Gale force winds, sleet & low single digit temperatures all greeted the 24 Guelph players on Saturday afternoon as they hosted the Ottawa Swans in round 1 of the OAFL 2010 competition.

The 2010 Gargoyles have had a successful recruitment campaign leading into the 2010 season and had to give 6 players the news Thursday night that they would not be strapping on the boots for round 1.  With 24 players only able to make the cut the 6 in question took the news well and helped out on game day running water and manning the interchange bench.

The coaching staff chose a team that included 4 rookies playing their first game and 2 Australians playing their first OAFL games on Canadian soil.  The balance of the team made up of players with a mixture of experience and youth.

The Swans won the toss and elected to go with the wind (and why wouldn’t they!)  With the ball up came the understanding that kicking into the wind was going to be a tough ask all day.  The Swans getting hold of the ball and sending it skywards to have the wind aid it into the forward line.  Defence held strong and it was only a throw in from the boundary that caught the wind and moved back onto the sideline that caught the Gargoyles off guard and gave the Swans a goal.  Guelph fought back moving the ball forward into the wind 5 metres at a time until they were able to convert a goal after many attempts from 30 metres out were held up by the wind and forced back into play.

Teams were close at the first quarter change when Guelph got the chance to go with the wind.  Obviously the Swans fearing the wind played 16 of their 18 players inside their own half to try and stem the advantage of the breeze making for a very congested goal area.  Guelph kicked some behinds as they struggled to contend with the breeze blowing the ball off target at the last minute.  The Swans were swarming the contested ball as marks were not easy to come by in the wet, windy conditions.  Guelph was starting to assert their dominance by the end of the quarter figuring out what needed to be done to win the ball and get it into the forward line effectively.  Half time saw Guelph leading  24 –12.

With the 3^rd quarter underway Guelph really started to push the Swans.  Although going against the wind the team propelled the ball forward with Scotty Rowe working hard across the middle of the ground combining with the forward line to put pressure on the Swans defence.  Eventually although going against the wind, which had now backed off from 50 odd knots to about 35-40 the pressure was too much.  Some nice play from Carl O’Brien out of the back line set up Scott Rowe who kicked one that bent into the wind and straight through the uprights giving the Gargoyles a lift and setting the stage for what was to follow.  The goals posts got in the road of 2 or 3 more attempts as the clock ticked down and the Gargoyles piled on the points.

The final quarter saw 17 Swans players in their half where the ball stayed much to the dismay of fullback Daniel Murray who was virtually snap frozen watching the quarter from a distance.  16 year old first gamer Mark Cianfagna bagged himself a great goal out of a heavy pack of Swans as he pounced on a loose ball.  The Guelph pressure stayed on all quarter as they overran the Swans, multi goal kicker Ben Roberts was robbed of another as his kick hit the goal post and added to the behind tally.  Rookie Mike McKee came of the ground with a knee injury after taking a great mark but landing awkwardly and will likely have a spell on the sidelines for a month or 2 as he recovers.  Jason Fox took some nice marks to steady play as did Travis Doyle and the Gargoyles ran away with it ending up with a not so great accuracy record of 8.15.63 defeating the Swans 2.1.13 keeping the Swans to a behind for the second half of the game.

Best for Guelph were: Rodney Ireland, Nathan Millar, Matt Bannon, Scott Rowe, Adam Millen, Benjamin Roberts & Carl O’Brien.

Round 2 sees the team taking on the Etobicoke Kangaroos.  The return of some key players to the lineup is sure to make things interesting as Matt Newark comes back into the ruck & Daniel Hodgkin to the forward line.  Rookies are likely to figure prominently in the game as well with Barry Rooke, Daniel Hussey & Ryan McLaughlin all looking to cement themselves into the teams playing lineup.

Medical Room:

Greg Logel – Ankle (4-6 weeks) Pre-season injury

Mike McKee – Knee (4-8 weeks)