By Joel “Willy” Aitken
Front (L-R): Tommy Ross, Cyril Jan Mahamad, Katherine Dellar, Greg Arnold, Rami Kais
In sunscreen-warranted conditions in Basel on Saturday, 11 of our Jets launched for a practice match against a fired-up Dragons side, propped up with recruits from Zurich and Winterthur to assemble somewhat of a Rest-Of-Switzerland All-Star outfit.
Basel caught the Jets napping and capitalised, courtesy of an early goal haul by their captain and full-forward, Jack Flynn. The Jets midfield responded with Tommy Ross, Sebastian Permain and Ryan Hoult combining well with Andrew Hale up forward, until Permain’s day was ended early through injury. By quarter time, Geneva had pegged it back to be level with the Dragons at five goals apiece.
The arm-wrestle continued throughout the second quarter with the teams scoring goal-for-goal for 20 minutes. Joshua Drake’s work-rate doubled as he became the focal point moving forward as Rami Kais started winning one-on-one contests around the ground. However, the Dragons maintained the ascendancy in the ruck and continued to look potent going forward. Locked at 10 goals each at the half.
During the main break, Geneva restructured. The side’s defenses were reinforced and the keys to the forward line were given to Greg Arnold. He delivered. Arnold’s clever leads and clean hands provided the Jets with a handy advantage 10 minutes into the quarter. The defense also responded, with Cyril Jan Mahamad setting the example – seeing off multiple Dragon raids almost single-handedly at times. When Gabriel Salathe-Beaulieu connected on to one of his long-bombs in the shadows of three quarter time, the Jets had finally wrestled the ascendancy – up by two goals.
At the last change, Ross schemed Katherine Dellar to go one-out in the forward line for the last 20 minutes. She needed only five – kicking two quick goals and setting up a third to put the contest beyond doubt. With the Dragons ruck division tiring, Hoult, Drake and Jan Mahamad also started running rampant through the middle. After piling on eight goals in the last quarter, the Jets ran out 10-goal victors – a nice reward after the long pre-season.
Results:
| Geneva Jets AFC | 23.10.148 |
| Basel Dragons AFC | 13.11.89 |
Geneva goal kickers:
7 – Josh Drake
5 – Greg Arnold
2 – Tommy Ross, Katherine Dellar, Ryan Hoult, Cyril Jan Mahamad
1 – Andrew Hale, Gabriel Salathe-Beaulieu, Joel Aitken
A massive thank you to Basel Dragons AFC for putting on a great day / aftermatch and to the Jets that travelled to support us – in particular Yoni Dekker, who stepped in as manager, photographer, water-bearer and head of catering at different points during the day (we are definitely going to that same kebab store next time we are in Basel).