Shorthanded Hamilton Gives Central the "Blues"

With a game versus the (0-4) Central Blues, the ‘Cats should have no problem improving their record to (2-3) on the season, right? Wrong. Nothing in the OAFL is easy, especially when injuries and lack of player commitment has riddled the Wildcats over the past 3-4 weeks. With several fresh faces in tow, Hamilton hit the road and headed to battle the Blues at Humber College North this past Saturday morning. Despite missing many of their key position players, the ‘Cats still looked to win big as they needed to start their charge towards the finals with a solid win in front of the Toronto competition. Apparently the Blues didn’t get the memo, as they ran over the Wildcats to start the game; with several hard ball gets from the deck to move the footy into Hamilton’ s backline, as well as solid leads from their wingers and forwards. With an early point, followed by a great goal, Hamilton seemed to wake from their early morning slumber with an offensive outburst of their own. Ruckman-for-a-day Barry Crow (6’1’’), filling in for the 6’7’’ Paul Lawson, began to turn on his jets across the middle of the ground with his tenacious tackles and long kicks to the new-look Wildcat forward line of Shane Davies, Charles Thompson and rookie Terry Brake. Hamilton answered back, kicking 4 goals 2 behinds to end the first quarters and taking a 4.2.26 to 1.1.7 lead into the break. The second quarter was filled with more as the same; as the quartet of Rob “Corky” McElwain, Ken Tumak, Joel Carter and Barry Crow (who kicked 3 goals on the day) dominated across the middle of the ground and helped to expand Hamilton’s lead heading into the half. Despite falling behind after their quick start, the Blues fought hard from their backline, giving up no easy goals all day long and making the visitors earn every point they produced. Shane “Snowman” Davies, who was playing in his final game for the ’06 Wildcats, ran hard all morning long and was rewarded for his efforts with an impressive 6 goals performance. Steve “Benno” Bennett, Eben Schaeffer and Damian Lowry looked great in the Wildcat backline, and after giving up 13 points early, the hardnosed defense shutdown the Blues for the rest of the day. With positives in abundance for the Wildcats from all over the ground, rookies Terry Brake and Hugh “Playboy” Philips looked especially smooth in their first ever games for Hamilton, hitting hard all day and never giving up until the final whistle. Thanks to all out efforts from the entire Hamilton roster, the ‘Cats run out winner on the day 16.9.105 to 2.1.13.