By Julian Pitts
After months of strength and conditioning, planning and recruiting, and a large focus on intra club match simulation, Round One is finally here for the Rococo Noosa Tigers. With our first game on Easter Saturday at our Weyba Road headquarters, we have the only stand-alone Aussie rules game in the state, it couldn’t be any bigger! Our opponents? The Brent “Beema” Moloney coached Wilston- Grange Gorillas whose young list are improving and gaining experience each season. Moloney (an ex-AFL player himself) spent three years at Noosa before relocating to Brisbane for the top coaching gig at Grange.
Several ex-Tigers have been plying their trade with the Gorillas over the past few years with Oscar Stewart, Charlie Bowes (now with Lions VFL) and last year’s best and fairest Will McKenzie (also with Aspley VFL) among talented Noosa juniors who have made the trek down the highway to play QAFL recently. McKenzie of course the youngest member of the Noosa Tigers premiership team that hammered Maroochydore back in 2019. Now back onto the Noosa boys and I’m certain coach Adam Bovalino and his coaching crew will make sure their physical presence is up and about early on in front of what should be a fantastic Easter Saturday crowd.
“We have to make our home ground a fortress.” said Bovalino. “We have done the work, the boys are fresh physically and just so excited about playing on this weekend and in our first QAFL game in the club’s history. We are a very hard-working club off the field and I’ll guarantee we will be just as hard on it” said the dual premiership captain and coach. As mentioned earlier the Tigers have gone through extensive match simulation during the pre-season and in their only hit out against last year’s QAFL premiers Morningside looked really impressive. Whilst not overly tall, the pace and clarity in which the Noosa boys can move the ball was first class. Victorian recruits Wilson and Fleming look to have slotted in easily and are well and truly going to make an impact. To have the likes of McKendrick and Holt (both 2019 premiership players) back with their nous and hardness around the contest will be invaluable.
The Bovalino coached Noosa Tigers ability to turn defence into attack has been awesome the past two years. Buntain and Laskey are two of the best attacking defenders in the state whilst vice-captain McCrimmon continues to play his stopping but attacking role deep in defence. Young Angus Smyth (dual premiership player) continues to impress back there whilst Riley Odwyer (2020 premiership player) has a booming right boot that automatically puts the team from defence into attack. Fellow senior premiership player Maccy Johnson just keeps getting better and better in any of the roles he is asked to do. Around the contest Brett Meredith is just a star and oozes class. Tyler Stack continues to rack up possessions and is a model of consistency, whilst our midfield jewel Jai Fitzpatrick loves the big occasion and will relish in the big crowd this Saturday. Premiership stars Seb Rogers and Jack Harper will be lively up forward and continue to provide a target with the skill and craftsmanship of Mav Pettigrove on show once again to the Tigers faithful. Can’t wait!
Free entry of course with food and beverages available at great prices, plus we unveil the brand-new Heads of Noosa Beer Lawn where patrons can get themselves some ice-cold Japanese Lager straight from the tap. How good is that! It’s a massive day of footy at Rococo Oval with Colts at 10:00 am followed by “Oggy’s” twos, with the main game starting at 2:00 pm. For all other information regarding the game please just google “Noosa Tigers” and get onto our social media platforms (Facebook). There’s even a pre-game press conference with the opposing coaches!
History in the making at Weyba Road this Saturday. From all at the Tigers have a safe and happy Easter and we’ll see you at the footy.
Go Tigers
Cheers, Pittsy
