SOAKS KNOCK SEAGULLS OFF THEIR PERCH

[RugbyWA]

Associates upset Cottesloe 17-9 at Harvey Field on Saturday in a disjointed but passionate RugbyWA club competition match of the round, sponsored by KWIK Transport and Crane Hire.
The loss knocked Cottesloe off the top of the competition table two weeks before the finals and gave Associates their second win over the Seagulls this season.

Despite Soaks dominating territory and possession Cottesloe led 6-3 at half time but the visitors were able to make the most of their advantage after the break and put pressure on the scoreboard.

Cottesloe opened the scoring after four minutes when goal kicking machine Dave Cloete, playing out of position at fullback, kicked a 40 metre penalty goal for offside.

In reply Soaks flyhalf Kyle Goodwin, returning from a prolonged injury break, missed a simple kick two minutes later.

Goodwin followed with a dreadful attempt at a drop goal after ten minutes, wasting a period of attack as Soaks pinned the home side in their half.

Cott moved downfield with a penalty and Cloete kept the scoreboard ticking over when he nailed a 38 metre penalty for obstruction after 17 minutes. Again Soaks gained the opportunity to reply immediately with a penalty in the centre of the 22 and again Goodwin steered it wide.

The game fluctuated between the 22s with handling errors bedevilling both teams, and although Soaks had the better of possession, genuine opportunities were in short supply.

Soaks were hard on attack with a scrum five metres out when the ball went wide and young Cott wing Ash Mullen intercepted, sprinting over halfway but he was run down from behind by Goodwin.

His confidence restored, the flyhalf went on to kick an angled penalty goal as Soaks returned to the attack and Cott were caught offside after 33 minutes.

Soaks missed another prime opportunity minutes later when the Emirates Western Force back Scott Staniforth, playing at inside centre, sliced through and chip kicked ahead but the ball bounced back and he knocked on just short of the line.

Instead Cloete lined up a monster 57 metre penalty goal from the centre of the field for not retiring ten but over-worked the attempt and it hooked badly towards the left corner.

Soaks opened the second spell with the same passion but errors, penalties and wayward kicking from both teams made for a staccato, unattractive match, punctuated by another angled goal from the 22 by Cloete for holding on after 12 minutes.

Soaks lost number 8 Jason Missen to the sin bin minutes later but the penalty spurred them on to attack Cott's half. After 24 minutes, the Associates pack screwed a Cottesloe scrum in defence of their line and then pounded their line with pick and drives until Force halfback Chris O'Young was driven over under the bar. Goodwin converted the sitter and Soaks hit the front 10-9.

Soaks were on fire and powered back into Cott's 22, O'Young scooping up loose ball and zipping forward, then handing on to reserve lock Tom Hobbs who smashed over for the try in the corner. Goodwin put the icing on the cake with a conversion from the sideline and the visitors grabbed a 17-9 lead with nine minutes on the clock.

Cottesloe wing Nathan Hunt came close to scoring after a long sideline sprint but knocked on his attempted kick and regather, and full time followed soon after.

The win was even more significant considering the changes to the Associates team in the week before the match, losing flyhalf Mike Rovira, futility Matt Dreyer, flanker Alex Rovira and fullback Zack Holmes.

“Our backline hasn’t been the same back-to-back for the whole season, but once again they’ve done really well,” Coach Anthony Brain said.

Brain said Force stars O’Young and Staniforth produced standout performances despite not being able to train with the team.

“We’re really pleased to have them as a part of the club, especially considering all the injuries,” Brain said.

“But we’re not in the position we’re in just because of those guys. We’ve had 43 guys play first grade this year and they’ve all come in with the right attitude.

“Our club’s biggest asset is the player group, they’re just a great bunch of blokes to be involved with.”

Once again the unsung heroes of the win were the hard-working Associates forwards who dominated the larger, more fancied Seagulls pack for much of a game that failed to flow.

“It comes down to the player group,” Brain said.

“They play with passion, they play for each other, they’re fully committed and it makes my job a lot easier.

“The continuity had some issues because of all the disruptions but I think in the first half we were unlucky not to score several times.

“Things didn’t go our way all the time but I think we probably reacted better, and played to our game plan when we could.”

At half time and trailing 6-3 despite dominating much of play, Brain spoke about patience and playing the eighty minutes.

“The Cottesloe pack were looking tired, and we were too, it was a hard battle out there,” Brain said.

“But we probably got over them in the last twenty.”

The win leaves Soaks in the hunt for a valued spot in the top two, but Brain didn’t see that as a focus.

“What we want to do is keep winning and playing a style that builds into the finals,” Brain said.

“We believe we can beat any team in the comp, but we also have a respect for every team.

“We’ve got Perth and Rocky in our last two games, the bottom two teams in the competition, but we still give them respect and they’ve put on some interesting results, particularly Perth.

“It’s more about playing good footy at the crucial stage of the season.”

In other games, Nedlands regained the competition lead when they thrashed Rockingham 50-7, Palmyra hung on to fourth place with a healthy 34-8 win over University at Thompkins Park, Wests-Subiaco again threatened with a 39-15 win over Wanneroo at Rosalie Park and Kalamunda stayed in the hunt for a spot in the four with a thumping 48-12 win over Perth-Bayswater at Pat O’Hara Reserve.

KWIK Premier Grade: Associates 17 bt Cottesloe 9, Palmyra 34 bt UWA 8, Wests Subiaco 39 bt Wanneroo 15, Kalamunda 48 bt Perth Bayswater 12, Nedlands 50 bt Rockingham 7.

Reserve Grade: Cottesloe 25 bt Associates 24, Palmyra 48 bt UWA 5, Wests Subiaco 40 bt Wanneroo 10, Kalamunda 33 bt Perth Bayswater 12, Nedlands 110 bt Rockingham 0.

U20's: Associates 14 bt Cottesloe 6, Wests Subiaco 20 bt Nedlands 7.

U20 Div 2: Perth Bayswater 87 bt Curtin Uni 3.

U18's: Cottesloe 37 bt Associates 0, Mandurah 19 bt Palmyra 5, Wanneroo 25 bt Wests Subiaco 8, Perth Bayswater 26 bt Kalamunda 19.

3rd Grade Black: Associates 21 bt Cottesloe 12, Palmyra 43 bt UWA 10, Wests Subiaco 81 bt Wanneroo 10, Kalamunda 106 bt Perth Bayswater 0.

3rd Grade Gold: Curtin Uni 17 bt Arks 16, Joondalup 23 bt Southern Lions 14, Mandurah 25 bt Bunbury 10.

4th Grade Black: Cottesloe 15 bt Associates 10, UWA 51 bt Palmyra 0, Wests Subiaco 38 bt Wanneroo 0, Kalamunda 26 bt Perth Bayswater 17.

4th Grade Gold: Curtin Uni 15 bt Arks 14, Southern Lions 36 bt Joondalup 0, Mandurah 26 bt Bunbury 0.

4th Grade Blue: Cottesloe 24 bt Associates 19, Nedlands 33 bt Rockingham 19, Midland 25 bt UWA 0.

Women's: Cottesloe 46 bt Wanneroo 12, Perth Bayswater 50 bt Kalamunda 0.

by Rick Boyd | RugbyWA

[fulvio sammut]

A bit ironic, isn't it, that a couple of last minute Western Force ring ins should be the main factor in knocking Cottesloe off their perch?

[Darren]

Soaks have had 2 Staniforth's start the last couple weeks - that'd make 4 games by the time finals come. I think the weekend was O'Young's first (unless he's been on teh bench)? What's the minimum games for finals qualification?

[The InnFORCEr]

Soaks have had 2 Staniforth's start the last couple weeks - that'd make 4 games by the time finals come. I think the weekend was O'Young's first (unless he's been on the bench)? What's the minimum games for finals qualification?

I think it depends on which club you play for

[shasta]

From memory, Brown only got to play last season's finals because he was in the Wallabies squad at the time but out of the starting side. Should not apply to Spanner and COY?

[Hansie]

6 games for club to be eligible for finals but only 3 if EWF player, So spanner is O.K. As for COY he will only get 3 games - so the question is: Is he still a contracted EWF player?

The next question is this? COY was a Roodog. transfers between clubs had to be done by mid season....Did Soaks play someone without getting the proper transfer? perhaps COY wasn't a Rooddog at the beginning of the season.

Spanner was a Neddies player until he left for O/S so therefore got the transfer to his club in Japan, on his return he did not need to come to Neddies and fair enough as his brother is at SOAKS.

Did COY play for any other club after end of S14 season? Could Soaks lose their 4 competition points from Saturday's win? In spirit and on paper, which was the last WA club COY was registered with?

[fulvio sammut]

Now that WOULD be hysterically funny!

Cottesloe complaining to the Union and claiming the points from the game because Soaks played an unregistered Western Force player!

Karma!

[ella10]

COY has played for Eastwood last year and therefor he was eligible to play for Soaks. He will play 3 games before final so should be good for the rest of their finals campaign. COY is also still on contract as I understand till the end of this year.

[Darkness]

Here we go again.

My reading of it is that the Powers have obviously decided that it is to be a Cottesloe vs Associates Grand Final. The rules about eligibility will be thrown out and re-written so that certain clubs succeed.

How is it that just as we turn the corner and head for the finals the professional players magically appear and upset the balance? Every club has suffered injuries and are doing what they can to qualify for the finals and these mystery men come in and stuff up the competition. Soaks would not have won against Cott without COY, despite Rick towing the party line.

Its good seeing Cottesloe get some of their own back whilst it is unfair. Brown had a shocker on the weekend for Aust so no doubt he'll be back soon to take one of the local guys spot in the Cottesloe finals squad.

Hansie, can't we use some of our contacts with Emirates to get some WF players back from the Sydney comp?

One of the biggest losers here will be Palmyra because they have no WF players. Both CoY and Hodgson were allocated to Palmyra initially and defected to Wanneroo without a blink of an eye according to my sources and would appear to have changed loyalties again. Is it money talking here? Clearly club loyalty appears not to be a consideration. I'm sure there'll be some loophole by which COY can qualify for Soaks otherwise why would he begin playing for them now? How could COY look the Wanneroo guys in the eye? So many questions.

If Kala was to obtain the services of a WF player this weekend and upset Nedlands that would certainly tip the odds in their favour and put Palmyra out of the race. Does Kala have access to any WF players; presumably not because they are not in the Western suburbs. Sorry for the cynicism but do you blame me?

Neddies were stuffed by Brown and Co. in last years semi final after being up 13-6 in the second half before Brown & Swanepoel made sure we didn't get to the GF.

Hansie, now that we aren't getting our new clubrooms maybe we should buy ourselves a Premiership?

Its been a very competitive and absorbing competition in 2010; pity it looks like heading for another debacle.

---------- Post added at 16:14 ---------- Previous post was at 16:11 ----------

Only very few people would have access to information about COY's contractual position.

Are we looking at insider trading here? The plot thickens!

[Burgs]

Another explanation is that now CO'Y is no longer a pro he can choose where he actually wants to play into the future as an amateur.

[The Oracle]

WF players cannot be required to play for a specific club under their current employment arrangements.

COY and Hodgson did the dirty on Palmyra and subsequently Wanneroo for their own selfish reasons.

Agree Burgs that if COY is now an amateur then he can choose a club but you'd think that he'd stick with the club (Wanneroo) that he'd previously played for, just from a moral standpoint.

I think the more plausable scenario here is that COY has a WF contract that has not been terminated when he retired from playing S14 and is ticking over until its natural end date, ie the latter part of this year. Soaks have inside knowledge of this and have lured COY to play for them for the last 3 games which is the minimum under the Competition Rules, ie "has competed for that Club in at least three (3) competition matches in separate rounds in that season and has not played more club games with another club outside WA during the season whilst fulfilling his obligations as a contracted professional player"

With three rounds to go Soaks have pulled off a swifty. Not sure how the rest of the rugby community will perceive this.

[Hansie]

It's like Law and Justice. There is no Justice in law, why should there be in our club comp laws?

The intent of having EWF players in our comp was to raise the profile and standard. The law says COY is contracted as an EWF professional player until end 2010.

The sad thing is that some player at SOAKS who has worked all year for his team to get into the finals has now been tossed aside to make way for someone who has gone from Pally to Wanneroo to Soaks . COY will not be playing professional rugby next year - the spirit and moral of this law has been twisted.

Last year some poor guy had to make way for Brownie at Cott, last year's flag will always be tainted for Cott. This year another at Cott and 2 at Soaks have been tossed aside. And we complain about retaining players, developing players and growing our community comp.!!!! In the past 2 years we have potentially showed the middle finger to 3 Premier Grade players.

Anyway for what it is worth, the law is clear, SOAKS have broken no laws.

Tell me all of you, including SOAKS supporters how much praise and cheer you have given to the Wall Street financiers who legally plunged the world into the GFC. Did they have ethics?

Sadly, if the only way to get into the finals is to bring in a few professionals - those clubs without deep pockets will die, our comp will be reduced to 8 premier grade teams, maybe a few years later to 6 and our code will disappear.

R.I.P. Ethics.

[Homer J]

Short memories, or are people pissed off because their clubs bought duds.

Only a club that hasn't brought in a few imports could really complain here. Don't forget that Soaks have also lost the services of the number 2 Force halfback for the rest of the year after Turner busted his knee playing for his country.

Where did Kala's new fullback/five eight come from late in the season??

Spanner's brother has played for Soaks for a while and Spanner and COY are good mates. If he is an amateur now why wouldn't he play with his mates, isn't that part of what rugby is about. There isn't a conspiracy behind everything.

If he doesn't qualify for the finals then he should be cut for the finals but he is allowed to play the rest of the season like everyone else.

[auzzie mack]

Kalas young fullback 1st5 Tane Puki his older brother got him a job over here and is a kalamunda warhorse so took him down to club well thats the story that kalamunda give me!!??