2003 Season - Cougars v Seattle June 21

Cougars fight back falls short

The Lead-Up

After a successful BC Cup defense only a few weeks earlier, a buoyant and confident Vancouver Cougar team loaded up into 5 minvans/SUV’s and made their way down to Seattle for yet another must win home and away game.

The early surprise was the level of supporters that turned up for the journey. At one stage it almost looked like they were going to outnumber the players. With a few late withdrawals, including a shock no show from the Big Irishman (who as was expected to make his usually last minute arrival straight from the pub from the night before), Cougar’s fill in SuperCoach, Guru Edmonds was seriously eyeing off some of the supporters as potential players. In the end, the 20 players who had arrived was considered enough of a team to get us by, and we were off.

The road train hit the first snag at the boarder crossing. With the convoy already running well behind schedule, a very upset little Boarder guard did not agree with Chops McGrath that a team split over 5 minivans constituted a “bus” and pointed an rather aggressive finger back at the hour long car line up. Not to be out played by this little upstart, a magnificent piece of cutting in by Blocky and Brendan saw all five vans cut 50 minutes of the queue and in no time we managed to slot through…

With a late arrival, the team was forced into a hasty preparation in order to get ready for game time. Under no circumstances did the team want Seattle to get away to a fast start like they did in the most recent H&A game in Langley.

The game

Unfortunately, that’s exactly what happened. Despite a slight drizzle, the ground was in good nick and the ball flowed well. From the opening bell, Seattle were firing all guns a blazing, achieving some magnificent linking work through the centre and plunking it on the chest of their man mountain full forward – Andrew Donlen. Locks Paquin was wearing him like a glove (a big glove), but could do nothing against such magnificent delivery. The Cougars had a couple of chances early but the Glamour Boy (clearly not having enough time to do his hair before the game), was slightly off and snagged a couple of behinds from easy set shots. The Cats were handling the small ground better than the Cougars and continuously drove the ball forward. The Backline were as always doing their thing to keep the ball out with B&F Coops, Morgs, Dave Taylor, Nelson and Blocky making some nice plays. However, the backline was thrown into some disarray when a mis-cued head butt by Chops McGrath landed on teammate Blocky’s nose causing him to go off with a bloody nose. Despite this, Fists was doing his bit through the centre to try and get the Cougars on the board.

At the end of the quarter, the Grizzlies lead 5.1.31 to the Cougars 0.3.9

Quarter 2

The 2nd quarter quickly turned into a war of attrition as the Cougars centre line start to dig in and play hard-at-the-nut footy. As always, Chops McGrath, Shine Edgar and Handyman Hilton were throwing their bodies into packs to try and scramble the ball out for the Cougars. Jim Utting was starting to fire up, and newboy Cam was proving he’ll be a player of the future, making sure he was getting amongst it. Still, Seattle would not let the ball penetrate the Cougars forward line and managed to maintain a sizeable lead at half time.

Grizzlies – 7.1.43 to Cougars 1.6.12

Quarter 3

What happened in the next quarter can simply be described, as Cougar brilliance at it’s best. Fill in Super Coach Guru Edmonds made two of his most tactical moves of the day by throwing in little used Glamour Boy Vargo into the Ruck and then putting himself to the Back Flank (after a lengthy 4 game lay-off due to a broken toe) to rejoin his partner in crime on the other flank - Coops. The move’s paid off instantly. Despite conceding at least 5 inches to Seattle’s big John, the “diminutive” 6’2 Vargo, started to dominate the tap out’s and Shiner, Col, Jimbo and Timmy lapped it up and pumped the ball deep into the forward line where Fists and another newcomer “Shiny Shorts” John Hoad were proving a handful. With the rigid backline repelling everything, it was the Cougars time to unleash some fury. Vargo banged a massive goal in through from the centre square which was quickly followed by a long snap from the boundary by Stratford. With additional goals to Skip Freeman and Nelson Ferret, the Cougars were on a rampage and went into 3 quarter time only 7 points down.

Grizzlies 7.3.45 to Cougars 5.8. 38.

Quarter 4

Seemingly on a roll, the Cougars went with the same lineup into the 4th quarter to try and put the Grizzlies away for good, but they were determined not to let there hard first half work go to waste. An early last quarter goal saw them sneak back up to a 13 point lead. The entire Cougars team was still giving their all, but the Seattle resilience was still strong. Yet, some magnificent work out of the backline and the centre saw Skip Freeman slot one home and The Wiz got a deserving free after some great body-on-body work to score his first ever goal in Cougars colours. With a few minutes to go, the crowd was going ballistic as the Cougars got it within 2 points. However, it was not to be their day, as the Grizzlies steadied for another late goal, and the game was theirs.

Final Score – Grizzlies – 9.8.62 to Cougars 7.9.51

Best – Coops, Blocky, Fists, The Wiz, Nelson, Locks Paquin, Chops McGrath
Goals – Glamour Boy Vargo – 2, Skip Freeman – 2, Goalsneak Jase – 1, The Wiz – 1, Nelson – 1.

After match function

With the driving crew home pre-determined, and the Cougars comfortable that despite giving their all Seattle was simply too good on the day, a relaxed Cougars team looked to make some serious dints on the beer supply level at the Kangaroo and Kiwi Pub in Seattle.

In no time the Cougar boys and their associated Cougar girls were warming up nicely after a few Coopers. Shiner as is now customary, pulled out his Didgeridoo and entertained the gathered masses. Partner of the Prez – Fiona Mitchell caused an early uproar when she presented a pair of mystery jocks that were found dumped at the ground. It could not be determined what was more shocking – a) that someone had left a pair of their jats holders at the ground or b) that Fiona had handled said jocks. The jocks in question were later found to belong to a high profile senior member of the team (keep an eye on BCFooty.Com for more of this saga later this week).

Whilst a number of the boys quickly began to carve up the pool table, Cougar’s newly crowned ladies man Jim Utting had made a bee-line for a group of Seattle girls that had accompanied Seattle ruckman John’s wife. Clearly not happy with the local Seattle offerings, it wasn’t long before the girls took a keen eye on the magnificent specimen’s on men (that are the Cougars) and had joined the boys at the pool table. The games of which were disturbed at one stage as Annaliese demonstrated her dance moves on the top of the pool table. These going’s on were mostly lost on a certain member of the Cougars captaincy and a particular ruckman who were progressively destroying drink after drink at the bar.

It was finally around 12-1pm that the last 3 buses finally left the Kangaroo and Kiwi and headed for the long ride home. BcFooty.Com has learnt that for the second successive trip home Skip Freeman who had earlier declared, “I will not fall asleep”, managed to last 15 minutes before falling fast asleep. Thankfully this time he did not manage to spill beer down the front of his pants.