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Vs Jakarta Bintangs, May 1st, 2004
Lapangan Samudra, Bali

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Bali Geckos 12 12 84
Jakarta Bintangs 15 15 105
Although the Geckos were soundly beaten in the last encounter against the Twangs earlier this year, the Geckos were confident of defeating the visitors on their home field. The loss of Coach Gun with a knee injury was balanced by the addition of Leigh Hughes from the WAFL. The Geckos were also expecting a lot from first-gamer and lounge bar crooner Courtney Werleman.

The Geckos were their usual selves, hard at the ball and determined. The Bintangs were doing all they could to be victorious on Robbie Spurrs’ last game in Bali. A legend of Asian footy, Robbie was always a great opponent for the Geckos.

After a typically physical opening quarter, the Bintangs were three points up at quarter time. Hughsey was proving a handful for the slower Bintang opponents, and was well supported by Mark on the ball.

With better teamwork, the Geckos outclassed the Bintangs in the second quarter, kicking six goals to be up by 10 points at the main break.

Although still ahead at three quarter time, the Geckos failed to capitalize on a number of scoring opportunities. Lack of talk cost the team what should have been two definite goals, instead the ball was turned over and the Bintangs rebounding to score on both occasions. Some skill errors also showed during the quarter, in which we scored 2.5.

The Geckos were full of confidence going into the last quarter up by 15 points, but fatigue slowly set in and corroded the lead. After running all day and dominating all over the field, Hughsey’s became affected by the heat, and a number of other Geckos also we ran out of legs. The game began to slip away during the latter half of the quarter, and we once again failed to capitalize on opportunities. Momentum swung the Bintangs way, who piled on seven goals in the last quarter to the Geckos one goal to win by 21 points.

Overall, many would agree that this game would have been the best ever Geckos vs Bintangs – a well contested affair with good skill and teamwork shown by both sides. It was certainly an improvement on our last performance, with many Geckos playing their best games yet.