AFL players and fans from the coast, Canberra and the Snowy Mountains have come together again for a successful final pre-season hit out in the annual Cooma Cats Cup played last Saturday in Cooma (19 March 2011).
Club president Dave Paterson said this year’s event, the third of its type, was another great effort by the Cooma Cats in staging a significant AFL carnival here on the Monaro.
“In the scheme of things, the Cooma Cats are a small footy club and run by a handful of passionate people keen to keep AFL alive in the region.
“And then to be able to bring a showcase event like this to the community with over 200 players and fans coming to Cooma to play in a knock-out competition as a key part of their final pre-season training program makes you proud to be associated with the club,” Dave said.
The Cooma Cats play in the Canberra AFL fourth division, yet participating clubs from Canberra used the opportunity to bring a mixture of fourth and third division players to hone their skills in the demanding knock-out format of the competition.
Around Eighteen modified games were played by the teams on two ovals at Nijong throughout the day.
“We saw some great football from the guys and girls taking part, and I’m sure the clubs will take away some good lessons for their coming seasons,” Dave said.
“And having a large number of third division players in the competition this year really lifted the standard of footy on display, making it very entertaining to watch,” Dave said.
As for the Cats, while they didn’t take the cup on the day, coach Damien Asanovski was happy with the efforts of his players.
“We managed two have a good win over Tuggeranong in one of our pool matches which was encouraging, and it gave our blokes their first real hit out before the season starts on April 2 (at Snowy Oval),” Damien said.
“And through our strong relationship with the Woden Blues Football Club, who play in the third division competition in Canberra, we managed to incorporate a number of their experienced players into the Cats’ team for the carnival which challenged and lifted the local blokes in a positive way,” he said.
The eventual winners of the Cooma Cats Cup for 2011 were Belconnen who narrowly defeated Tuggeranong in a thrilling final.
The days also saw three of the AFL Canberra Women’s League teams (Belconnen, Tuggeranong & Queanbeyan) come down to Cooma to play a series of practice games throughout the course of the day.
The Men’s teams who took part were: Cooma, Woden, Ainslie, Belconnen, Tuggeranong and Tathra.
Dave praised all the Cooma Cats officials, supporters and sponsors who supported the club in staging this year’s Cooma Cats Cup.
“It’s not always easy keeping a footy team on the field with the ever increasing costs associated with community sport, so to have the support we do have is much appreciated,” Dave said.
Last Modified on 08/04/2011 22:30