The Hulkster was right. We should have had a 75th Anniversary celebration every Saturday. After two great wins over last year’s grand finalists Kalamunda and Wanneroo, the Neddies 1st Grade team went down to Cottesloe on Saturday in conditions so bitterly cold that Mixer went there just to acclimatise himself for his trip back to Dunedin this weekend for yet another club reunion, this time his old Kaikorai club. The reunion is also expected to be attended by another Neddies stalwart, Dave Hamilton.

Playing with first use of a breeze so strong it threatened to remove Racehorse’s toupee, the 1st Grade got on the board first with a penalty to Mike “Devo” Denton. But the Seagulls then piled on the next 15 points through two tries and a penalty goal to snatch a handy 15-3 lead, before Nathan Roberts scored a great captain’s try for the visitors to drag Neddies back into the match at 15-8. Cottesloe then threatened to run away with the match a try which extended the home team’s lead to 20-8 before outstanding Neddies flanker Blair Morris scored after a slashing run to reduce the margin to a more respectable 20-13 at halftime. The second half was a litany of lost opportunities for Neddies. Just as the visitors built up the pressure on Cottesloe, their attempts to score were frustrated by inopportune penalties, dropped ball or turnovers. Having absorbed that pressure, Cottesloe then booted a penalty goal to extend their lead to 23-13. Juan “JP” Pretorius gave Neddies a sniff – and a bonus point - with a late try for a 23-18 scoreline but the visitors ran out of time. A disappointing result for Tony Ball’s team, who should welcome back from injury the likes of Joey Egan and Tyson Takiari after the bye round.

The 2nd Grade match against Cottesloe started disastrously for Nedlands when prop Mikey Marshall suffered a serious facial injury in the warm up that sent him off to hospital
and put him out of the match. Fortunately the big fella TJ Asiata was on hand to step into the breach and the loss of Mikey, while potentially serious for us over the rest of the season, seemed not to affect our performance on the day. In fact for the first time this season Neddies got off to a great start when Jimmy Vakuru scored within 90 seconds from a perfect Marlen Walker grubber. By halftime Neddies was ahead 15-5 after a try to Matt “The Traveller” Suter but Neddies faced the prospect of playing into the wind in the second half. However The Traveller sealed the match for the visitors when he put Bryce Penny into a gap to give Neddies a scratchy 22-15 win.

The 3rd Grade Gold game against Cottesloe began with Marty Scoon and Fuddy Ashford in the second row. Both had seven minutes warm-up experience having never played there before. The boys lit up the score board soon after kick-off and were really never headed. Matt Caporn and Trent Gainey did the damage showing how quality never fades – just gets a little slower. Damo showed true colours and spirit playing with an injury and still driving the scrum forward. Mikey Botes found gaps around the rucks emulating his 1st grade captain’s skills at sniping and darting around the rucks. Final score 42-5 to Neddies.

In 3rd Grade Black, the Cavaliers travelled to Joondalup, where no one seems to know what happened, not even the RugbyWA website.

In 4th Grade Gold, the Shamwaris did it tough this week, against a bigger Cottesloe team. These boys are having fun, led by Nick Butler in the forward s and supported by great loose forward play, the backs always had a go. Chris Naylor had a run and even stepped up to play prop. Neddies playing with the wind scored first and in difficult conditions converted for a 7-0 lead.  By half time Cottesloe had scored twice to take a 10-7 lead into the break and the prospect of running with the wind for the 2nd half.  In typical fashion the Zim Boys took it up to their bigger opponents, played some smart rugby and scored early in the second half. A close scoreline 12-10 to the mighty Neddies team but yet again showed true character.

In 4th Grade Black, the Nomads were legends on fire in the wind and rain at Iluka winning 31 to zip. The big Joondalup forward pack thought they could take on the mighty Nomads up front without skill or ability to work together. They came across this little big bloke called Ken Fluery who extracted ball from them like corks from a bottle. Alisdaire Malloch- Smith bolting runs down the sideline with plenty of room thanks to dad Hamish as the touch judge. The Wilko Wizard skilfully kicking ball into their 22 with ease, then the back trio of Fitzsimons, Fiji and ET had the game to themselves. Gadget with another try making it 12 out of 6 starting the flood of points in the second half. Mainsy and Atkins doing a mighty job in the tight where most where 20 ks heavier, but it was a hovering Cockburn who got a 5 pointer. New comer to the Club Hayden Smith thought he would look really fast when playing with slower players, had to work hard on his 70 meter intercept try, when nearly caught by a prop. Ryan Carter put on the biggest hit on the biggest forward to sum up; the team playing with skill and courage will always win out in the end. 15-minute Magnum sponsored a meal voucher to player of the day, Kenny. Hope he realises the restaurant is in Tianjin, China.

RSV Nedlands 20s Gold had a wake-up call courtesy of a far more determined and disciplined Cottesloe outfit going down 11 points to 6. The hard fought match delivered only one try (to Cottesloe) and was characterised by up-front slog from two teams working hard to defend territory against relentless offense. Pat Henning was the only contributor to the RSV Neddies scoreboard courtesy of two penalty goals – falling short of the Cottesloe try and two penalty goals. Nedlands were  found wanting at the line out and (for the first time this year) at the scrum as Cottesloe wheeled 5 consecutive Nedlands scrum to starve Neddies of the ball and prevent the much needed counter-try. Best performers for Nedlands were (man of the match) Ben Yeates in the forwards and Lewis (bone crunching) Flood in the backs.
Nedlands 20s Blue found themselves away from the club at Allen Park, going down 67-5 to Associates.

The Under-18s had a bye.

No rugby this long weekend so everyone can stay home and watch the Chiefs upset the Bulls in the Super 14 final. Round 7 on Saturday week sees Neddies head to Lark Hill to take on Rockingham.