2016 AFL NSW/ACT Representative Football

Photo credit: Amanda Thomas

On Saturday Wagga Wagga hosted the 2016 Interleague Representative Football and Netball round. The Riverina, Farrer, Black Diamond and Hume Leagues selected their best players to take on the interleague challenge.

The first game of the representative clash was Farrer League V Black Diamond League. The Black Diamond League convincingly defeated the Farrer League by 36 points. Farrer League Coach Jason McPherson believes it wasn’t the home team’s day, “Our on-ballers are good footballers, I just think we were off on Saturday night”. The team from the Farrer League trailed for most of the game, and McPherson thinks the midfield could have be improved “We got belted around the centre clearance and we didn’t use the ball well enough when we did have it”.

The lead was cemented in the second quarter after Black Diamond kicked six goals, three of which were from forward Pat McMahon. The Black Diamond League went into half time with a 33- point lead and continued to lead for the remainder of the game. This is the fourth consecutive win for the interleague champs, coach Chris Bishop is pleased with the win “Hopefully other leagues, Sydney and that, start to see that Black Diamond has improved out of sight and that we get, I wouldn’t say bigger or better rep games but more opportunities to play other teams in the future”. Bishop also thought that the defensive players were to thank for the win “the defensive side doesn’t get shown but I thought our defensive side was just 10 out of 10, and won us the game.”

Andrew Scott from Black Diamond and Simon Mackie from the Farrer League were awarded the best-on-ground medals.

Farrer Football League 11.9 (75)
Black Diamond Football League 15.21(111)

BEST : Black Diamond FL :A. Scott, P. McMahon, C. Jackson, M. Bailey, M. Spinks, P. Van Dam Farrer FNL : S. Mackie, M. Geppert, M. Irvin, S. Conlan, M. Haddrill, A. Rogers

The Hume League pulled away with one of the biggest representative victories in years against the Riverina League. The Hume League lead for majority of the low scoring match eventually resulting in the 7 point win. In the lead up to the match the Hume League focused on the basics of the game, Coach Josh Walker explains “We worked on a couple of things during the week but tried to keep it basic so that they do the basic things really, really well, not too much information overload so I think that’s why we stuck to some things really well today and it worked.”

“Without a doubt, we have obviously got a lot of respect for the Riverina League and in our mind they are sort of the pinnacle of representative footy at our level” Walker said.

Riverina Coach Matt Hard feels that complacency was a major contributor to their loss “We have a lot of very good players here and it’s great that the boys put their hand up. I suppose we learnt that complacency is a big thing.” Hard believed that the Hume League earned the interleague win “they were deserved winners. Full credit to the Hume League, they pressured us around the midfield and the stoppages.”

Duncan McMaster from the Hume League and John Anstee from the Riverina League were award bet-on-ground medals.

Riverina Football League 10.9 (69)
Hume Football League 8.14(62)

BEST: Hume FL: D. McMaster, K. Rowe, D. Wilson, J. Gaynor, M. Bahr, N. Holman Riverina FL: J. Anstee, L. Sicker, S. Flanigan, S. Campbell, J. Klemke, L. Redfern