By Lars Riedel
The season for our team ended with the match against the Munich Kangaroos on Saturday, 2nd October 2021. The weather on this day was really good in Munich. A blue and sunny day which was perfect footy weather. The first game on that day was played by our women’s teams. The Munich women, were supported by the women from Heidelberg, faced our Frankfurt women, who had combined with the Cologne women. The women’s game went in favor of the merger of Frankfurt and Cologne “Flamingos”. The girls delivered a good game and also some Redcats contested their first game in Munich.
The men’s game started at 3pm with Frankfurt Redbacks facing off with the undefeated Munich Kangaroos. Knowing that the outcome of this game would strongly influence the continuation of our season into the finals series, it was effectively an elimination game for the Redbacks.
In the first half, Munich already started very strongly and our Redbacks had to do a lot of work to knock-down the constant attacks. It was decided to play 9v9 (opposed to 10v10), this ensured we had 2 substitutes. Unfortunately we had some key players missing due to injury and last minute sickness. However, it has to be mentioned that Munich was stronger in terms of manpower, with about 7 players on the beach. Despite the strong attacks, the Redbacks became stronger in the course of the quarter. Malte Schudlich did a great job coaching the Redbacks on the day and was key in optimising bench rotations and our available man power, while leading our team consistently and calmly through the game.
The second quarter was also dominated by Munich. Which further extend their lead, but our Redbacks could now also score some goals and the self-confidence continued to rise. The half-time break was a brief opportunity to recover a little from the exhausting game. Our captain Xavier Cramer swore us in again to give everything. In the third quarter, our team played strong and scored more goals. It was similar in the fourth quarter. However, it was not possible to break the lead of the Munich team. So that the final score was 146:33.
At this point it must be mentioned that our Redback Daniel Rupert kicked his first goal and consequently got the honor of a Shoey!! Every one got around him to celebrate this goal that was a long time coming. The final goal scores for the Redbacks were Santiago Rutio (2), Daniel Ruppert (1), Martin Krichler (1) and Andrew Molloy (1).
All in all, it was a challenging game and a worthy end of the season for our team. We fought it out and tried all game. The effort was there we just didn’t have the numbers. We now looking forward to the next season and hope that we can welcome many new faces into our team next season, which will strengthen our ranks.
The whole day was a nice gathering of the footy community, to enjoy two good games in wonderful autumn weather. The number of spectators on this day was quite high and their constant support calls and applause uplifted the teams efforts. The spectacle was underpinned by a brass band, whose music wafted over to us from the nearby beer garden. As already mentioned, that day was a worthy conclusion to our season. Now in the offseason our team has enough time to work on our individual skills and also to generate new members. Everyone who wants to become a part of the footy community is invited to join the Redbacks or the Redcats at the Frankfurt Football Club (FFC).