SENIOR COMPETITION SPONSORED BY KWIK - ROUND EIGHTEEN PREVIEW
Thursday, 7 August 2008 11:11am
by Rick Boyd
Two vital clashes this weekend between Perth-Bayswater and Wanneroo at Pat O’Hara Reserve, and Nedlands and Rockingham at Lark Hill, will decide the finalists for the 2008 RugbyWA club competition sponsored by KWIK Crane and Transport Hire.
Minor premiers Kalamunda are already slotted into the major semi-final on August 17 but the other three positions are up for grabs in a desperately tight finish to an unusually competitive season.
At Lark Hill, both third-placed Nedlands and fourth-placed Rockingham will be desperate for a win to avoid possible relegation from the top four, and Nedlands has the added attraction of gaining a place in the major-semi-final if Wanneroo lose to Perth-Bayswater. That bonus is a long shot for Rockingham and they will need to beat Nedlands with a bonus point, and for Wanneroo not to get a bonus point in losing to Perth-Bayswater, but it is possible.
For season bolters Wanneroo, their second place on the table is a dream come true. Wooden spooners in 2007 and 2006, the northern club has been slowly building a solid squad with depth in the club through mid-table second, fourth and fifth grades. Coach Alvey Prinsloo planned to lift the club up the table this year but has exceeded expectations, and if they beat Perth-Bayswater in the weekend the Roo-dogs will secure a valuable place in the major semi-final, complete with a fall-back position in the preliminary final if needed.
Wanneroo and Perth-Bayswater will again meet in the battle of the big packs, with two back lines scrambling for enough quality ball to score points with the Bill Watt Cup at stake. Wanneroo’s forwards are led by evergreen prop Michael Johnston supported by big number eight Joe van Drake and dynamic flanker Adam Pine. Perth-Bayswater has lost lineout ace Brent Murphy to the Western Force English tour but brothers Ash and Michael will again anchor a powerful pack, along with goal-kicking lock Jock Stanley and number 8 Cale McCort.
In the backs Perth-Bayswater’s halfback Curtis Mclean and centre pairing of Nathan McCort and Michel Lee, together with exciting young wing Nathan Hunt, will battle a Wanneroo lineup including composed flyhalf Ollie Vines and hot young fullback Troy Doughty.
Wanneroo will be without their sizeable Western Force contingent that provided such a welcome boost during the competition, but are more than capable of holding their own with a solid contingent of amateur talent. The Roo-dogs have several injuries, including key centre striker Palei Masili and loosie Fa’atu Saiumu, but Prinsloo is confident in the club’s capacity to cover all positions.
“When the Force players played for us they definitely made a massive impact,” he said.
“But we’ve got more than enough depth, without sounding arrogant, to fill those positions, and luckily we’ve got bloody strong players in the positions the Force players were in”.
In their round nine meeting, the premiers won 17-13 in a game Perth-Bayswater coach John Taylor described as his team’s toughest match of the season. All square at 10-10 early in the second half, a converted try to Perth-Bayswater brought them home over a late penalty to the Roo-dogs. But since then Perth-Bayswater's fortunes have headed downhill and the Roo-dogs go into the game as favourites.
“With Brent Murphy out for Bayswater we’ll be attacking their lineout,” Prinsloo said.
“Obviously we’ll be looking to dominate the set pieces with our tight five and we’ll be expecting a physical battle, up front and in the breakdown.
“The team that can really bring physicality to the game will be victorious, I think.
“Bayswater have had injuries in the second round while we’ve had some sort of consistency, we’ve had the same team for the last five or six games.
“But we’re the only team that stand in their way getting into the semi-finals so they’ll be giving their best, come to the party and put in a bloody good performance.
“We’ve just got to make sure that we control what we can at the lineout, scrum and breakdown, and be tight and physical, and if we control that we should come up with the four points.”
However, Wanneroo may lack tough competition, having beaten three of the lower ranked teams in their most recent outings, while Perth-Bayswater have faced two of the top four teams in the last three weeks.
“To be honest, Uni reckoned they played one of their better games against us, and it was brilliant just beating them by four or five. That was a bit of an eye-opener for us,” Prinsloo said.
“And then to pull off a 79-10 win over Paly, and those guys have upset Bayswater and a few others, I was really proud of the boys.
“The boys are humble, they’re clear on what’s ahead of us. We’re just going to go and give it another crack.”
Other recent Wanneroo results show how close to the pace they are, including a close 39-34 loss to minor premiers Kalamunda, indicating that the northern club are ready to face their first finals series in decades with confidence.
“It’s just about putting the simple things in place, doing them right and doing them for 80 minutes,” Prinsloo said.
“We were lucky getting away with a couple of wins earlier in the year, but that game against Kalamunda could have gone either way, they scored the winning try in the last minute, so definitely we can be competitive at that level.
“Our initial goal was to finish sixth, but halfway through the season we reset those goals and said we want to play in the semi-finals.
“The boys have really put their heads down in recent games, they’ve really lifted the intensity in training, they’re really keen to make a difference for the club and be successful in the semi-final.”
Reigning premier Perth-Bayswater have the most to gain this weekend and have the track record for achieving from the underdog position. The Morley club scraped into the finals last year on the back of a massive forward pack, clawed their way through two extremely tight finals for one-point wins and upset competition leaders Nedlands in the grand final for a close but composed victory.
This year Perth-Bayswater have done it tough, losing most of their premiership-winning team over the summer and rebuilding a new team around a core of local talent in the Murphy brothers and the McCort brothers.
Seemingly secure finalists midway through the season, the new-look Perth-Bayswater team went off the rails in the second half of their 2008 campaign with a string of injuries and a drop in form that lost them consecutive games to Palmyra, Associates, Kalamunda and University, dumping them down the table.
With several returns from injury and a couple of new players, the Morley team worked back with hard fought wins over Rockingham and Wests-Subiaco to sit just outside the top four in fifth place.
But a win over second-placed Wanneroo won’t be enough to guarantee Perth-Bayswater a place in the finals. If Nedlands beat Rockingham, Perth-Bayswater will leapfrog the southern club into fourth place and expel Rockingham from the finals. Or if Rockingham win by seven points or more, or Perth-Bayswater get a bonus point against Wanneroo , the Morley club will sneak into fourth place on percentage and condemn Nedlands to a rare season without a finals position.
The final week of the 2008 RugbyWA competition promises to be an exciting prelude to arguably the most unpredictable and thrilling finals series of recent years.
In other games, minor premiers Kalamunda host University at Hartfield, Wests-Subiaco play Palmyra at Rosalie Park and Associates meet Cottesloe at Harvey Field. All but Kalamunda have nothing to play for but a better season in 2009, although all sides can take pride in an unusually tight and competitive year where none of the teams was far off the pace.
