Jim Beam Cup Finals

[mono_mal]

The last round of the Jim Beam Cup was played over the weekend and five teams now remain to contest the 2004 finals series.
The Entrance Tigers were successful again in claiming the minor premiership though a late season form slump from the Tigers has left them very vulnerable coming into the finals.
The other teams contesting the finals are Sydney Bulls, Windsor Wolves, Cabramatta Blues and Wentworthville Magpies.
The major semi final will be played on Saturday at the Windsor Complex between the Sydney Bulls and Windsor Wolves whilst Cabramatta will play Wentworthville in the sudden death minor semi final.

 

[Nfed]

Windsor, Wenty and Cabramatta won 4 of their last 6 games whereas the Bulls won only 2 but by the time The Entrance run onto Central Coast Stadium on saturday week they will not have won for 6 weeks.

 

[mono_mal]

Nfed do you know the times and venues for the finals games?
Have they decided on a grand final venue yet?

 

[Nfed]

Mono, Windsor and Central Coast for the semis and then I think the preliminary final and grand final get attached to NRL but are one week ahead.

 

[Nfed]

I believe that Windsor games are major semi at noon and minor at 2pm. Windsor won 8 out of 9 at home this season but nearly all of them were night games and they havent played there for a few months so I think the home advantage will be neutralised to some extent.

 

[mono_mal]

Dissapointing to see the NSWRL are not going it alone for the Final and Grand Final and are playing the games in the shadow of the NRL finals.

 

[mono_mal]

From www.centralcoaststadium.com.au

Jim Beam Cup Semi Final
Starts: Saturday 11th September, 2004 @ 12:00:00 AM
Finishes: Saturday 11th September, 2004 @ 4:00:00 PM

Gates open 12 noon
Game times
12.30pm
2.30

 

[Nfed]

Erina must be horrified at the points they threw away - a 1 point loss to Souths and 2 point lossses to The Entrance and Newtown. If they had revered those games they would have finished 4th. They ranked 4th on defence.

 

[Nfed]

Todays results were: Windsor beat Bulls 32-20 and Wenty beat Cabra 46-26. Windsor started well and Craig Trindall exploited the obvious defensive weakness on the left side to engineer five tries to lead 26-0 at half time. The Bulls then spent the first 35 minutes of the second half camped in the windsor 22 and bombed several opportunities but got the score back to 26-20 before the home team scored wrapped up the game in the final minute. The wolves fans "howled" regularly on the eastern hill.

Wenty blew the Blues off the park in a similar fashion running up a point a minute as Willie Mclean dominated. It took Cabra half an hour before they exploited the send off of Wade Russell after 23 minutes. The final 25 minutes saw plenty of tries as the Wenty defence tired. Cabra went into this game well short of full strength.

Next week at Central Coast Stadium The Entrance meet Windsor at 12.30 and the Bulls play Wenty at 2.30.

 

[choc_soldier]

Go Wenty!

 

[mono_mal]

Didnt end up getting to the games.
Interesting to see Cabra go down and fall out of the premiership race and Windsor get up in front of a large home crowd.
Was the crowd really 2 972 as the NSW Rugby League website reports?
The website also has next Saturdays games at 1 and 3 respectively.

 

[Nfed]

Sometimes the crowds are 10 percent of what is stated in official records but I would say that it was around 1000 with another 200 in club beer garden avoiding the gate charge.

 

[Jeffles]

2972 is remarkable close to the 8972 crowd the Jets manage to attract so consistently.

Of course I wasn't there so I cannot comment.

Playing the games as a double header on the Coast is a good idea. Whoever came up with it must pat themselves on the back. The CC clubs have the better crowd support in the competition and with no PL or NRL above, this is the highest level of football on the CC at the moment.

 

[mono_mal]

The Central Coast is a good choice for finals fixtures though Im unsure if Central Coast Stadium is the most suitable choice.
Even if a large crowd is in attendance the atmosphere could be lost due to the size of the stadium. Hopefully the seating is heavily restricted to one stand and one level if possible which would create a great atmosphere.
I also question the main game being between the Bulls and Wenty. A Tigers main game would ensure the crowd flowed in early to secure seating and as so would then see the Wenty-Bulls game.
Now the majority of the crowd will most likely leave following the Tigers game.
In saying all this though I understand that there are no other suitable venues on the coast so i suppose CC Stadium is better than nothing.

 

[Jeffles]

Good points. Restricting where fans sit so that they are all bunched up is a good idea. But maybe this will cost more money because of hiring ushers and security to police that. So I can understand why it wasn't done. Putting the locals on last is also a good suggestion.

 

[Nfed]

The Entrance have gone through to the grand final with a close win against Windsor in a very competitive game. The Wolves will meet the Bulls at Ringrose next week to determine who gets the other spot after a 36-22 win over Wenty. The comp is becoming a war of attrition as the 3 remaining clubs continue to suffer from big injury counts.