Pirates

After a first round Bye the West Sydney Pirates opened their 2013 Division 1 campaign with an emphatic 48-0 win over the Newcastle Cobras in Week 2 of the season.

It was another early start for the Pirates in Week 6 as they travelled to Berkeley Sports Club, past Wollongong, for the 10.00am game against the Central Coast Sharks. Despite the 39-6 win to the Pirates it was a sub-standard performance and something that needs to be addressed, and quickly.

The First Quarter saw neither team take control, but it was a converted Marlou Tacugue Touchdown run which had the Pirates up by 7-0 as the period came to a close.

The Second Quarter was a case of missed opportunities and mental errors and it wasnt until the final two minutes of the half that the Pirates skipped away thanks to two converted Touchdowns, both passes to Dean Toskoski. The score at the half was 19-0 in favour of the Pirates.

The Second Half started on a positive note for the Pirates as they took the opening kick off and marched down the field on a mixture of run and pass plays. But all the good work was brought undone when they were unable to score any points from the Sharks 1 yard line. The inept display was compounded as the Sharks moved the ball downfield with apparent ease and capitalised with a long TD pass to bring the score to 19-6. A strong run by Jason Gangaram resulted in an unconverted Pirate Touchdown to extend the lead to 25-6 as the Quarter ended.

Whether the Pirates were sparked into action, or fatigue started to tell on the smaller Sharks squad – perhaps a combination of the two – the Pirates kicked into gear in the final period. Touchdown passes to Ash Best and Reece Fitzgerald blew the score out, and some stronger defense by the Pirates meant that the Sharks were unable to add to their total, leaving the final score at 39-6 in the Pirates favour.

The Pirate Offense was patchy to say the least, and it was mainly mental lapses which saw them squander good field position and potential scoring opportunities.

The Defense seemed to be a yard too slow all day and were lucky that their opponent also suffered from mistakes or penalties which killed drives.

Quite frankly, the score flattered the Pirates and was not a true indication of the quality of the game. It was a performance best forgotten in the hope that a higher standard emerges in the weeks ahead.

Pirate Quarterback, David Ward, has reached an amazing milestone in what has been an outstanding career for his Club, State, and Country.

In the Week 13 game against the Newcastle Cobras, David notched up his 300th career Touchdown pass.

In an even more amazing statistic, that record does not include those Touchdown passes thrown while he was playing with State or National teams.

The 300th TD play was a simple pattern to Running Back, Marlou Tacugue, who outpaced the opposition to score, but it was enough for David to break through the magic barrier.

Davids career actually began with the now defunct Penrith City Outlaws and he joined the Pirates in 1999 where he has been the main man at the controls of the Pirate Offense ever since.

His career has been interrupted by a number of injuries, most notably two major knee injuries (in 1997 and 2011) but he has been able to bounce back to lead the Offense to some amazing successes, including reaching the post-season with the Pirates in every year bar one of his career with the Club.

Everyone at the West Sydney Pirates congratulates David on a remarkable achievement, and we look forward to many more Touchdown passes to come.