Pics from the Brumbies Provincial Championships and also a write up about the South Coast side from the Batemans bay Post
http://www.batemansbaypost.com.au/s...vincial-championships-at-batemans-bay/?cs=228
If there was one thing coach Matt Ryan wanted from his South Coast Marlins team over the weekend, it was improvement on previous years.
Well, improvement was exactly what he got.
And Ryan insisted rock solid evidence of that improvement came on Monday when four Marlins were picked for the Brumbies Provincial squad – the most South Coast players picked in one year.
“You always like to think you can get more players picked but it’s probably a fair reflection of the three teams,” Ryan said.
“We definitely improved on the previous year, which was the aim and in the first game against Monaro, we probably weren’t too far off causing an upset there.
“So there were definitely positives to come out of both of the weekend’s games.
“Southern Inland were a very powerful, big bunch of blokes and for our guys to compete with them and even match them for large parts of the contest was a credit to them.”
However, Ryan also said the Marlins weren’t the only ones to improve from the 2012 tournament.
“The thing is, though, there’s been a big improvement in everyone,” he said.
“From last year, Southern Inland were very powerful again and an even stronger unit, and the same could probably even be said for Monaro.
“So for us to make up ground on them was very pleasing.”
The Marlins visibly lifted for the occasion at Hanging Rock Oval and even took a shock 14-10 half-time lead in their opening game against Monaro.
“We haven’t led at half-time in this competition for eight years now, so that was one box ticked off,” Ryan said.
“And we probably didn’t have as big a half-time lead as we deserved.”
South Coast eventually went down 34-17 in that match before being outclassed 43-nil against Southern Inland on Sunday.
Southern Inland defended their title with a 26-5 win over Monaro on Monday.
The Brumbies provincial team will face an Australian Combined Services team later in the year.