encounter at Blundstone Arena.
“Why wouldn’t there be? And I think we’ve got to welcome that,” Webberley said when asked if he is bracing for plenty of heat.
“Let’s expect it, but it’s about us meeting North Hobart head on, we’ve got to respond after [Launceston] and you know if they’ve got a bit of spite about some players leaving their club, well, they’re obviously going to.
“We expect a really fierce North Hobart, but that’s the reality of footy and every week is a challenge and next week is no different.”
Garland, who missed the mauling from Launceston with knee soreness, is a chance to return but Webberley (MCL) is more unlikely than likely.
Of more immediate concern is how the Roos respond from becoming Launceston’s latest roadkill, but if recent history is any indicator the scars don’t last long.
North Hobart was belted by the Blues by 125 points in round four before bouncing back to knock off Lauderdale, while after crashing to the reigning premiers by 148 points in round five Glenorchy brushed aside the Demons last weekend.
“I’m sure we’ll get a response from this group, we’ve had responses after round one and this group is a proud group and I’m sure they’ll bounce back.
“But the reality is that when we’ve played the best, we were found wanting in a number of areas and we’ve got to rectify those over the course of the year.”
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