Macksville High School’s Under-14 Buckley Shield team have charged into the State semi-finals after an epic battle with Morisset High on Friday, August 20.
A game that went from end to end with brilliant defence, both teams saw the score locked at 6-all at full-time.
Ben Suckling, in one of his many dominating runs, was the first-half try scorer.
Morisset were a big team, with a number of talented players.
Defensively, we were pushed to the limit, yet as a team we stood together and were able to hold them out until the last few minutes of real-time. Our little guys, Jai, Darren, TJ and Dylan defended brilliantly against kids twice their size.
In extra-time, Morisset went ahead almost immediately, scoring a try and converting it to take the lead in the game 12-6.
This was the motivation our boys needed and within minutes Ben Suckling threw a flick pass out to Jake Capell, who scored out wide near the sideline.
Billy Hennessey composed himself to convert the try, against a background of 900 Morisset fans who were jeering at him as him came into kick. The scoreline read 12-all and our boys knew it was time to step up and take control of the game again.
The forwards, led by Captain Daneil Donovan were brilliant.
They continued to run the ball up hard and fast, and lined up each set to take the ball forward.
Stuart Mason and Jake Capell were relentless in their ball running.
The pressure paid off and, shortly before the end of the first-half of extra-time, Ben Suckling broke through the defensive line to score our third try, converted by Billy to take the lead 18-12.
In the second-half of extra-time, the message was very clear. Defence was everything, and we had to play mistake free football.
Again the leadership shown by Daneil Donovan in this last ten minutes was inspirational. He was involved in just about every tackle, and took the first hit up, just about every time.
The boys scrambled frantically in defence, and Morisset were unable to find any answers to their prayers.
Every member of our squad played a huge role in Friday’s win.
Keith Donovan squeezed every ounce of
energy he had out of his body. He was down and wounded many times in the game, but just got up and went again.
Our players took lots of motivation from
watching Keith’s contribution to his teams’ victory. Damian Carriage looked dangerous every time he got the ball, and was unlucky not to score.
TJ Welsh at fullback, was incredible. For a
little bloke, he showed amazing courage as he was continually put under high balls by Morisset High, then gang tackled by three players every time he brought the ball back up.
Our play makers, Jai Doolan, Darren Liebe, Dylan Stewart and Kade Spear set a great platform for our forwards to work off.
They also threw themselves into tackles without any thought of self preservation.
Both our wingers, Nigel Robinson and Max Blanch, were put under mighty pressure, and both unfortunately succumbed to injury during the match.
Our bench were heavily relied on to plug the holes, as a number of players were brought off with injury. Kade Spear, with limited game time under his belt over the last few weeks, stepped in and took a lot of pressure off our forwards once on the field.
Stuart Mason, Tai Kelly and Aaron Shrubb all spent a lot of time on the field and slotted into their positions without the team losing any momentum. All three of these boys were involved in high pressure try saving tackles and bombs that helped cement our win.
The team would again like to thank Danny Doolan for his invaluable preparation and guidance that has seen us play some outstanding footy to date.
We also would like to thank the staff at Morisset Outdoor Experience where we stayed on the Thursday. They were absolutely fantastic in welcoming us and providing for us in the lead up to the game.
We don’t believe we are finished yet, and our focus is now on making it to that state final.
We are hoping the Nambucca Valley will be there to watch us get to the final game in this competition.
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