Round 3 of CAFL23 saw two games with both winning teams having solid margins at the end, despite plenty of pressure coming from their respective opposition throughout the matches.
Game 1 gave us the first instalment for 2023 of the Terry Anderson Shield between Christchurch Bulldogs and University Cougars. This is an annual shield contested for between these two clubs, and dates back to when Terry himself helped create the Bulldogs club from scratch. The ‘Dogs are the current holders, but every year the games are very close and fiercely fought out, so it was expected to be no different this time round.
The ’Dogs got off to a flying start, with the first two goals of the game in quickfire time, putting the Cougars on the back foot and forcing them to wake up from their seemingly first quarter slumber. They did, and at the first break there was not much between the two teams.
From thereon, the Cougars started to assert some ascendancy with regular goals coming throughout each quarter to put themselves further ahead at each break. The ‘Dogs had plenty of the footy, but just couldn’t quite convert that possession and pressure on the Cougars into scoreboard pressure.
Without being disgraced, the ‘Dogs couldn’t stay with the Cougars and ended up on the wrong side of the ledger, with the Cougars running out comfortable 39 pt winners.
In the second game of the day, the Eagles were down on experienced troops and had a couple of first game 17yo’s taking the field, so the future was on show more than the past. The Blues on the other hand welcomed back the reigning back to back CAFL Mens B&F winner, Dan Farrar, and were seemingly intent on racking up a big score with their weight of possession and entries into F50 gathering steam throughout the early part of the game.
The Eagles held their own in the first half, with a gettable margin of only 23 pts separating the two teams at half time. But from then on the Blues clicked into a higher gear and despite being quite inaccurate in front of goal, put the Eagles to the sword and ran out solid 55 pts winners.
With so many inexperienced (and young) players in their ranks the Eagles were very competitive and did not let the Blues have it their own way too easily. However in the end it didn’t allow them to put the score on the board to stay in the hunt as they were hoping to.
Round 4 gives us a special, never before seen in CAFL achievement, with an individual milestone to be reached. Stay tuned on the socials’ pages for more information around this moment.