Miners’ black day

By Marc McGowan
“GO boys! All or nothing!”
“Yeah, baby!”
“Come on D!”
There was little doubt that it was the start of the gridiron season on the weekend and the Americanisms were flowing thick and fast.
The Berwick Miners celebrated their 20th anniversary at Sydney Pargeter Reserve on Saturday with a rematch of their inaugural game against the Croydon Rangers.
The first indication that it was not going to be a good day came at the toss of the coin, which was supposed to have been the role of City of Casey deputy mayor Kevin Bradford.
Instead, after his appearance was confirmed by his secretary, he was a no-show and is yet to notify the Miners as to what caused his absence.
Berwick head coach Dale Warren will seek a “please explain” from Bradford.
“We were a bit disappointed, but it’s more of a letdown (than a lack of respect towards the club),” he said.
To make his non-attendance more glaring, Casey councillors Rob Wilson and Paul Richardson made appearances, with the former making an after-game speech to recognise the Miners’ anniversary.
After a rusty round-one showing, Berwick went down 14-2 to the Rangers, but further bad news was to follow.
One of the Miners’ coaches was ruled ineligible because he was yet to complete his qualifications and Berwick failed to remove his name from the official list, even though he was not present.
Following this revelation, the encounter was classed as a forfeit and the new result was a 1-0 victory to Croydon.
It was of little consequence to the Miners as they had already lost, but it is not the way they would have liked to start the Gridiron Victoria season.
Forfeits were a feature across the competition, with the most notable being that of the Nunawading Warriors, whose 68-0 triumph against the Southern Seahawks was reversed.
The Western Crusaders and Bay City Buccaneers were both disqualified in their contest to give them a farcical nil-all draw, with the league ruling that the four forfeits were due to the clubs “not supplying proof of qualification for coaches and/or medics”.
It comes on the back of the Northern Blackhawks pulling out on the eve of the season to leave just six competing teams, which forced an alteration to the fixture.
All in all, it was not a positive beginning for Gridiron Victoria or Berwick, but Warren was relatively satisfied with his troops’ effort on the field.
“Overall, performance-wise, everyone contributed, although some of the rookies didn’t get on, which is expected,” he said.
“If the guys with experience aren’t doing the job, the guys without it won’t do the job either.”
One area the Miners will be looking for improvement in is the quarterback position, where their number-one option Jamie Stafford struggled to get going.
Stafford only managed to produce a solid drive for his side in the fourth quarter and admitted after the game to the coaches that he had produced a mediocre display.
“He got hit in the arm by a bike the previous week,” Warren said.
“He had his normal strength, but it was probably not his greatest performance.”
Berwick’s defence was the biggest positive and Rob Zimmerman sacked Rangers’ quarterback Mark Ursu twice in the second half with bone-jarring tackles to have a strong impact on the game.
The Miners take to the field on Saturday at 2pm in round two against titleholders Nunawading at Frank Street Reserve in Frankston and will hope to put their problems behind them.