Jackaroos Top River Rats

On a cool June afternoon the Jackaroos went down South to take on the 2011 Division 4 champions, the Ohio Valley River Rats, in the home of the 2012 national tournament, Cincinnati, Ohio. The first ever opponent of the Jacks in 2008, this matchup has always held special importance for members of the club and is awash with emotions despite the lopsidedness of this rivalry with Columbus’s only loss coming during the regular season of 2010. The Jacks traveled well, bringing more players than the Rats, but were missing their MVP, runner up, and 3rd place finisher from 2011 in Chet Ridenour, Rob Ward, and Phil Sisia respectively. This raised many questions about whether the team could stand up to this challenge. Upon arriving at the fields, some new faces appeared beneath the anchored jerseys, a few of which carried distinct Aussie accents, and a concerned tone marked the Jacks pregame warmups. Nonetheless, the deeper bench and the numerous fans who made the trip were strong confidence boosters and after the first whistle a lack of confidence would never be an accurate descriptor of the team.

It is often said that you set the pace of the game in the 1st quarter, so come out fast and hard and cruise to victory. The Jackaroos did just that by quickly gaining a 5.0.30 to 0.0.0 lead. Wait, no, that’s not right. Sorry, my notes are a little sloppy. It was a 0.5.5 to 0.0.0 lead. True to the saying, this pace would continue all game as the Jacks would put an 18 in the behind column. From the first bounce, Brad Dailey gave a strong showing in the ruck against one of the River Rats best players, with mid-fielders David Wilson and freshly returned-to-the-team Clyde Simpson running through with the ball and putting it up into the forward line. The ball would spend a significant majority of the game there where forwards Alex Sleeper and Chad Welday were granted numerous chances on goal with new-to-the-team Australian Gordon Loader coordinating the attack. When the play did fall off and end up back in defense, Peter Taylor put on an impressive performance, particularly early in the game, by immediately clearing it out each time up the side where strong teamwork from midfielder Brady Minich and left wing Eric Politz helped to win almost every loose ball and get the play back up to the offense.

Little would change throughout the day and, with strong goal kicking performances by Welday and Wilson, the final score was Columbus 7.18.60 over Ohio Valley 3.7.25. Head Coach John Fisher had this to say after the match. “Despite a very sloppy game up forward, I was really pleased with the Jackaroos' play on Saturday. We were missing a lot of our starters and some key veterans, but we did what we had to do to get a victory. I was particularly pleased with our ability to work the ball into open space on the wings and with our handballing which has continued to progress. I was thrilled with the defensive effort we got out of Peter Taylor which I think cemented our ability to control the game.” Also giving comment on the game at the pub that evening were seasoned defenders Matt Beeghley and Kyle Jamison, neither of which showed any visible signs of having broken a sweat despite playing the full eighty minutes. “What a boring game!” exclaimed Beeghley with a touch of angst as Jamison shrugged in assent.

Best-on-ground: Peter Taylor, Evan Gardiner, Brad Dailey, David Wilson, Brady Minich

By Aron Tharp, Columbus Jackaroos