Roos enjoy first-up win

AFL: The Aussie Hotel Yass Roos came away from their first game of 2016 with a big win over Woden Blues.

Conditions were just about perfect at Joe O’Connor Park last Saturday and the Roos made the most of the weather and the home ground advantage.

The final score had Yass 22-8-140 to Woden 9-7-61 and this pretty much reflected the progress of the match.

The Roos led at every change and outscored Woden in each quarter to continue to extend their lead.

Woden had a couple of key players that challenged the Yass defenders but they were too few in number to seriously trouble the Roos.

With quality players in each area of the field the Roos were difficult to stop and they made regular forays into their forward line.

In a refreshing break from usual form the Roos were also quite accurate in front of goal and made the most of their trips into the forward fifty.

It has been a long time since the Roos could boast a 22 goal scorecard with only eight behinds.

With good targets like Shane Lees (5 goals) at Full Forward and Steve O’Brien (6 goals)at Centre Half Forward the path to goal was easy for the Roos attack.

Cam Attwell at Forward Pocket and Ben MaCallum from Half Forward Flank contributed three goals each while Daniel Smith added two and Ben Serafin along with new players Heath Lowry and James Gray got one each.

Best players included Ben Serafin, Steve O’Brien, Tom Hanson, James Gray, Daniel Smith and Toby Serafin.

The only downside for the Roos was Ben McCallum being reported for rough conduct when a hip and shoulder bump contacted the Woden player too high.

Hopefully the penalty won’t be too harsh and Ben will back on the field soon.

Although at this stage of the season it means little, the Roos are in second place on the ladder behind the Tuggeranong Hawks.

ANU Griffins, UC Magpies, Ainslie Tricolours and ADFA/RMC Rams make up the rest of the top six.

Next weekend the Roos take a trip to the coast to take on the Batemans Bay Seahawks.

The match starts at 12 noon at Hanging Rock Oval just off the beach so why not make a day of it and take in the footy as well as enjoy some sea air and a trip to the beach.

I’ll see you at the footy.

 – The Fox Terrier