Reshuffled Roos hold Cherrypickers to third draw in four games

Tallon Smith

The Young Cherrypickers have been forced to settle for a third draw in four games after their clash with Wagga Kangaroos at Geohex Park ended in a 16-all deadlock on Sunday.

Facing a reshuffled Kangaroos spine with Zeik Foster at fullback, James Smart at halfback, and Brayden O’Reilly at five-eighth, the Cherrypickers overcame the loss of Boro Navori in the warm-up to pick up another competition point on the road.

After Young had a number of chances early, it was the Kangaroos who opened the scoring through centre Dakota Ruta in the 21st minute, before Gus Clark extended the early advantage to 10 points six minutes later.

However, the Cherrypickers hit back, with Jake Kambos going over off a kick six minutes prior to the break, before Nick Kanellis levelled the game on the other side with a try in the corner after the visitors forced a goal-line dropout.

The deadlock remained until the 63rd minute, when a Matt Murray penalty Young gave its first taste of the lead after an infringement from the Wagga side.

Needing to respond, the Kangaroos reclaimed the lead soon after when Foster dummied and took on three defenders before popping a flick pass to Ruta who raced in for his second.

That put the pressure back on the Cherrypickers in the see-sawing battle, and again six minutes from full time they found a way over when Murray hit a rampaging Max Jones with a perfectly timed short ball.

That gave Murray a kick to reclaim the lead which sailed wide, and with neither side able to add to their tally in the final five minutes, the points were split for the fourth time in the opening seven weeks of the Group 9 competition.

After yet another stalemate, Young coach Dan Barclay said while it is frustrating for the side, the upside to the drawn results is that the side has only lost one game so far.

“You can look at it a couple of different ways, am I frustrated, yes, the players are frustrated, three draws in seven games, but it’s also recognition of us competing and staying within games,” he said.

“We didn’t lose the games, so we have only had one loss this season and that was against Temora, and there’s different aspects that we are building on and improving each week and combinations setting in.”

Young was without star Boro Navori who withdrew after an injury in the warm-up (Photo: Tahlia Crane)

In a match where momentum was king, both sides had patches of dominance, but were unable to work their way into a winning position.

After facing the double-digit first half deficit, Barclay said the Cherrypickers responded well, but ultimately a late lapse again saw the side fall short of a win.

“We had five or so opportunities within that battle that we didn’t ice or convert, and when Roos got an opportunity, their strike centre in Dakota took that and they scored first, but then we built that pressure and got back in front,” he said.

“We got a penalty goal to win a period of time when we had a player in the sin bin, which we managed really well, and got in front, and then the pressure valve came off again.”

Meanwhile, Kangaroos coach Foster said he was happy with the side’s start to the match, but was left disappointed by a slow start to the second half and the side’s failure to capitalise on the period where the Cherrypickers were reduced to 12 men.

“I was really happy with our first half, I thought we were patient, we played with a lot of energy,” he said.

“In the second half, we missed the jump from the kick off, I think they put one on us within the first five minutes.

“Then they had one go to the bin shortly after, and in that period we didn’t complete a set, we were very poor with the footy, so we missed that opportunity, which hurt us, and we ended up sharing the points.”

Kangaroos coach Zeik Foster set up a crucial second-half try in his return to fullback (Photo: Tahlia Crane)

Despite falling short of the victory, one positive for the home side was the performance of its new spine.

Foster said he was happy with the way the combination functioned, with another test looming this coming Saturday when the Roos welcome Gundagai to Geohex Park for the grand final rematch.

“I think that worked best for us, we have tweaked our spine a lot this year for different reasons, players in and out and just trialling a few things,” he said.

“Obviously we are a bit of a new-look spine this year with Zac Graham retiring and Rosey [Nathan Rose] gone to Southcity, so we were just tweaking a few things, but happy with the way it played out on the weekend.”

Young’s next task is a home date with Albury on Saturday.