Hook line and sinker. That’s what Cargo Blue Heelers took when they fell for one of the most meticulously planned and orchestrated con jobs in the history of Rugby League. Let me set the scene for you. Last round of the Woodbridge Cup season. Trundle are to play Cargo in a dead rubber at Trundle. Regardless of the outcome, Trundle will play Cargo again the following week back in Trundle for the first semi final. Any ordinary football club would have gone about its business having a crack at chalking up a win and maybe claiming favourite status for the following week. Not the Trundle Rugby League Football Club. In a series of underground meetings held at undisclosed locations that included the pub and RSL, every stakeholder in the club from the executive down to the ball boys met to formulate a course of action that would change very psyche of the Cargo opponents. The façade started at the main street. As the Cargo Footy club rolled into Trundle, all the local businesses were “boarded up” and someone had set a couple of tumble weeds in motion. What had hours earlier had been a bustling CBD was made to look like a town that was deep in recession. Their next port of call was Berryman Stadium where the usually stringent gatekeepers simply waved the players on claiming that they were not really expecting Trundle to be in the contest today and so they couldn’t justify charging admission. As Cargo bounced off the bus they were further surprised to find that the Berryman stadium merchandise stand, once bustling with Super Sam shirts and Josh Morrison snow domes, was now sporting Trundle Cricket club garb. The Boomers themselves looked lacklustre and were swanning about in Hawaiian shirts talking and browsing travel brochures for the end of season trip. If Cargo were not confident when they left Cargo they certainly had some spring in their sprigs now. While the Boomers, their executive and all their supporters were well into their scheme of lulling Cargo into a false sense of security for the following weeks semi-final, losing a match does not come easily for our favourite football club. They had to work hard at it. Cargo’s newly instilled confidence served them well from the outset. Ten minutes in and centre Dan Madden waltzed in a try through a seemingly large gap that he thought he had created himself, but there was a wry grin on the Trundle defence. Cargo had taken the bait. Trundle failed to capitalise on a cargo knock on close to their own line and minutes later the Blue Heelers other centre and other Madden, Tory, had posted their second for the day and with the kicker on song it was 12-0 to Cargo and their false confidence was growing by the minute. Trundle had not enjoyed a lot of possession in the Cargo 20 but thanks to the elusiveness of Todd Porter and the human pinball Mikey Hando, who combined for a 60m break, The Boomers found themselves in Heeler territory. They breed them clever out the other side of Fifield and when Ross Mcmahon was dragged out from underneath half a dozen Cargo players most of them winced at the bone protruding from his shoulder. But he had cleverly snuck an old chop onto the field and strategically placed it inside his jersey. While the Cargo players thought he was being whisked off to hospital by his parents he was in fact headed out to crutch a couple of hundred ewes. A distracted Cargo team meant that Nik Harris had no choice but to brush past a couple to post first points for Trundle. While the conversion went wide it wasn’t long before Blake Ridges finished a nice passage of play to score out wide. Trundle’s kicking woes continued and they went to the break two tries a piece but trailing 12-8. It was a heavy game up front and the old adage that “They can’t run without eyebrows”, was being heavily tested. But the Boomer enforcers were not ducking for cover and Porter Pork and Co. were steadfast. Most of the Trundle crowd carried a smirk as they knew the perfectly laid plan was coming to fruition. Even the canteen ladies were in on the façade of failure. They were selling cold pies and had the red frogs on sale in a bid to clear them out before cricket season. The first twenty minutes of the second half was some of the best football the Boomers had played all year. While they wanted Cargo to finish on a winning note for the day, they clearly wanted to have some fun. Trundle defended their line stoically and Benny Howard’s great one handed take of a Cargo kick set young Bull in motion for a break down the western touch line. Enter John Taufono. He had been troubling the Cargo defence all day but he demonstrated a full bag of tricks to sneakily off load to Macca who knows how to finish and with Damo resuming the kicking duties Trundle had found the lead at 14-12. The Boomers had to pull their heads in for a little while and allowed Dam Madden in for his second. But there was more fun to be had and it was Porter Pork next to post. Both teams were trading tries and Trundle’s next came from some more Taufaao magic as he drew every member of the Cargo defence to him and then casually popped a pass to Mikey Hando who bounced over the line. But in staying with a game plan that was hatched by a whole community, Trundle allowed Cargo to score two late tries to gain a winning lead of 36-26. Just to stop themselves from scoring again Trundle virtually refused to accept any more penalties from the ref by purposely failing to find touch. Cargo left Trundle perfectly puffed with false confidence and as their bus rolled out of town the Boomers began a two hour fitness session in preparation for next week’s semi-final. Trundles best on the day was Blake Ridges with Mikey Hando and Damo Fairley taking the minor placing’s. John Taufoano was honoured by the Old Boys. The Programme for Sunday is as follows: 11:30 Ladies league Tag- Canowindra V Grenfell 12:30 Youth Tag- Canowindra V Condo 2:00 First Grade semi-final -Trundle V Cargo Post match function to be held at the Trundle Hotel Anybody who is available to help out on Sunday could they please contact Dannielle at the Trundle Hotel on (02) 6892 1009.
Posted on: Wed, 21 Aug 2013 00:31:48 +0000