The change wasn’t finalised until around one hour prior to the original start time as the Labrador team bus was stuck in heavy traffic.
“There was a huge accident on the M1 which closed the North-bound lanes from 3am until about lunchtime,” Reserves coach Nathan Clarke said.
“The accident made the news and unfortunately involved fatalities.”
“So Labrador weren’t able to get up the highway in time for the game.”
“Andrew Raines, who had spent the previous night on the Gold Coast as well, called to say he was struggling to make it to the game on time as well,” he said.
“So one hour before we were scheduled to start, we decided to postpone the match until the next day.”
“For us it was just a matter of going back home and preparing to play again tomorrow, whereas Labrador had to make another trip up the highway the next day.”
The rescheduled match at Coorparoo proved a high-quality contest with Labrador eventually edging out the Lions by 19 points.
“We were probably a quality player or two short in the end and Labrador got back to near full strength,” Clarke said.
“We started the game with 12 listed Lions players and two scholarship boys (Richard Newell and Donald Barry).”
“Also 3-4 of our best Magpies players have been injured for the past couple of weeks which makes a difference.”
Despite the loss, Clarke said a number of the Lions players performed well and gave big wraps to draftee Pat Karnezis who continues to improve each week.
“Interestingly, I thought a lot of our individuals played ok,” Clarke said.
“Patty Karnezis was good, kicking four goals on a really quality opponent. He played on Matt Clarke who is close to being Labrador’s best player. Clarke is normally a running midfielder, but played a role on Karnezis.”
“Patty was just a bit too good for him.”
“I thought Ryan Harwood was pretty good also. He is an elite inside midfielder and his work from inside the packs was great.”
“Mitch Golby continued his good form, Rainesey and Matt Maguire both won a lot of footy while Dyson was good for the second good week in a row.”
“Amon Buchanan had 30-plus possessions - which included 26 handballs - and took an unbelievable one-handed hanger.”
“We also had Xavier Clarke Niall McKeever back in the side and they got through ok.”
The Lions Reserves face one of their toughest tasks on 2011 this Saturday when they host the Sydney Swans Reserves at Coorparoo in their second cross-conference NEAFL match for the season.
The Swans are undefeated in the Eastern Conference and will prove some stiff competition.
“It will be a tough game for us,” Clarke said.
“We should get Broc McCauley back from injury, but we’ll lose Richard Newell who has been selected to play State U18s footy this weekend.”
“We have some inside knowledge with Amon in the side, and I also know a fair bit about them having coached against them a few years ago in the Canberra Leagues.”
“They are a quality unit and will be very tough to beat.”
“They smashed the Gold Coast by 10-15 goals after the Coast had only just beaten us by 40-odd points.”
