Late Start Pays Off for Eagles

A well-planned strategic move by the Burnaby Eagles has resulted in a phenomenal win.
The talented eagles committee came together last week in a deep discussion of how to get the cougars psyched out before the game. It was decided that since the cougars are always ready 45 min before the game that we would make them wait even longer in an effort to tire them out significantly before the match. It was a fateful move that would see dividends paid at the end of the day.

The Burnaby eagles assembled together at the back of the car park at 1245 pm. 15 min before the start of the game. No one was dressed to play. The walked towards the field and found all of the cougars in a full warm up session in the bright sun. As the eagles slowly made there way towards the ground a call was made to President Hilton.

“Hello, Colin here”. “Col its Freemo, we are at the ground bring the posts in 15 min”
“No worries Freemo I am just finishing up my latte here at starbucks ill see you then”

Little did the cougars no that the late start plan was IN EFFECT

15 min later and with the eagles just getting ready Hilton arrived with the posts and before the eagles could expend any vital energy, the game was on.

At this time the Cougars players under the warm-up leadership of ‘Chip’ had already completed 11 laps of the field, 35 push-ups, 55 sit-ups and numerous other hard paced warm-up activities.

The eagles were off to a great start with centre breaks and the ball was tightly contested around the ground. A see-saw first quarter saw Mick Peddler getting plenty of the ball off the half-back line and feeding Tickets running off the packs. Freemo was everywhere in the forward line and Welcome-Back-Rich was running rampant on half forward. The wind was a deciding factor in this game blowing a strong 4 goal lead to, as President Hilton calls it, the Starbucks end of the field. The First quarter saw the cougars stretch out to a small lead. In the Huddle Freemo asked the players for more. Chuck made a call to the older players to step up and play with the inspiration that younger guys were bringing to the field.

The second quarter was predominantly the eagles. The smaller eagles ran well with the wind. The Cougars Sacrificed a man to tag Tickets around the ground but the run of the other eagles carried the ball well through the midfield with class to deliver to the hands of the forwards. Honorable mentions for this quarter go to Ben Loams for keeping a great defensive quarter, Chuck fantastic in the ruck, Ray, ever-presenting leads in the forward line. Steve Harper putting his body on the line and getting fly-kicked to the back – Well done Steve.

Third quarter was like a re-run of the first with the wind playing an obvious deciding factor in who the winner would be. Cougars desperate to scrape up every bit of energy they didn’t use in there warm up lifted to kick a few goals and get back from the half time deficit of 19 points to trail by only 9 points at the final change.

The last quarter was where the Eagles Late plan was really seen. As the energy stores for the Cougars dried up the ever running eagles were dominant in the final quarter and added more than a couple of goals to take the final quarter and win the game by an impressive 5 goals. Ronan was a great inclusion into the side and performed extremely well in the late stages.

It was very impressive to see the all of the younger eagles stepping up to play extremely well, even kicking goals for the eagles. The hard hits from the young guys were another great feature. The team really lifted today with many of our regular players out of the side due to injury and travel commitments and it was great to see so many contributors all around the ground. Congratulations go to Captain Ray for choosing to come home with the wind – A great decision that paid off today.

Thanks to the Cougars for being worthy opponents and providing a great contest. Everyone’s skills are really improving.

Disclaimer: This article may contain fabricated information and is not in any way meant to be a true representation of the happenings of events prior to the start of the game.