Was it to be the second finals appearance in 3 years for the Farts

As the game time neared, the normal tension and excitement associated with Finals hockey started to mount. WHA had made a late change to the game time and venue, and added to this tension was the extra worry created by the realisation I hadn’t changed the Teamer event details, and it sent out a reminder with the old details on it.
Travelling to the game, I wasn’t sure if we would even have a team and thought maybe i should have brought my gear, although hard to play hockey with stick in one hand and crutch in the other.

We should have gotten a cr4edit from WHA for our fees, as not long before the game was to start it started to bucket down again, and they didn’t need to apply anymore water to the pitch.

It certainly had the tension and build up of finals, with the guys having a strong pregame pep talk by nuts, reiterating the three key tactics, width, channels and passing.

It wasn’t our strongest line-up, with the key strikers of Trapper and Wily not taking the field (Injury and flu), but the boys went out fired up, and right from the start it was like viewing a different team than the last few weeks. Lots of interpassing, and right through the game the Farts had probably 80% of the ball and territory.
Matty B was superbly positioned just off the LH post when a ball was hit there from Ants at RI, unfortunately Matty couldn’t connect with the bouncing ball, but it set the scene for the team and Karori knew they were in for it.

Legs scored to open his account, although the Farts could have been up by 3 at that stage. Karori had a rear foray into the Farts circler, and Damon once again cleared off the line to save a gaol, unfortunately it didn’t go far enough, Karori put it goal wards and a touch saw it trickle in 1-1.

Half time talk was held undercover out of the rain, and reinforced the pre game tactics. Craig was struggling to get enough breath to talk, and the boys were silent.
The second half was more of the same, with a couple of lapses into the dribbling runs that cost us the last three games, one however did pay off, al picked up a ball from a tackle on defence, dribbled 30m to get over halfway, passed to Legs who took iot further, then a couple more passes and back to Legs who slotted it, 2-1 up.

And there it stayed –the Farts were through to their second Final in 3 years.
This was a much better team effort, and to be honest, if we’d played like this all season we would have finished with a clean sheet, and probably no draws.

The whole team pulled very well, it was hard to pick MVP, but Legs ran all night, set up a number of chances and scored 2.

Special Mention to Al, Matt and Andy B, and also Dan who had a great game on the left wing.

Final next Sunday, 9.45 NHS1 – come along and support the boys.

Goals
2 – Legs

MVP
3 – Legs – great contribution
2 – Matt B – played well, with intelligent play and passed, and plenty of commitment
1 – Al – yet another very strong game, secured the right midfield in both attack and defence
.5 – Rearend – umpired half a game due to the umpire scheduling cock up.