The Lakeshore Rebels traveled down the 403 to Hamilton on Saturday with a depleted team and through some major traffic to an awaiting Wildcats squad. After some negotiation and after the entire team arrived, all 15 of them, the terms were set for a battle of 17 Wildcats vs 15 Rebels. Coach Monty not pleased with the Hamilton team playing to our disadvantage set the stage for would be the Rebels greatest quarter of the year. Having been a slow starting team for most of the season in the first quarter the Rebels took advantage of a full side last week against the league leaders Roos and fought hard to maintain an even keel for the quarter. Determined to not let the first quarter ghosts of Rebels past haunt them again the team came out strong with serious defensive strategy that left only 2 Rebels in the forward lines. With a mighty beat of the Rebels massive team Heart we managed to come out of the first quarter even with the Wildcats at 1 behind each. A beautiful quarter that was dominated time after time by Rebels hitting the ball first, smashing their opponents hard, and perfect ball movement up the corridors, coach Monty said "with a full side I truly believe we would have really taken it to the Hamilton side, they were not prepared for our determination and commitment this quarter and it showed all over the field" Too bad footy is 4 quarters long.

 The second quarter saw the Hamilton side use their greater numbers to get the ball deep in our backline. Again long time veteran and team leader Sean Duffy lead the backline  and new additions like Rookie player Derrick, teamed up with Burger, who with a full 2 racks of ribs in his stomach, crushed attack after attack. Ruck Chris Behie had yet another great game with a dominating performance with ball ups against a larger ruckman. 80% of the wins came from Chris and with a delicate hand put the ball directly in the hands of Fabs who then delivered it down the field. Tamma being the sneaky guy he is was positioned in places that seemed impossible but continually came down with mark after mark delivered off to boot of our fearless Captain. Species who as many of you know has been requested by Coach Monty to go out and Clean up the Hamilton side was ready for his role, and when I say clean I don not refer to his likeness of the famous Cartoon Spokesman on the Lemon smelling cleaner. The Rebels came out of this quarter down by 2 goals.  

The third saw the Wildcats use there extra men to an advantage, with attack after attack  through the middle and with snipers kicking goals from over 40 meters out the backline was taken out of the game. There was a few great tackles from different Rebels all over the field on their 2  attacking Aussies but in the end they were too much to handle.

 The fourth was again as it has been many times 20 minutes of honor from the Rebels. We came out and smashed and hit and were first to the ball all day, that didn’t change just because the scoreboard showed differently. Great hits from Frogga who was playing half the field, great leads from Kevin Duffy who had the impossible job of taking marks when being triple teamed, great coverage from Fraser and Bobby who seemed to run all day long and still contribute to the play as well as the Hamilton forwards getting hammered everytime they came within THE DUFFYS VIEW showed that even with only 15 guys on the field the Rebels are a team that has grown, and will continue to never give up until the glory days return and we bring home a winning season. "The Guys never gave up, they never held their heads down low, they fought and fought for 80 full minutes and boys you should be proud of that" said the Teams head Coach Monty Burns.

Good going Rebels, it was a step in the right direction playing a full 80 minutes.

Also, we would like to thanks Chucky and the boys for having us back to their local in Hamilton for some pints and great food specials.  The hits continued off the field with some intense verbal combat.  OUCH!