Queensland were made to pay following a lacklustre opening quarter and were humbled by Tasmania in the AFL National Under-18 Championships in Launceston on Saturday.
The Scorpions side, which is made up of the Gold Coast Football Club, had 14 of its best side out unavailable for the match. It gave a lot of untried youngsters a chance, but they were always going to struggle to find any cohesion with so many changes. And it showed as Queensland were comfortably defeated 16-14 (110) to 7-6 (48).
Coach Guy McKenna decided to leave a large chunk of his best side out because of its busy schedule next week with a stack of National Championship games coming up.
The Mariners kicked six goals in the first term and kept a shell-shocked Queensland scoreless to quarter-time.
They were much better after that but the damage was well and truly done.
Stand-in skipper Damien Steven and Brad Rees were the Maroons’ best, while Grayson McIvor, Troy Jamieson, Daniel Ramage and Rex Liddy also impressed.
Joseph Daye was the only multiple goalkicker with two, while Jack Stanlake, Lewis Moss, Cheyne Hutchinson, Gerard Moore and McIvor all kicked one goal.
Queensland will travel again next weekend for its big clash against Vic Metro in Melbourne. They are expected to make 14 changes for the match.
By Nick Smart in Launceston. For a full report of the match and much more, check out Monday’s edition of The Gold Coast Bulletin.
