AFTER a long and strenuous pre-season the start of the 2017 Avon Football Association commenced on the weekend with Kellerberrin/Tammin hosting Cunderin and recording a 70-point win in the league and 52 points in reserves. On Sunday Quairading took on York at home and got home by 25 points in the league and 57 in the reserves.
In Northam on Sunday the Railways Bombers took on the Beverley Redbacks in a much anticipated clash between old foes. New senior coach Matthew Stokes had put the players through a tough pre-season and the boys were finally ready to go. The league side consisted of 12 new faces but with strong Railways family names in de Blecourt, Grafton, Morris, Hunter, Davis, Negus and Morton leading the way, the boys jumped out of the blocks to kick the first five goals of the first quarter. Beverley struggled to get the ball out of centre with big ruckman Leslie Rossiter dominating the hit outs and new recruit Daniel Arangio cutting off everything across half back and using his penetrating left foot to drive the ball forward. Beverley kicked 1-1 into a slight breeze with Railways finishing the quarter with 6-2. The second and third quarters saw the Bombers continue their dominance around the ground with James Morris, Campbell Hunter, Davey Grafton and Steven Caccetta collecting lots of possessions in the midfield. Steven Armstrong and Daniel Negus always looked dangerous up forward with six and two goals respectively. New-comer to town Joel ‘Doc’ Richardson presented well all day. At three-quarter time Railways were 14-10 to Beverley 2-5.
The last quarter was a scrappy affair with the Bombers recording the only goal, final scores 15-17.107 to 2-6. 18. New fella Lionel ‘Richie’ Boddington, along with John and Ben Armstrong finished the game as they stared, hard and tough. Skipper Nathan de Blecourt and his big brother Glen lead the backline all day and were tough and miserly relinquishing only two goals for the day.
In the reserves Railways got the first goal of the game but stopped there, conceding the next eight, eventually going down 12-19. 91 to 2-2.14. New coach Damian Rak has a lot of work to do to get the boys up for our next game against Cunderin on April 30 at Henry St oval.
