Look Of The Irish Has Pies Smiling

The Age

Saturday February 17, 2007

By SAMANTHA LANE, SYDNEY

COLLINGWOOD has had early success with Irish teenager Martin Clarke, who played an impressive first match of AFL football last night against a club whose punt on Tadhg Kennelly paid dividends long ago.

Former Bomber Ted Richards starred in the practice match played at North Sydney Oval, which was won by the Swans but used by both clubs primarily to trial youngsters and little-knowns. Sydney forward Adam Schneider, one of the few senior Swans fielded in the game, was a casualty.

Schneider, who played in last year's international rules series, limped from the ground clutching his left hamstring.

A scare went through the Magpies camp during the second term when Rhyce Shaw, who bounded back well from a knee reconstruction last season, left the field gingerly. But by the third term, he was back in business, narrowly missing a shot at goal that he took from a wing.

Otherwise, it was a night for the 9500-odd fans to imagine the future of the two clubs - most exciting, for Collingwood, that of a former teenage star of Gaelic football, now an international rookie in line to play a NAB Cup game next week. At 182 centimetres, Clarke was used predominantly on the ball, but also down back, and looked more than composed with the oval ball.

"We were really pleased with Marty, really pleased," Collingwood assistant coach Gavin Brown said after the game.

"He was probably the standout from the point of view that he had never played a game of Aussie rules before.

"It just showed that he has an enormous amount of will and want, and he had put in a lot of hard work. It was fantastic for him today, a good step.

"After tonight's performance, he has certainly put himself in contention (for NAB Cup selection next week), no doubt about that."

Filling the position of Sydney's No. 1 forward, Barry Hall was Richards. He provided a non-stop opening-quarter highlight, kicking each of his side's four goals for that term and finishing the match with a bag of five. All but one of Richards' majors were the products of strong marks taken outside the 40-metre arc.

Richards' February flourish made for quite an initiation for young defender Ben Reid, Collingwood's first pick of the last national draft. Reid spent most of his opening quarter of football in a black and white jumper chasing tail.

Collingwood, facing life without Chris Tarrant, used supersized youngster Sean Rusling at full-forward and third-year player Travis Cloke at centre half-forward. Cloke kicked three majors, all considerable distance from goal, and was his side's best performer.

"He was very pleasing," Brown said of Rusling, who was knocked late but cleared of injury.

Former Docker Paul Medhurst had stints in each quarter familiarising himself with a new attacking line-up, but had an uneventful outing.

It was an unconventional game in more ways than one.

The clubs swapped teamsheets days before the game, Sydney's senior coach wasn't even in the coach's box (Paul Roos put assistant John Longmire in the hot seat), 15-man sides were played, Collingwood had a 13-man bench and the first two quarters were 20 minutes long without time-on.

The next two lasted only 15 minutes each so the Magpies could get their plane home to Melbourne last night.

DETAILS

SYDNEY: 4.1 6.3 9.4 10.6 (66)

COLLINGWOOD: 2.3 3.6 6.7 7.9 (51)

GOALS

Sydney: Richards 5, Schneider, Mathews, White, Dempster, Currie. Collingwood: Cloke 3, Cook, Dick, Burns, Reid.

BEST

Sydney: Mathews, Malceski, Dempster, Richards, White, Bevan. Collingwood: Cloke, Johnson, O'Brien, Rusling, Cook, Dick.

INJURIES

Sydney: Schneider (hamstring), Moore (ankle).

UMPIRES: Head, Kamolins, Ryan.

CROWD: 9560 at North Sydney Oval.

© 2007 The Age

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