The Gwent Gators Kick off their 2021/22 campaign Saturday 19th of June with the Gators Orange at home. With Gators Blue playing the following day away at Cardiff.
The initial weekend of the Welsh Division league season is here! Players will be eager and keen to get running as the first bit of competitive action since the gap in-between lockdowns.
The Gators Orange side will be at home to open the season with the visitors being the Swansea Hammerheads, Cardiff Hurricanes and the Merthyr Tydfil Trojans.
The Gators Blue Side will be away at Cardiff, with the teams in attendance being the hosts Cardiff Bay Coyotes and the Cardiff Hurricanes 2.
Injury Report
Center - Huw Walford has been announced on IR after acquiring a knee injury which will see him him miss a major portion if not the entirety of the season.
Wide Receiver - Matt Bourke is a fitness test on-the-day decision with an ankle and thigh injury which has kept him out for two weeks so far.
Coaches Corner
Head Coach Dale Davies gave his initial thoughts for the weekend ahead.
"Finally. Competitive games.
Not as we’d wanted, due to the pandemic, there’s no promotion to aim for but there’s still some pride on the line.
That being said, by splitting our squad into 2 teams we acknowledge that we may not have the strongest teams at every Game-day but the advantage of providing more reps in competitive games for the majority of our squad more than makes up for this.
The Oranges kick things off on Saturday with Games against the Swansea Hammerheads, who have quietly, softly, put together what looks to be a very strong team and will present a real tough opening matchup. Alex Thomas and Harley Labbett at WR will provide a stern examination of most defenses in this league and with Ash Lewis at QB, you can never count them out of a game.
The Oranges then face the “Gwent” Trojans, essentially the 2018 SWC Division 1 runaway winners and always a tough matchup with some of their players, such as Richard Harris and Chris Soanes with an experienced team behind them.
It’s fair to say, Hurricanes aside, this will be the toughest weekend for the Oranges.
The Sunday sees the Blues travel to Cardiff where the Coyotes host their first ever Gameday.
The Gators have faced the Coyotes a few times since their start but this is their first “competitive” games so to speak and I am sure their HC Mike Austin will be hoping to make their mark in the league nice and early.
Then the Blues face the Hurricanes 2. Whilst we know the sort of team Cardiff can field and it’s top tier in fairness, no one outside of them know what sort of squad the 2’s have so it’ll be an interesting matchup regardless.
I would love to see both sides go 2-0 on the weekend but truthfully, if everyone enjoys, balls out and learns and gains experience then as a coaching unit, I think we’ll be pleased."
Offensive Co-ordinator Christopher Bartlett-Legge told us his view ahead:
"Really looking forward to this week getting a real competitive game-day that kind of means something (competitive).
It'll be cool to play against the Troj... Gators alternate side aswell as I haven't played them before so it will be like an out of conference game.
Hopefully overall we play well offensively we have been building a nice nucleus the last few months now we just have to go out an execute, meaning hopefully no drops or wrong routes that have put us behind the downs in previous years.
Defensively we are going up against two very talented offenses with players either playing in their first games or first games at their position so any disruption to them will be a positive. Just overall I want something to build on for the forthcoming weeks and just to have A bit of fun with my mates doing what we love to do."
Blues Captain and Defensive Co-ordinator Mark Studley was excited to see the field:
"Can't wait for the season to finally start after what has been the longest off season in history.
It is going to be one of the most unpredictable seasons with teams splitting their squads and rejoining after long absences.
We're just excited to be playing again and hopefully we can put in some decent performances along with that.
Excited to see how well we can implement what we've been doing in the off-season and looking forward to finishing above the Gators Orange!"
Orange Captain Andy Giboney, facing a familiar foe was looking forward to hitting the ground running:
"As the orange team captain I’m excited to get back playing, it’s been a long 18 months since we played competitive games with bafa.
As a squad we are looking forward to implementing the coaching plans that where put in place over our zoom calls during lock down.
Our two opponents for our first bafa game day are the Swansea Hammerheads and Gwent Trojan’s. We have played against Swansea a few times with mixed results and will be looking forward to avenging a defeat from our last bafa game day against them 2 years ago.
As a former Trojan I’m looking forward to playing against my former comrades, As the current holders of the Welsh bowl it will be interesting to see how rusty they are having not played a game for over 2 years."
The Gwent Gators Begin their opening weekend of the 21/22 season Saturday the 19th of June.
Starting Line-ups will be released prior to KO on the game-day.
Keep follow for live updates on the Gwent Gators twitter @GwentGators
Earlier today, the Gwent Gators signed a new rookie in the form of Jake Williams.
Earlier this week, the Gators announced the sponsorship of the game-day seasonal awards for the Welsh division season.