AFL is played in China, who would have thought? | Thebigtip

Before we launch into what is the true 'game of the centrury' in China.  You can take a sneak peak at the last 5 minutes of the 2010 SHAFL Grand Final game.

Below is a match report provided by the winning team The Eagles.

Okay, where do I start? Firstly, I want to say thank you for everyone who put on the Eagles’ jumper and gave their all every single time whether we won or lost.

It was a great season with us winning our first 4 games in confident style; I think we can all agree that without Jason ‘Superboot’ Grant kicking his 16 goals that the results might have been a little bit different. However, like every successful team we are not defined by one individual but by a collective of players who all share the same goal of becoming the first premiers of a league that looks like it will only get bigger in the future.

Unfortunately round 3 wasn’t as good as we lost both games. The first against the Crows was a little one sided with the Crows getting off to early lead that we just couldn’t get back. With their new recruits Sam and Grant adding some much needed height for them and Grant being a natural to the game we just couldn’t be as dominant in the middle as usually.

Game 2 was a little better but the Dockers like the Crows had a point to make against us and for a while there they were certainly doing it. Unfortunately our tempers got the better of us with Heath letting fly at the umpire only to find out that he’d given us the free kick. Tink was having his usually relationship with Shane (umpire) and was threatened to be sin binned. And who could forget my little outburst (to this day I still don’t where that came from); I not sure what surprised everyone- the yelling or the fact that I took myself out of the field.

But after all the shouting, a confused call (did Heath mark it or not mark it) and a goal that put us in front; only to be called back which lead to the Dockers kicking a goal and us to losing by 2 points.

Overall, not our best round of footy but we had done enough to earn a spot in the grand final which would lead the Dockers and Crows to battle it out before facing us.

With 4 weeks to wait, an International game, no full forward and the Manila Cup before the Grand Final we had some serious soul searching to do. Along comes the 12th June 2010 the day of the inaugural SHAFL premiership with the Crows and Dockers facing off to battle the minor premiers- the Eagles.

The preliminary final started off at furious pace with the Dockers having most the ball up their end but without much success. Once the Crows found their feet they were able to convert their opportunities into goals and by half time they had kicked 6 goals to 2. Even though the scoreboard look a little one sided the Crows were forced to dig deep and the second half they wouldn’t be able to slow down.

The second half began and the Crows continued to score at will; which for the Eagles meant that they were able to rest some of their key players who were carrying some injuries. By the end of the game the Crows had again kicked 6 goals to the Dockers 1.

Now comes the Grand Final, the Crows even though they had won convincingly had to fight hard to get the win. As a team the Eagles had decided if we won the toss we would kick with the wind in order to get a strong lead forcing the Crows to play catch up footy.
In all our encounters with the Crows they had always gotten off to a fast start kicking at least 2 goals before we would kick our first. Our plan was to have Brodes, Tink and Abbo in the middle and get the ball either into the forward line or kick a goal through the middle. Collo had the unlucky task of tagging Sanga (who by the end of the game ended up being one of the most dominant players of the final).

The toss was done and we won and everything looks like its going our way. The ball asw bounced and before we knew it the Crows have won the bounce, got it out of the middle with considerable ease and had kicked the first goal within the first minute of the game- not exactly how we had planned. But that’s okay, the most important thing is that we stick with the plan and not lose focus.