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Redbacks split road trip to Baton Rouge
On a cool and rainy day in Baton Rouge, 11 players from Florida traveled to Louisiana to take on the Tigers on their home ground and the Dallas Magpies. We had hoped for more players but the Ft. Lauderdale Squids all pulled out this week and we lost a few of our own. None the less, despite small numbers, despite missing several star players, we knew we had a good solid team.
Our first match was against the Tigers. In the opening half, the Florida Redbacks dominated. New recruit Nick dominated all across the middle. Our onballers were stellar – Janni, Dustin, and Alex seemed to grab everything out of the middle and were constantly feeding the forward line. The wet ball however made marks very hard to come by. None the less, Adham had a fair share of the ball and launched a number of shots on goal. Unfortunately, the Redbacks were not able to capitalize on our dominance as no one seemed able to kick straight.
1st half
Florida Redbacks 1 6 12
Baton Rouge Tigers 1 0 6
The second half saw continued Redbacks dominance but not quite to the same extent. Baton Rouge did have several forays forward but were repeatedly cut off by the excellent defense of Jeff Grubb (Grubby), Mus, Basil, and Beast (Nick). Baton Rouge did score once when a player not to be named lost his temper resulting in a 50 meter penalty and again when yours truly unfortunately let a ball slip out of his hands…. Besides those glitches, the kicking was much more on target with Adham kicking straight and Joey crumbing a goal on a ball into the goal square from Adham. Altogether a comfortable win and notable as it was the Redbacks first win ever on the road outside of nationals!!!
Final
Florida Redbacks 4 8 32
Baton Rouge Tigers 2 1 13
The Redbacks then had a break and watched the Baton Rouge Tigers take on Dallas… and it was not pretty. Baton Rouge only crossed mid-field twice the entire game as Dallas obliterated them… Literally the Dallas defenders stood there well rested – we had hoped that Dallas would get worn out by playing against Baton Rouge but this certainly did not happen.
Final
Dallas Magpies 12 18 90
Baton Rouge Tigers 0 0 0
So, despite seeing a devastating performance, our little Redbacks squad came out with our heads held high, confident that we could give the Magpies a tough match. We actually wanted to play 12 vs. 12 as we had our first game so that it would be our players vs. Dallas but Dallas wanted to play 16 vs. 16 since they had brought a lot of players. Thus, we were forced to take 5 additional players on to our squad. These players did try valiantly to help us but as one might imagine when one-third of a team’s squad is fill-in’s, this did disrupt our team chemistry….
The first quarter saw the Redbacks come out fired up… but the same could be said about the Magpies. A tough, hard hitting battle ensued with the Redbacks actually winning the center clearances. However, the deliveries from the middle players to the forwards were often not on target and even when they were on target, the Magpies defenders were getting better position and were usually first to the ball. Initially, the valiant Redbacks defense of Mus, Beast, Basil, and Grubby repelled the Dallas forays forward but eventually the relentless pressure and the inability of the Redbacks forward line to hold the ball forward resulted in the Magpies lighting up the score board with very accurate kicking.
1st half
Florida Redbacks 0 0 0
Dallas Magpies 6 2 38
At the half, the Redbacks switched some players around and discussed strategy to try to help keep the ball forward more often. For the most part the plan actually worked as Dallas was not able to pressure the Redbacks defense as much. The Redbacks actually had a few scoring opportunities but the shots on goal unfortunately were well off target. The Redbacks did end up with one behind for a tiny point of pride in not getting shut out. In addition, the Redbacks, despite missing numerous key players, did not give up and fought back and kept the second half close even with the highlight of Nick G. taking a brilliant speccy over a Dallas player – unfortunately he bruised his shoulder on the play and missed most of the second half.
Final
Florida Redbacks 0 1 1
Dallas Magpies 9 3 57
Goals (only 1st game obviously):
Adham – 2
Dustin – 1
Joey - 1
BOG Game 1 (as determined by Redbacks leaders, I don’t know ump votes):
Janni 3
Dustin 2
Adham 1
BOG Game 2 (as determined by Redbacks leaders, I don’t know ump votes):
Mus 3
Beast 2
Basil 1
Special thanks to Alex for paying for the rental van for us and helping out a lot of the guys on the trip who were low on money. We really appreciate your support of the club.
Oct. 10-11 – National Championship Tournament in Cincinnati – starts 9am Sat. am:
This is the highlight of our season – we will be playing in the Division 3 playoffs – I expect that we will be seeded fairly high. Let’s go with a strong squad and end the season with a national title!!!!
I would like every player on the team e-mail list to e-mail me so I can start to figure out numbers – E-mail me if you are a Yes, maybe, or a No.
Travel Info – You will need to buy plane tickets as it is too far to drive. Round trip tickets are currently running around $150. Once I know numbers, we will reserve hotel rooms. Costs should be low as we will once again put 4 to a room unless someone wants a room to themself (let me know).
US Team tryouts/training – if you are under the age of 23 and interested in making the US national team, they will be having a training/skills session/try out on Friday Oct. 9 – let me know if you are interested… by the way, there will likely be Australian scouts present – this is how several of our guys ended up getting recruited to play in Australia over the years – Dustin, Justin, Danny, Cam, CJ….
Nationals Registration – you cannot play nationals unless you register – do this ASAP!!!!
Usfooty is offering a cheaper means of registering for nationals but you have to register in the next month. As you can see, do it now and it’s still a lower price ($60) then it will be if you wait to the end. You have two choices – register yourself (click on the big blue link below) or give me the money and any relevant info at training on Thursday (I’ll register anyone who gives me money ahead of time).
From USFOOTY
ALL players need to register and agree to the waiver PRIOR to playing any game for their club. We know clubs have already started and with the system not working earlier that would be impractical to adopt and impossible to enforce this year. Players are required to at least sign a hard copy waiver before playing any game to be covered under the League’s Liability Insurance program.
Clubs can direct payers to the registration button to the left on the usfooty.com homepage ....OR ....clubs can manually register multiple players at one time by sending a check for multiple registrations along with the names of the players they are mass-registering along with the check.
These are the player registration fees for 2009:
- $60 per player - if paid between September 01- September 30
- $75 per player - if paid after September 30, including registrations at Nationals.
- The fee includes participation at the 2009 Nationals
- No rebates if registered player does not attend Nationals.
- No discounts for students, first year players or women this year.
- No “name exchanges”. Once a player is registered that payment cannot be transferred to another player.
This is a USAFL Player - 2009 Season Registration (which includes participation at 2009 Nationals). The loadings are designed to encourage teams to register as many players as early as they can. If someone “comes out of the woodwork” later in the season, conveniently before Nationals, and they gain an exemption from the 3 point qualification system, that's fine, they can play, but they are going to pay more than the player who registered early and has been contributing to their club and Usfooty all year.
cheers,
Marc (mkarver@chuma1.cas.usf.edu)
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Florida Redbacks Australian Football Club
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