We had a great turn-up at the NSW Carnival with 22 brave Redbacks fronting for this State Competition. We looked fantastic with our full strip – shorts with Redbacks logo, carnival guernseys and black socks. Best looking team on the park by far! We had our banner on display under the picnic shelter and plenty of wives and kids as well. The weather was great until about 12:30, when we all spent about 15 minutes sheltering behind Ray and various other windbreaks when the wind and rain became bothersome for a while. Anyway, about the football……….

There were representatives from North West Redbacks, Sydney Rocks, Camden Wombats, Central Coast Phoenix, Bathurst Bushrangers, Newcastle, Central West, Illawarra, Wagga and ACT in attendance and the football was fast and furious. We played our first game against a very fit and tall Sydney Rocks team – who went on to win the day. The first half was fairly even with lots of hard fought ball from the centre being cut off at their half back line by their taller men. Much of the game was played in the centre of the field and I think we all had plenty of touches around the ground. The backs worked very hard with JJ, Jason, Rowdy and Rob fighting hard again and again to repel the Rocks. I will name everyone later, but suffice it to say, everyone put in 100% in both the games and represented the Redbacks with great honour and looked great doing it.

The second game was played after a 2 hour break in which time one of the very unfortunate Central Coast players broke his leg right in front of us. The poor bloke was playing hard at the ball against a very determined opponent playing equally as hard at it, and bang! Much pain and a long rehab. Great commitment guys! Luckily the only serious injury of the day, I think.

Back to that second match! We played Central Coast in another tight and hard fought match. It was more fun than the first game, as we had played these bloke recently in a friendly and we were more evenly matched. The scores went back and forth and the rivalry was more friendly. Again all the Redbacks contributed well and we all had plenty of the ball.

The inaugural NSW Carnival trophy was won by Sydney Rocks. A beautiful 4cm thick Red Gum plague in the shape of NSW was presented to the winners, which the Redbacks covet for next year. Thanks to NSW AFL Masters for putting on a great day.

As for the Redbacks, well done guys! We looked like an professional outfit, with our banner and our polo shirts. We put our full strip on with guernseys, shorts and socks all matching and we looked and behaved like a team of mates and, I don’t know about you, but I felt like a team too. With a couple more seasons together and maybe a few more of you tall guys turning up for the carnivals and we will be a force to reckon with.

Now, the Redbacks Warriors who represented our club at the NSW Carnival for 2010 are;

Jerome Jones, Neil McCall, Rob Watkins, Daryle Roberts, Tony Nixon, Rodney Vinnecombe, Ray McConnell, John Reece(C), Paul Smith, Brett Arnold, Shane Sweep, Les Cass, John Marsden, Steve Sheil, Tim McNab, Matt Smith, Tim Costello, Chris Brown, Phil Scandizzo, Lui Lister, Jason Toman and Tom Woodrow. Thank you also Jeff Clark (Newcastle) for help in the ruck in the second game (sorry about Lui).

You were fine ambassadors for our budding club and played well above your weight on the day. Thank you for captaining and leading us by your fine example of playing very hard at the ball and supporting your team mates to the extreme, John Reece. The best of our players, as decided by the majority of our team mates, was presented to Daryle Roberts by the NSW President. He seems to find space all over the ground and is so unselfish with the ball that he tries to make the rest of us look as good as he is.The Mug of The Day goes to Lui Lister. Although he fought hard all day and is a fine football player, with good speed and fine hands and he hardly made a mistake all day. If only he hadn’t tackled the shit out of our own ruckman, loosing possession for us at a very critical stage in the game.