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OCLife | sporting life with ANTHONY BARBA-

WESTERN PREMIER LEAGUE: Round 10 action — PHOTOS STEVE COWLEY —

Orana and Barnies play out 2-2 thriller

Barnstoneworth United had to settle for a 2-2 draw against Orana Spurs on Saturday after a wonder goal in the last 25 minutes prevented the visitors from picking up a famous victory in Dubbo.

It was Barnies’ second consecutive visit to the Orana region, having defeated Macquarie United 4-2 in the previous round. As for Orana Spurs, the seventh-placed side was looking to make amends after a lacklustre performance and 5-0 loss to Dubbo Bulls in the derby, and round eight’s 1-1 draw with Lithgow.

Orana struggled to find rhythm in the contest’s opening stages, exposing them to Barnstoneworth’s dangerous forwards on the counter. The visitors opened the scoring in the eighth minute after Charlie Ross pounced on a defensive mistake and dazzled his way forward to cooly dispatch his shot into the bottom corner of the net. The Barnies’ striker also teased his opponents by running over to the corner flag and emulating a small “Cristiano Ronaldo” goal-scoring celebration.

But from here on, things became interesting with the game opening up and providing end-to-end action for the spectators. Orana’s highpressing style constantly threatened the visitors’ unsettled backline and the Spurs soon equalised in the 23rd

minute when their striker pressured the Barnstoneworth keeper, forcing a costly error, before tapping the ball into an empty net.

The visitors kept pushing forward and regained the lead a couple of minutes before halftime. Rowan Edwards got on the end of a delightful cross and headed his shot past the Orana goalkeeper to put Barnies up 2-1.

A re-energised Orana Spurs came into the second half with more intensity, stepping up their game in the final third. The riskier game-plan constantly left the back door open for Barnies to score, but their strikers lacked that clinical edge to close the game. Despite making an error in the first half, Barnies’ goalkeeper Marcus Tieppo produced a fantastic save from a free-kick to keep his side’s slender lead.

But after constantly knocking on the door, Orana finally found their equaliser in the 65th minute after one of their playmakers scored off a long-range effort. The fourth goal was a testament to this entertaining spectacle, hopefully enhancing the Western Premier League’s reputation across the Central West.

This draw sees Barnies drop four points behind fourth-placed Dubbo Bulls. But the red-and-whites will have the chance to close that gap when they host the Bulls in Round 11.

CYMS earn first WPL point after stalemate with Mudgee Wolves A brave performance by Orange CYMS saw them clinch their first point of the season after a scoreless draw against Mudgee Wolves on Saturday afternoon at the Glen Willow Regional Sports Stadium.

This match-up couldn’t have come at the perfect time, as both sides were desperate to record their first victory of the 2022 campaign. CYMS also came into this bottom-of-the-table clash with zero points, so the stakes couldn’t have been higher.

CYMS goalkeeper Joseph Kay, who played right-back for this game, said he is incredibly proud that his side earned their first point of the season.

“It was a gritty performance from us, especially after travelling with a squad of 12 and only nine regular WPL team members. So to get the point on the road was a really great effort. It’s also pleasing to get our first clean-sheet; our defence has recently improved, and it is finally paying off,” Joseph said.

44 ORANGE CITY LIFE | JUNE 16 — 22, 2022

sporting life | OCLife

Western Premier League: Round 10 action

JUNE 16 — 22, 2022 | ORANGE CITY LIFE 45

OCLife | sporting life

Western Premier League: Round 10 action — PHOTOS STEVE COWLEY —

Experience helps Waratahs get past Macquarie United test Resilience and experience were the key factors that helped Waratahs defeat a tough Macquarie United 2-0 on Saturday night at Victoria Park, Dubbo.

found the equaliser in the 29th minute when a looping cross reached their striker, who headed the ball inches over the crossbar.

The Tahs were keen to return to their winning ways after dropping two points in a 3-3 draw against second-placed Bathurst ‘75 in Round Nine. Macquarie United came into this contest in poor form, hoping to snap their four-game losing streak and cause an upset against the competition’s highest goalscoring side.

With the first half coming to a close, Macquarie again nearly levelled the score, off a free-kick that just curled above the crossbar.

Macquarie looked threatening inside the first 10 minutes, posing some questions at the back for the visitors. But after the hosts’ small spell of domination, Waratahs started to settle into the game.

Macquarie almost found the net several times, but Waratahs shocked their opponents in the 25th minute, scoring the opener from an intelligent counterattack. Exceptional dribbling from the Tahs’ winger allowed him to send in a low cross into the box that found the feet of star striker Guy Burgess, who tucked the ball into the net.

With Waratahs 1-0 up, Macquarie ramped up their attack and almost

After the break, Waratahs picked up the intensity and started taking over the possession, their experienced midfielders holding up the play. Guy Burgess almost scored his brace in the 65th minute, but the striker’s shot rolled wide of the right post.

Macquarie began to run out of steam in the last 20 minutes and the visitors made them pay after a lapse in concentration off a set-play in the 75th minute. Veteran forward, Craig Sugden, doubled Tahs’ lead when he scored a flying header off a corner.

Waratahs closed the game by keeping calm at the back and using their tactical advantage to hold onto possession. This victory sees the Tahs leapfrog Bathurst ‘75 and move into second spot in the Western Premier League standings.

46 ORANGE CITY LIFE | JUNE 16 — 22, 2022

sporting life | OCLife with ANTHONY BARBAGALLO

BARRACKER THE

Finals footy still on the radar for

ORANGE HAWKS

The Orange Hawks have had a rollercoaster journey in the first half of their 2022 Peter McDonald Premiership season. Despite fielding a relatively newlook side this year, the two-blues still hold high hopes they can defy the odds and find themselves in the finals at end the season.

All the momentum was with the Hawks early in the season. Their explosive football and talented playmakers caught many by surprise. But after starting with three-straight wins — including the two victories against Group 11’s Dubbo CYMS and Nyngan Tigers in the crossover rounds — the young Hawks faced fresh challenges and it led to an inconsistent run of results.

Coach Shane Rodney says it was largely injuries that derailed his team off this incredible early run.

“We started the season really well, and we even went down to the wire with CYMS in the derby loss in round four. But our inconsistent form was mainly caused by a few injuries and sickness, which often left us in a position where we struggled to fill in a full side. You can’t make excuses, though it’s these issues that immediately disrupted our good form,” Shane said.

During the challenging period, between rounds five and six, the Hawks endured a 46-4 thumping by the Bathurst Panthers and lost 28-16 to St Pat’s. While not able to field their top 17 in both these games, Shane explains that his players still showed tremendous fight and unity through this hardship.

“Even though it was disappointing to lose these games, it was still positive to see that the players were giving it their best to compete and carry out their jobs against tough opponents throughout this difficult moment,” Shane said.

After sliding from second to outside the top-four in the Group 10 pool, the Hawks really needed a win when they hosted last-placed Lithgow Workies in round seven. The two-blues may have struggled in certain moments throughout the game, but they were able to grind out a hard-

fought victory and gain two crucial points to get their season back on track.

The match also saw the team play attacking-style football again, along with maintaining a higher completion rate.

The three-time Group 10 champions recently enjoyed a team bye and a general bye over the long weekend. Shane says that this valuable rest has given the team time to refocus and rediscover their mojo before making a finals push in the second half of the season.

“The byes we’ve had now come at a good time so that the players can freshen up and reflect on past performances before the next game against the Bathurst Panthers,” Shane said.

“We played some great footy at the start of the season due to getting the basics right, and I think this will be important in the back end of the season.”

The Hawks still have to take on Group 10 leaders Mudgee Dragons before facing Parkes Spacemen and Forbes Magpies in their other two tricky crossover fixtures.

But, according to Shane, team unity is one of the other vital factors that will help the two-blues successfully navigate their way through the next eight rounds of the campaign.

“We got a really good group of players this year. There’s a nice blend of youth and experience that gives this team a special bond, and this is just as important as it makes no individual above anyone else,” he said.

“If we can replicate the team and fighting spirit, like in the games against Orange CYMS and Dubbo CYMS, then I’m sure we can get more wins than losses. Our goal is to reach the finals and test our abilities against some of the competition’s toughest sides,” Shane concluded.

The Hawks currently sit in fourth place with 10 points, wedged between some top-sides and St Pat’s breathing down their neck.

“The Shark’s” world golf tour could be a reality, 30-years on Greg Norman is a singular sportsman and individual.

It’s easy now to forget how — in the pre-Tiger Woods 1980s and 1990s — he strode the world golfing stage with athletic good looks like a latter-day Jack Nicklaus, whose records many thought he could match.

Like Woods, he also had the perfect sporting moniker, “The Great White Shark”, or simply “The Shark”.

This was apparently in reference to his thatch of blonde hair, aquiline appearance, and his casual comment to an American reporter once that he had dived with sharks in Queensland as a child and, occasionally, later despatched them with shotguns when they had tangled his fishing lines.

Prodigiously talented with a singular sense of destiny matched with a ferociously long fairway drive and impeccable cool around the greens, he took his talent to the United States, home of world golf, where he finished fourth in the US Masters at his first try in 1981. A result which was, before Woods, an almost unparalleled achievement.

He spent nearly six-and-a-half years, 331 weeks in total, as the world’s number one player but, due to a mix of bad luck and a seeming inability to curtail his aggressive shot-making even when leading by half a dozen strokes, only ever won two “majors”.

These were the British Opens of 1986 and 1993, which were punctuated by an agonising eight second-places in which one-hit wonders like Larry Mize and Bob Tway seemingly robbed him of his due with incredible one-in-a-million offthe-green chips that miraculously went straight in.

In what became a sort of emblem of his fate in major tournaments, British golfer Nick Faldo famously hugged him after he had let slip a six-hole lead on the last day of the 1996 US Masters — probably the world’s premier tournament — to lose to Faldo by an amazing five shots over 18 holes.

While it’s inappropriate to describe a sporting melt-down of this kind as “a tragedy”, it was hard not to feel sorry seeing a grown man almost in tears after what golfers call “a choke” of the highest order in front of millions of television fans.

Yet as an individual, he was not an easy person to sympathise with. Soon after relocating to America, he began to affect an unattractive mid-western drawl becoming, in many ways, “more American than the Americans”.

Returning to Australia only to play when the “appearance money” — paid whether he performed on the course or not — suited his bank balance, he began to lecture his home country on its many shortcomings.

Australia was too socialist, not competitive enough, Aussies didn’t appreciate their champions like the Americans did, and we all had a “tall poppy” chip on our shoulders.

For someone who learned his trade on many publicly owned and rate-payer funded golf courses in the back-blocks of Queensland, this seemed a bit rich.

Australia is one of the few countries in the world where golf is a massparticipation sport open to almost everybody.

Council-owned golf courses for working-class duffers dot even our poorest suburban and rural locations in a sport almost totally reserved for the rich urban elites elsewhere in the world.

One of our liberal broadsheets hilariously once hit on the idea of having Norman write a column when he was back here for one of his brief sojourns, soon dropping the series when, in his first effort, he basically told readers unhappy at his playing golf professionally in Apartheid-era South Africa, to get stuffed.

Norman though, did perform one act of sporting courage by, in 1994, pitching an idea for a World Golf Tour involving eight events with $3 million purses for the top 40 players in the rankings.

Grovelling American reporters and sponsors, soon turned on their previous hero and cheerleader, at the thought of the US losing its position as the home of professional golf.

Nearly 30-years later, world-class golfers now greedily signing up for the Saudi-backed LIV Golf Tour, can thank Norman — head of the breakaway league — for being the first No.1 player to challenge America’s right to “own” this international sport.

Nelson Mandela he may not be, but it is something…

JUNE 16 — 22, 2022 | ORANGE CITY LIFE 47