Playing their first home game for the season, Sydney Uni relished the chance to play in front of their home crowd. With many members, sponsors, family and friends looking on, Sydney Uni fought their way to a 123-66 victory against Redland, over the Easter weekend. The win places Sydney Uni on top of the ladder alongside the Brisbane Lions, the only two teams in the competition with a 3-0 start to the season.
Sydney Uni had another good start and got out to an early lead in the first term. But to Redland’s credit, they continued to threaten and fought back hard in the second quarter. Failure to execute and lapses in defense on Sydney Uni’s part, allowed Redland back into the game. The Students only held a 53-50 lead at the main break.
Sydney Uni Head Coach Tom Morrison had some strong words for his group at the half and they responded extremely well. They increased defensive pressure substantially and generated a lot more chances, outscoring Redland 26-8 in the third quarter.
But for the second week in a row, the Students saved their best for last, putting on a monster performance in the fourth quarter. Sydney Uni outscored Redland 44-8 in the final term to put the game well out of reach.
This week’s game was another great team effort, however one player who had a breakout game for the Students was Ned Reinhard. In his second game for Sydney Uni, Ned contributed going forward, adding a goal, but also applied a lot of defensive pressure finishing with 4 tackles.
After the game, Captain Lewis Stevenson was happy with his team’s effort and ability to withstand Redland’s pressure. “The boys put in another solid performance against a physical Redland’s side who pushed us for three quarters, with Bonney and Williams the standouts.” He said.
However he knows his team have plenty of room to improve. Adding, “We are still yet to produce a solid four quarter effort this year which is what we’ll need to overcome Aspley this week. But I feel like this isn’t far away as we continue to gel more and more as a group every game we play together.”
Next Up
Sydney Uni look to continue their unbeaten run as they head to Queensland to take on the Aspley Hornets. The game kicks off at 12pm on Saturday 22nd, April.
Livestats for the match can be found here: http://neafl.com.au/fixturesresults/
SYDNEY UNI: 5.3 8.5 12.7 19.9 (123)
REDLAND: 3.0 8.2 9.4 10.6 (66)
GOALS
Sydney University: J. Derickx 3, D. Bonney 3, T. Young 2, J. Williams 2, M. Rawlinson 2, N. Reinhard, L. Kilpatrick, C. McFadden, J. Hiscox, L. Stevenson , A. Gillespie, Z. O”Brien
Redland: P. Yagmoor 3, J. Paine 3, J. Goodall 2, H. Bertoli-Simmonds, M. Thomson
BEST
Sydney University: D. Bonney, C. McFadden, T. Young, J. Williams, N. Reinhard
Redland: C. Malone, B. Bailey, K. Walsh, S. Michael, S. Miller