Sunshine Coaster Jake Crawford was named ‘Most Valuable Player’ for a winless Queenslanc Scorpions outfit at the NAB Australian U18 Championships.
Tuesday, 29 June, 2010
The Australia Post Queensland Scorpions closed out a disappointing NAB Australian U18 Championships with a 15-point loss to the Northern Territory at Visy Park, Carlton, today.
The loss meant the Scorpions finished the five-game campaign without a victory and finished at the tail of a division two ladder headed by Tasmania after they beat NSW in their final game today.
Sunshine Coaster Jake Crawford, a member of the Gold Coast VFL training squad, was judged the Scorpions best player today and for Queensland’s Most Valuable Player for the championships.
Crawford, usually a key defender, slotted in at centre half forward against the slick NT side as coach David Ashkar searched desperately for a lift.
The powerhouse utility, ko’d against Victorian Country on Saturday. showed terrific courage and character to work tirelessly providing a contest in the key forward spot all day.
Sadly, though, the Scorpions paid a huge price for a very poor start and wastefulness around goal.
In a match played in bitterly cold conditions, Queensland, in the words of insiders, were ‘non-competitive’ in the early stages.
They had plenty of opportunities but wasted a lot of ball and trailed 1-5 to 2-2 at quarter-time. By half time they were down 2-8 to 7-5.
They picked up their attack on the ball in the second half and out-scored the NT in the third term 3-2 to 3-0 to be down by 25 points at the final change despite having had the same number of scoring shots.
Queensland kicked the first three goals of the final stanza to cut the margin to seven points and looked set to run over the top of the Territorians but their run ended as quickly as it began and they finished on the wrong end of a 9-10 (64) to 12-7 (79) scoreline.
Behind Crawford, Luke Shreeve was a willing worker up forward, and James Nelis did well through the centre.
Adam Oxley had easily his best game of the championships at half forward and on the wing, kicking three of Queensland’s nine goals, and ruckman Tom Hickey likewise as he collected 29 hit-outs, nine kicks, three marks and a goal
The Scorpions cause wasn’t helped when big man Sam Michael, who had been a standout right through the carnival, was ruled unfit.
Likewise, when they lost speedy rover Chris Wittkopp to a broken wrist in the first few moments.
Match Details
Qld 1-5 2-8 5-10 9-10-64
NT 2-2 7-5 10-5 12-7-79
Qld Goals: Oxley 3, Edwards, Hickey, Yagmoor, Labi, Crawford, Moss.
Qld Best: Crawford, Shreeve, Nelis, Oxley, Hickey.
