Raquell Bin Rashid, Keifer Yu lead the way as Cable Beach crush Derby Tigers to claim WKFL minor premiership

The all-conquering Cable Beach has claimed the 2021 West Kimberley Football League minor premiership with a 99-point win against Derby, and installed themselves as unbackable favourites to win the grand final. It was billed as the game of the season and a precursor to the grand final — the two top teams on equal points battling it out to claim the minor premiership — but ended anything but as the Greenbacks cruised home 22.8 (140) to 6.5 (41). Cable Beach had just one blip on their 2021 campaign to this point; a loss to the Tigers in Derby which only added to the anticipation of Saturday’s home-and-away season ender. And for one quarter — the first — the game appeared destined to live up to the hype. The Tigers were out to prove that mid-season win was no fluke and, after a lengthy centre-field tussle from the opening bounce the visitors claimed ascendency with an early goal. As always the Greenbacks maintained their cool and it wasn’t long until their vaunted forward line got the scoreboard ticking over. The quarter was tilted in Derby’s favour though: they successfully walled Beach deep in their own defence and heaped on the pressure to force errors in dangerous attacking areas. Had it not been for the steely composure of the likes of Jackson Leach in defence the 3.3 (21) to 2.3 (15) quarter time scoreline in favour of Beach could have read much differently for the home side. If the first quarter set up the spectacle, the first few minutes of the second shut it down. Three quick fire goals, two off Yu’s boot, stunned the Tigers seemingly into a trance from which they did not recover. The Tigers were unable to step up to match Beach, a fatal shortcoming when Yu, Elijah Howard, Rhonen Maher and Ed McGinty were all lifting having sniffed an opportunity to put the game beyond reach early. Two late goals went Derby’s way but the second term was an eight-goal rout in favour of Beach, all but sealing the minor premiership by half time. For three terms the quarter started the same way — a ruck win came out to the wing for Cable Beach, Yu broke away from his marker and was picked out on a lead for a simple chest mark, each of which were slotted for goals. It was predictable, but time and time again Derby had no answer. Indeed almost every Yu goal for the game — of which there were many — came in this fashion. And playing his third game for the Greenbacks this season, rangey young midfielder Raquell Bin Rashid once again showed what an exciting prospect he was for the league, and possibly beyond. Bin Rashid’s slippery wing runs showed shades of his veteran teammate, CJ Oakley, on the other side of the oval, and he even laid a huge tackle on a Tiger player three times his size to turn over a potential forward threat in the final term. For the Tigers there will undoubtedly be some soul-searching. By the halfway mark that impressive early pressure had fallen away completely and players were regularly sighted half-heartedly contesting marks both offensively and defensively. To their credit they still ran and ran hard when in possession and tackled well in spells, but just didn’t put enough work in when the ball was there to be won, or needed to be won.