World Footy News

The Huddersfield Rams will take on the Nottingham Scorpions this weekend in the AFL Britain Central & North West Grand Final. The Rams last weekend defeated the Sheffield Thunder, earning the right to take on minor premiers Nottingham this Saturday July 30th at Manton Colliery in Worksop.

It was a hot summer’s day at Lockwood Park, Huddersfield last Saturday, and as expected the game got under way at high intensity from the travelling Thunder, who sat in 2nd place on the ladder, one position above the Rams. The home crowd saw their Rams go 2 goals down in the first few minutes, with some great work from Thunder captain Garth Nevin and half forward Luke Childs.

The Rams were caught on the back foot and a bit slow out of the blocks compared to the visitors, conceding again to go 3 goals down in 7 minutes. With some harsh words from the back men and the touchline the Rams eventually got going, although not to the level they had reached in previous games.

This report courtesy of Karl Haigh from the Huddersfield Rams.

With the Thunder heavily manned up on Rams Captain Danny Armitage, they still couldn’t stop him taking a massive grab and finishing his job off with a great opener for the Rams. This gave the Rams a lift, but still only into second gear. The Thunder replied with another good goal to which the Rams answered again within minutes, the first quarter continued this way right up to the Horn with both sides producing goal after goal.

The Rams went into the huddle 3 goals down after the first Quarter and the lads were in for a roasting from Assistant Coach Rhys Long.

Unfortunately, due to a late pull out by the league field umpire, Rams head Coach Neil Morrison had to step in to fill the role, which he did fairly and to the highest standard. As expected the coach's words were harsh but with encouragement and optimism as always.

The Rams headed into the 2nd quarter optimistic they could turn the game in their favour, The Rams started the 2nd a lot better than the 1st getting an early goal from new young star Luke Booth, The Rams got the game back level in quick concession capitalising on the Thunder being totally out of position after a bit of hand bags at dawn, between Thunder full back and Rams “mouth” Luke Booth.

The Rams knew themselves that they weren’t firing on all cylinders yet and had to do something about it and quick. Sheffield Thunder got a grip on things after all the excitement of the Scuffle and come back showing why they were 2nd in the ladder.

The Mighty Rams took a massive blow as tagger Stu Rowling went down and eventually off the field with a knee injury, which has unfortunately ended his season for 2011 and put him out of the Grand Final.

The Rams had to regroup and reshape, knowing they would deeply miss the presence of the Tagger who had done a solid job up to the unfortunate injury. This misfortune seemed to give the Rams the kick that they needed and the goals started flowing, with great finishes from James Sunderland, Jason Battye, Ally Delooze, Danny Armitage and Luke Booth.

The Rams went into Half Time up on the Thunder but they knew that they had to dig deep and produce more, They needed to start the Third quarter as well as they had finished the 2nd and with some encouraging words from the coaching staff the Rams headed out to try and put this game beyond the reach of the visitors.

As the game got under way it seemed that the Rams had totally forgot what they had been instructed to do, The Thunder broke through the middle with great intensity supplying their forwards with some quality balls which they made the most of clawing back the goals. It took yet another scuffle to get the Rams going again as they took the game by the scruff of the neck and started to pile on the pressure which led to more goals from Rams captain Danny Armitage and rover Luke Booth. The Rams went into 3 quarter time up 4 goals on the thunder and it seemed that the wind had been taken out of the Thunder storm.

Another positive huddle and excellent coaching from Rams assistant Rhys Long spurred The Rams to take the game to the Thunder, they needed to maintain the momentum they had built up in the 3rd quarter and take it into the 4thas all the hard work both sides had done through the season had come down to just 20 minutes of footy.

After great work in the ruck by Rams big ruckman Darren Lynch the Rams were straight back into the action. The Rams' youngest player Sam gill (who had also done well all day in the ruck rotation) was gifted chances by some excellent work from Matt Whitely which he unfortunately squandered but emphasised how the rams were dominating from the off.

The Thunder looked under the pump as full back Dan Washusen attempted to kick in, The Rams seemed to have more men on the field as all the options were nonexistent for Sheffield. This was caused by great tagging on the Thunder captain by Rams rookie Brandon Fletcher, who took on the role from the injured Stu Rowling. Thunder's other usual option Luke Childs was having the job done on him too by Rams club secretary and International star Ally Delooze who kept Luke quiet for the second half. There was no other option than to bomb the guts from the back men, but the Rams continued to dominate, winning possession almost every time setting up Great Britain international Matt whitely to get on the scoring sheet.

Sheffield seemed to have no answer to the Rams pressure, Every time the ball went forward to the big Thunder forwards it was dealt with consistently by Rams founder and International player Karl Haigh who had impressed all day long, assisted by rookie Matt Evans who is only in his first season and coming on in leaps and bounds every week.

The Rams kept possession and did what they had to do to keep the 33 point deficit as instructed by Rams halfback and Fellow Australian Assistant coach Rhys Long. Rhys comes from Leeds each week and has been a god send for Head coach Neil Morrison this season, Neil has had a lot of commitments outside of the club which has meant that he has not been able to fully commit at times this season, Fortunatly Rhys has stepped in well and has a wealth of experience, he has instantly earned the respect of the lads and has done a great job assisting the Boys to the Grand Final who without him could have possibly ended up mid table after a run of losses mid season, The Rams held out right up to the final horn ending what was one of the best games of footy this season which finished Huddersfield Rams-149 defeating Sheffield Thunder-116 .

The Central & North West Grand Final between Huddersfield Rams and Nottingham Scorpions is being held on Saturday 30th July at Manton Colliery Sports Club Worksop, Ball up @ 3pm. Elsewhere in regional England, the Chippenham Redbacks are hosting the Southern Grand Final on Saturday, August 6th, against the winner of this weekend's clash between the Southampton Titans and Bournemouth Demons.