Big Bad Bustling Benny Potts on the charge for the Binalong Brahmans on Friday night at the Binalong Recreation Ground. The Brahmans have kickstarted their season with a hard-fought win, the first of the season in round 5. They must back it up this week with a win against ADFA on Saturday to have a chance of making the final series.
In absolutely appalling conditions, the Binalong Jersey Girls ran out onto a wet Binalong Rec in moderate rain and a westerly breeze blowing for a 6:30pm Friday night game. The Gunning Rooettes, just one place above the Jersey Girls on the League tag table were the night’s opponents. In the greasy conditions it was always going to be a difficult task to retain possession for the fifty minutes, but the girls did remarkably well. They put a ball down early but defended well enough to enjoy better field position than Gunning. Hannah Phillis led the way. In fact the Rooettes spilt plenty of ball themselves which helped.
For eight minutes the Jersey Girls defended until a ball went down and the visitors pounced to bring the score to 6-0. It was too dark and wet to gain an accurate impression of just how well individuals were performing but Ali Spencer’s kicking game forced a line dropout. In spite of this, Gunning struck again to take the game up till half-time leading 12-0. The weather started to descend into heavy rain at times and when the second half got going the Rooettes were across the chalk for an 18-0 lead after four minutes. Kayley Hart was again very good at full back and Kelsey Dowling defended well. With only a quarter of the game left, the visitors gave away a penalty adjacent to the posts and the referee pointed to the sticks. The kick was good and the score moved on to 18-2. I could not record a single penalty against the Jersey Girls but Gunning gave away eight penalties. Cara Phillis put in some surging runs but couldn’t make a break. With 4 minutes to go the visitors scored again to take the game to fulltime with 22-2. A much improved effort from past weeks.
When the Brahmans ran out, the weather had not improved; in fact it rained all match. But with a much-improved performance from the previous week, it was only two minutes before Brad Early dived across the Gunning chalk from dummy half to lead 6-0. With Pete Adam absent on the night, Chris Enslow moved to half and Nathan Lilliard into the 5/8 position which was a positive move. Nevertheless, Binalong had to defend a line dropout with a massive kick from Dylan Arabin. In the dark it was hard to see those putting in all the effort but Ben Potts was back for his first game of the year and led the charge up field until Drew Arabin charged over the stripe.
With the conversion the Brahmans were up 12-0. At the 30th minute, Drew Arabin charged into the in-goal for his second try. But 18-0 up the home side relaxed a little and allowed a try against themselves with only a minute of the half remaining. The sides went for oranges at 18-4, Jake Arabin and Mick Spencer contributing to a much- improved performance. When play resumed it was something of an arm wrestle as Gunning had gone up a notch in defence.
The Binalong side had to defend another line drop out but soon gained one themselves against Gunning. Feelings boiled over, punches were swung and a Gunning player was sent to the bin. Down to twelve defenders the visitors couldn’t keep Drew Arabin out and he scored a hat-trick for the night. Kobi Bradshaw and Dylan Downey performed well but with the match into its final quarter, the Roos scored wide out and converted for the final result of 24-10. Binalong’s first win for the year will be a morale booster ahead of their next outing against ADFA at Addison Oval next Saturday. Binalong 24 (tries: Drew Arabin (3), Brad Early, goals: N.Lilliard (4) def Gunning 10. Referee: Mr.G.Widdowson. bos Indicus
