It started as a celebration of 50 years of football and ended with two big wins to the Northam Railways Football Club. Last Saturday Railways celebrated its 50th anniversary after Northam Towns and Railway Unions merged at the end of 1967, and with a huge crowd cheering them on both sides were keen to put on a good show and get the win.
The day started with the Reserves taking on Cunderdin and after Life Member and 1968 stalwart Billy Griffiths fired the boys up in the rooms it was all one way traffic, Railways kicking a massive 24.19 to the Magpies 1.2. It was a good percentage win for Junior and his team and will go a long way for the team to cement top two on the ladder and have a second chance come finals. Deekan Garlett was BOG kicking six goals, assistant coach Richard Dewar kicked four with Tristan Jones, Bradman Collard and Casey Fyfe being the other major goalkickers with two each. Best players: Garlett, Jermaine Davis Snr and Jnr, Ash Parker and Dewar.
With vice captain Dave Grafton playing his 100th game for the club the League boys were fired up early, and after a stirring pre-match address from 1968 captain/coach Ken “Boomer” Lally the Bombers hit the Magpies early, and as wet and windy weather came in it was looking gloomy for the visitors, the Bombers kicking 4.5 to nil in the first quarter. After quarter time the game was played on a slippery Henry St surface, but Railways moved the ball with precision and worked well as a team kicking another 19 goals, finishing on 23.19 (157). Unfortunately Cunderdin, who are obviously in a rebuilding stage failed to score for the day. Tyrone Garlett kicked six goals for the Bombers with Cam Hunter 5, Jeremy Power 4 and Harry McInnes 3. Nathan de Blecourt was clearly BOG, with James Morris a close second. Other good players on the day were Garlett, Negus, McInnes and Hunter. For Cunderdin Todd Rogers battled hard along with Lawn and Reynolds.
Railway’s Fast Tarts fought hard against top of the ladder team Cunderdin and just came up short, 42-45. Lead strongly all day in attack by Meg Thompson and Ashlee Annels the game had all spectators on the edge of their seats with a goal for goal game. With Kate Swenson going down with injury early in the second quarter, Tyler Mahoney and Dakota Narrier proved their versatility to be not only top shooters but solid defence players. With the scores level three minutes to go the rain set in and made conditions hard for Tart’s to gain the upper hand. MVP sponsored by Rak And Co went to Meg Thompson; Meg’s outstanding shooting and leads for defence on turnovers had a huge impact on the game. The Leeder family team Tart went to Molly Dickson, who at 15 showed great maturity.
