NSW finish carnival on a high note

The NSW state country football team has finished their 2010 Landmark Australian Country Football campaign strongly with a win and a draw on the last day of competition. The ACT side finished third after falling agonisingly close of clinching a place in the grand final.

Too good for the Victoria Districts team in the first game of the day, NSW ran home 9.1.55 to Vic Districts 4.1.25 winners with S. Harvey and K. Emery kicking three goals each. E. Shaw, M. Pendergast, L. Shepherd, D. Bowles, J. Vlatko and D. Rankin featured amongst the best players.

In their final game of the carnival NSW took on WA in a contest that went down to the wire with NSW kicking a goal after the siren to draw the match. According to NSW coach, Robbie Jackson the team thought they had won the game with the scoreboard showing they were five points behind prior to the kick being taken.

“We actually thought we’d won the game but according to the officials the score was wrong and the game was a draw,” Jackson said.

The final score was 7.3.45 a piece with NSW players C. Gaylard, E. Shaw, S. Duck, J. Vlatko, S. Robinson and L. Warnett named the best for the game.

The win and the draw on the final day were enough to secure NSW fifth position – ahead of WA on percentage thanks to their 30 point win over the Victoria Districts side at the beginning of the day – a result coach Robbie Jackson said they’re reasonably happy with.

“We’ve been fairly competitive all week. The way we finished off today shows where we’re at and that we probably should have won a few more games. We played our best football today by far,” Jackson said. 

“The group that we’ve had have been fantastic throughout the carnival. They’ve been wonderful, great blokes who play a good brand of footy and they’ve done everything we’ve asked of them.”

According to the coach, Keiran Wright, Matt Pendergast, Sean Robinson, Earle Shaw and Lee Warnett were the outstanding players throughout the carnival. 

Landmark Australian Country Football Carnival Awards

Landmark Cup
Winner of the 2010 LandMark Australian Country Football Carnival –
Victoria Major

Best on Ground: Grand Final
Jarrod Edwards – Vic Major

J.J.Lussick Medal – Best Player of the Carnival
Marcus Crook – ACT

Umpire of the Carnival
David Silver – QLD

Cougar Sportswear Goalkicking Award
Grant Weeks – Vic Major

Rising Star Award – Best Player Under 21
Ben Yeomans – South Australia

JLT Sport – State Players of the Carnival
Simon Duckworth – WA
Matt Pendergast – NSW
Chad Gibson – ACT
Guy Campbell – Vic Major
Caleb Brown- QLD
Matthew Wade – Vic District
Leigh Kruger – SA

2010 ACFC All Australian Squad

Backs
Simon Duckworth – WA
Andrew McLean – Vic Major
Xavier Maloney – Vic Major

Half Backs
Marcus Crook – ACT
Guy Campbell – Vic Major
Matthew Hearn – ACT

Centres
Simon O‘Keefe – Vic Major
Leigh Kruger (Captain) – SA
Ben Yeomans – SA

Half Forwards
Luke Matthews – QLD
James Kavanagh (vc)- ACT
Justin Berry – Vic Major

Forwards
Mitch Portlock – SA
Grant Weeks – Vic Major
Ben Hughes – ACT

Followers
Chad Gibson – ACT
Steve Schultz – Vic District
Griffin Underwood –       ACT

Interchange
Ryan O’Sullivan – Vic Major
Kristan Height – Vic Major
Matt Pendergast – NSW
Shane Bradshaw – South Australia

Coach
Peter Knights – Vic Major

Full match details including goal kickers and best players can be found at:
http://www.sportingpulse.com/comp_info.cgi?a=ROUND&compID=116917&c=1-8064-0-0-0

Photographs of all matches for download will be loaded here:
http://www.acfc.com.au/photos/