Grand Final Roswell v Midtown 5/21/11

Roswell Rebels vs Midtown Bombers 5/21/2011

Some might call it an upset and, if you look at the regular season, I’d have to agree. But on Saturday, the Midtown Bombers had a fairly simple game plan and stuck to it for the whole game; deny Roswell’s gun forward, Chris Moerman, the ball. The result was a 27 point win over the Roswell Rebels in the Carpetcare AARFL Grand Final.

It was a fierce contest from the beginning with both sides wanting the trophy. Moerman, guarded closely by Carson Olsheski, got Roswell on the board early, but after that, the supply dried up. Midtown dominated the ruck, with Russ Barner getting the better of James Noonan. Simon Davis took advantage of this dominance and moved the ball forward to Josh Trombley and Jansen Deloach. Midtown’s normal full-forward, Olsheski, was now was sticking like glue to Moerman and this proved to be the key to Midtown’s victory. Moerman never got an easy mark and was constantly harassed by Olsheski. In Midtown’s two victories over Roswell this year, they’ve kept Moerman to 6 goals or less. Today he got 5 and it was not enough to get his team to the winner’s podium.

With Moerman under duress, it was more of an even contest and Midtown slowly got the upper hand over Roswell. With Davis running all over the ground, Trombley kicking some valuable goals and Captain Joey Costyn breaking through to kick 2 valuable goals. Midtown slowly pulled away from their opposition to end up 27 points in front at the final whistle.

Costyn was awarded the Best Player on the ground, but it could have easily gone to several other Midtown players, Davis being the most notable.

For Roswell, they’ll feel let down because they were the dominant team during the regular season, but couldn’t produce when it mattered. Having only themselves to blame for not adjusting to Midtown’s game plan, they will have to wait until next season to come up with alternatives.

For Midtown, they reap the benefit of working out how to stop the league’s leading goal scorer and then having the all round game to take home the prize - the Carpetcare AARFL Cup.

Final Scores:

Midtown 15.10 (100) to Roswell 10.13 (73)

Goalscorers:

Midtown: Davis 5, Trombley 3, Costyn 2, Crist 1, Cain 1, Gross 1, Deloach 1, Barner 1

Roswell: Moerman 5, Noonan 1, Thrash 1, Searle 1, Rosenfield 1, Garofalo 1

Best players:

Midtown: Costyn, Davis, Jones, Barner, Olsheski, Sidabras

Roswell: Noonan, Thrash, Moerman, Schierholz, Garofalo