By Julian Pitts
The Rococos Noosa Tigers pulled off an amazing win over Gold Coast heavyweights Labrador at Rococo Oval last Saturday on a beautiful autumn day in front of a strong pro Noosa crowd.
And the star of the show, without doubt ex-Brisbane Lions champion Daniel Rich who kicked 8.1 including five in the first half to set up the win for the Tigers.
While all footy followers are aware of Rich’s elite kicking, it was there live in show at Weyba Rd as he nailed goals from everywhere around the 50m arc to the applause and excitement of the Noosa fans!
However it was the pressure all over the ground from Matty Luenberger’s Tigers that was most impressive.
For the entire day the Noosa boys just tackled, chased, smothered and put their bodies in positions of where they had to be.
Role players did just that, most notably the shutdown role Riley O’Dwyer did on the dangerous forward Fyfe.
The run and set up by players like Niddrie and Tarling was super important to the win.
The debut of young Ethan Slaney was eye-catching with his intercept marking and run off half back.
Add to this the powerful on ball brigade where off the ruck work of Maccy Johnson, the cream of Conn, McCarthy, Fitzpatrick and Pettigrove reigned supreme.
Conn especially has had an outstanding year for the eighth placed tigers and showed the Tiger crowd again his elite ball winning and finishing on Saturday.
Local dual premiership player Mav Pettigrove was just sublime with his elite ball use setting up numerous forward thrusts while power forward Jono Freeman terrific again bagging four goals and providing the aerial contests needed to kick a winning score.
All in all, a fantastic victory from the Noosa Tigers who now head down to Brisbane to face top of the table Morningside in Brisbane this Saturday.
Media award votes:
5. D.Rich
4. M.Pettigrove
3. M.Conn
2. J.Freeman
1. C.McCarthy
The Noosa Tigers Senior Women went down to the top of the table Sandgate but showed much more fight and a heap of improvement since the first time they played.
The injury-riddled Tigers were in the contest for all of the first half before the fancied Nth Brisbane outfit put scoreboard pressure on and ran away with a comfortable win.
Ragen Mills was again the standout player for the Tigers while Dianne Ladewig, Zoe Miriklis, skipper Kelli Barker and Erin McLaughlin were among the best. Three-time premiership player and team leader Amelia Monk returned and was terrific for the Tigers also.The girls too head down the Bruce highway to face Morningside at 4.45pm this Saturday night.
Media award votes:
5. R.Mills
4. D.Ladewig
3. A.Monk
2. K.Barker
1. E.McLaughlin
