Continuing the Coolgardie home losses was the team on constant Safari, making the trip across from the plains of the Serengeti to strike it rich in the WA Goldfields, and take home a solid, although unconvincing win. @wrightbrendanTeam selection will come into question for both coaches, with two emergency players topping the tone, Coolgardie's J Williams and Serengeti's J Viney, not to mention Prospector P Wright killing on return in the magoos, with 145 points. What were the coaches thinking???
Across the backline it was some solid but not spectacular performances from the locals, with no tons, but no-one below 74 points. On the flip side, visiting defender S May got tied up at immigration and missed the match, letting his side down. It resulted in two good, and two poor performances from the visitors, and a 69 point deficit across the backline.
The midfield battle was where it was at, with the visitors really coming to play. Three tons from Z Merrett, L Neale, and F Callaghan had the African's dancing to the beat of their own drum, after the aforementioned warm-up act of J Viney in the twos, while J Kelly also provided strong support with 82 points of his own. It was all too much for the Prospectors to handle, once again having T Miller and C Serong provide the spark, with a ton each, while O Wines and J McInerney provided the resistance of a witches hats, scoring 50-odd each. It must be said though, that O Wines really did put his heart into this match, maybe a little too much, and is now facing an uncertain future. The backline deficit was turned into midfield dominance for the visitors, with a whole extra player out there for a 96 point win across the line!
The ruck battle was tight, but not spectacular, with Buffalo T English scoring 90 points, pipping Prospector O McInerney on 88 points, by a measly 2 points.
The forward line saw home-town hero J Waterman come out with a bang, scoring four first-quarter snags on his way to 103 points. he was the only forward in the match to really take control (aside from the aforementioned J Williams and P Wright, who put on some goal-kicking displays of their own, but to no avail), with the remaining Prospector forwards looking on in awe, but not really contributing. At the other end of the proverbial ground, some bloke by the name of "Dangermouse" wound back a clock or two, while pretty-boy B Smith couldn't get the hair out of his eyes for long enough to put in much more than an average performance, and T Greene was seen karate-chopping his way around the field, intimidating everyone in sight, but not actually contributing anything to the visitors cause. In the end it was a tight one, with 14 points separating the two forward lines, in the home sides' favour.
The interchange was a sight, with J O'Meara and A Aliir both serviceable, C Mackenzie a shade below average, and S Powell-Pepper putting in a fantastic cameo performance for the tourists, nearly getting his name into the BOG list. The ups and downs of life on the bench saw the Buffalos on top, by 20 points.
Team selection could have changed this result, with either of the wasted tons by the home side being enough to give them the win, or conversely, the correct switch-a-roo from the Africans could have put this match well beyond doubt, and given us a new BOG. In the end the sides as named did their parts, and the Buffalos came out on top, by 35 points, 1228 to 1193.
The Votes:
3 - F Callaghan, Serengeti, 116
2 - L Neale, Serengeti, 113
1 - T Miller, Coolgardie, 109
