And Then There Were 2...St Kilda & Hills Supertigers

Supertigers Vanquish & Exorcise Hapless Saints!

In what was expected to be a challenge for the previously unbeaten Hill's Supertigers, Sunday's game at Lobethal was all but over at quarter time.

The Hill's dynamos jumped toan 8 goal lead at the first change and were rarely challenged by the Gawler Saints. There appeared to be more of a challenge from the Hill's own defender Andrew Frohling who contributed to the few Saint's fortunes with 3 turnovers which resulted in goals. There were comments from the centre area, in particular from star midfielder Richard Kleemann, that 'Frohls is a bit like the Proud Mary' referring to his turning circle.

However, Frohling did redeem himself with 4 incredible 50 metre passes in the final quarter with all hitting up forward targets and resulting in goals. In a post match interview Frohling suggested that he may have lost a metre or two over the years.

Richard Kleemann was again doing his best to emulate his hero Chicken Man...he was everywhere...in a display which was reminiscent of Andrew McLeod's 97 & 98 AFL Grand Final performances Kleemann contributed with 4 goals together with many forward forays and sensational defensive actions.

Another to continue his midfield dominance was Simon Kemp who again delivered strongly to marking targets in the forward line.

The Supertigers welcomed back 'Snappy' Tom Hancock who booted 4 goals in the first quarter and then spent valuable time working off of the half back line.

Also in a welcome return to form was sharp shooter Gary 'Specky' Magee who appears to have fully recovered from a badly torn hamstring earlier in the season. A quick move up the Foreman Legal Leading Goalkicker list is expected.

Again the Hill's defence was marshalled by Frohling with strong rebounding run by the ever green Dave 'Runt' Wuttke and Chris 'Fritz' Geraghty. Former SANFL champion Paul Zoontjen was lost to the defence within the first 10 minutes of the match with a recurring back injury. Damian 'Dom' Ryde & 2nd gamer Ben Barnett further solidified the Tiger's defence with Barnett sustaining an unfortunate ankle injury in the 3rd quarter which may force him to miss the next game.

The centre clearance dominance was again on show. Aleks Bojanic created the body contests at the ball ups with clean clearances by Kleemann, Kemp, Mark Jaensch & Wayne 'Chucky' Seymour (1 goal). Seymour again proved to be made of a very hard substance burrowing his way through many packs. The marathon abilities of Jaensch again were on show covering much ground throughout the game.

Bojanic's struggle with Gawler's tough ruckman came to a head when the Saints big man decided to 'run through' Bojanic at a centre ball up. This resulted in a free kick which was quickly hand balled to Kemp who delivered strongly onto the chest of the leading forward who converted truly.

Wide running players in Alex Tucker, Kim Pearce (4 goals) and David McGill (3 goals) threatened the Gawler defence on many occasions and were ably assisted by floating forward Troy Snooks (3 goals).

Again veteran Chris Hill provided a foil for Magee in the forward line and gave assistance to Bojanic with some strong bodied forward ruck work.

The fantastic effort on field was greatly complemented by Super Goal Umpire Graham 'Fryar' Tuck and his terrific 'jigsaw puzzle' joke and the nourishment provided by Ross 'BBQ cause I have a sore Hammy' Wall.

Although again missing some key players the Hill's Supertigers notched up their 8th successive victory in style hammering the fancied Gawler Saints by a massive 141 points. Their next challenge will be the SANFL / AFL rich list of Sacred Heart Old Collegians (SHOC) who were swept aside by a determined East side this week.

This next game against SHOC (Sunday 9th August at Lobethal) will determine the fate of the mighty Supertiger's quest for the 2009 Premiership.

Ross Wall File...Hills v Gawler

BLOCKBUSTER BLOWOUT

The much anticpated top of the table clash between the two unbeaten trend setters had arrived.
Scheduled to coincide with the Cats versus Saint Kilda match, it was the mighty Hills Supertigers taking on the all conquering Gawler Saints.

No one could remember the last time two Superules teams had gone through undefeated to this stage of the season. It may actually have been years since this situation had arisen, or just that age had caused memory dysfunction.

Nevertheless the two titans of Superules squared off at Lobethal on Sunday in front of a crowd well in excess of the normal attendance. With spectator numbers swelled by attendees of a club function, every piece of window space of was occupied by curious onlookers.

The game began in electric fashion and for the first four minutes it was a genuine arm wrestle with no one able to gain a noticable ascendency. The promise of a “Cracker of a game”, looked like being anything but just advertising hype.

Unfortunately for Gawler, that was where their quest for credibility ended.

Suddenly it was like Jimmy Bartell and Lenny Hayes had combined to play on the same team. The game looked like Gary Ablett and Nick Reiwoldt had joined forces with them and were playing against a Fremantle team featuring its Sesame Street character, a plough horse from Essendon and a Collingwood reject.

The onball dominance of the Hills’ team was awesome. Dick Kleemann, Simon Kemp, Mark Jaensch and Aleks Bojanic controlled the game. Their ability to attract the ball rivalled rugby players magnetism for nightclub drama.

Everytime they gained possession the runners covered the oval more effectively than the rampaging Corellas.

Kim Pearce, Dave “Runt” Wuttke and Wayne Seymour provided amazing run and Chris Geraghty was impassable at half back. The ferocious, “chrome domed” defender, Chris, hates losing and that extends to his hair.

Such was the dominance of the defence, Full Back Andrew Frohling was tagged to reduce his impact up the ground as he continually ran off his Grenville Dietrich like opponent; who Andrew later described as having the range and flexibility of a traffic cone.

It wasn’t all plain sailing, however, as Paul Zoontjens lasted only 10 minutes before leaving the ground with a back injury originating from extensive domestic duties. This raises the very serious debate about the problems associated with combining the dangerous “around the house” activities and the demands of elite sport. Horror tales surrounding the perils of vaccuuming, the hazards of gardening and the horrors of “Home handyman” projects deliver an iron clad case for their abolition. Struggling to bend down to undo his shoe laces post match, “Zoonie” did the only sensible thing in the circumstances: had a beer to kill the pain and drove home in his boots.

Ben Barnett was also forced from the ground early in the game and unable to return. Traumatised by his involvement in a massive cranium collision which saw his forehead quickly become an “eight head” Ben witnessed more stars in five minutes than one can see in a whole night at the Academy awards.

Added to this was the continued absence of star forward Damon Wilson. Vilified on the official Supertigers’ website for missing the last game due to “shopping for a Port-a Cot”, Wilson was allegedly still mourning the passing of Farah Fawcett. Voted by 85% of respondents as supplying the softest excuse for not playing previously, Damon cemented his grip on the bag of marshmallows.

The number of turnovers delivered by Gawler threatened the statisticians with RSI as they continually exployed their own version of the look away pass; the no look pass.

The Gawler players seemed intent on deceiving Dave Wuttke with this ploy but some days it’s hard to fool a man whose not paying attention anyway. Playing at his unflappable best, the opposition later described him as being “Cooler than a penguin’s freezer”.

Interested spectators included those playing in the following match. Easts’ players took some consolation in the fact that they had gotten closer to the Hill’s team than any other this year, losing their previous encounter by only 32 points. They talked in awe of the Supertigers’ “Roaming Zone”. Drawing on the soccer strategy playing in a “2, 4, 4 formation”, they described what they experienced against the Hill’s as the unstoppable “18 formation” where everybody just runs.

They commented on the fluctuating mood of the Gawler players during the match with one wag explaining that, “At half time they seemed depressed and miserable but by the end of the match they were just miserable and depressed”.

In the end it was a massacre of indescribable proportions that made Custer’s Last Stand look like a draw.

HILLS 26 – 12
GAWLER 4 – 6
Best: Kleemann, Geraghty, Kemp, Seymour, Jaensch, Bojanic, Wuttke
Goals: Magee 5, Hancock, Kleemann, Pearce 4, Snooks, McGill 3, Hill, Seymour, Anko Klitten 1

POLL RESULT-Softest Of The Soft Round 7

Damo Shines In Poll Result

A clear win by Damon Wilson in last week's Super Poll...polling 84% of the vote for being unavailable due to 'having to go shopping for a port-a-cot', Wilson wins a bag of marshmallows and goes into the main draw for the 2009 Poll Award. Matt Ormsby (Hangover 63%) and Tommy Hancock (self diagnosed hamstring 36%) are also nominated for the big end of season award.