Premier II 2009

Players

Owen Booth, Greg Cooney, Nick Fitzgerald, Tim Thorstenson, Logan Wingate, Nick Stanton, Joe Blondell, Jonno Willis, Tom Baker, Ben Sandle, Dave Hutchins, Sam Cooper, Finn Hunt, Tom Golden, Ben young, Keith Vincent, Richard Thompson, Jack Henderson, Seth McPhee, Michael Beck, Cameron Kelso, Rusty Weir, Chris Knight, Tim Clydesdale, Nigel Graham, Von Jackson, Mark Gasson, Blake Atkins, Jamie Gough.

Coachs

Dave McPhee, Dennis (Jack) O’Dea, John Hornbrook

Management

Rory Dowding, Ross O’Connell

 

2008 Season

Squad Members          

 Forwards,

Russell Weir, Hamish Scott, Seth McPhee, Ben Hogan, Ben Young, James Roy,   Sam Cooper, Keith Vincent, Nick Stanton, Mark Sorenson, Elliot Mitchell, Keith Preston, Leroy Gavan-Smith,  Michael Straight

 

Backs

Owen Booth, Bert McNally, Sam Baker, Blair Cooper, Tane Welton, Greg Cooney,  Jason King, Mike Rennie, Mark Gasson, Matt Crane, Ben Sinnamon, John Rowe, Paul Conrad

 Medical Staff

Coach                         Tony O’Connor

Manager                     John Crowley

 

Ray De thierry, Christian Dawson

                                                                        Metro Competition                All Games

 

Games Played                                                             11                                          18

Games Won                                                                 7                                            13

Games Lost                                                                  4                                            5

Points for                                                                   207                                          393

Points against                                                 127                                          194

Top points scorer      Ben Young                              87 points

Top try scorer            Jason King/Greg Cooney        5 tries each

 

 

 

This season Blue Sharks commenced the season in quest of their fifth successive Dunedin Metropolitan Premier II championship.

Games in the early part of the season were against the North Otago premier teams. We performed very well in this early season competition, only losing to a very large Maheno side and comprehensively beating Old Boys who went on to become the North Otago Premier Champions. We qualified for the final of this competition, played on Carisbrook, and finished up as runners-up to a very strong Taieri side.

 

Even with losses to Taieri and Kaikorai we still managed to finish second in the round robin section of the Metro competition, despite the team being weakened, at times, through player unavailability(university holidays) and injury. The highlights of this part of the competition were a comprehensive 29-0 shut out of a very tough Pirates side and a one point (8-7) win in deep mud at Bathgate Park, over Southern.

 

Although we lost our play-off game to a Zingari team stacked with Premier 1 players, (we were 22-0 ahead at half time and ended up losing 25-26) we still qualified for the semi-finals because of our ranking at the end of the round robin. The semi-final against Southern was an epic affair. A Ben Young penalty saw us ahead 3-0 mid way through the first half. This remained the score until the 83^rd minute mark when Michael Straight crashed over beside the posts after a concerted 18 phase effort when the ball never got past the halfback. Young converted to make the final score 10-0.

 For the fourth year in a row we met Taieri in the final. Taieri got off to a good start scoring an early try and we replied with a Young penalty and a Seth McPhee try but a drop goal and a succession of penalty kicks by Taieri saw us behind 17-8 at half time. A titanic struggle in the second half saw both teams score a try (ours by Greg Cooney) and the final score ended up Taieri 22, Dunedin 13.

 This year we had a reasonably experienced forward pack which produced some powerful forward play, scrummaged well and used the rolling maul to good effect. The backline was a mixture of youth and experience that excelled both on attack and defence. Our goal-kicking lock Ben Young ensured that most opportunities were turned into points.

 A special mention must go to Greg Cooney who was presented with a club blazer this season recognising his 50 games for the Prem IIs. An outstanding achievement by Coons who has been an integral part of both the on and off field activities of this team.