Two wins in past three — dare to dream with an improving competitive unit which is gelling nicely…either way, great to see you all having a good crack, singing the song, beating a team which came down from Div 1.
Great to have Jack Bell and Josh Le Grice play down and provide some leadership with high game impact (6 sausages between them), and well done to the regular Div 2 boys that played up for Div 1 Marcus White, Joe Lynch, Matti Spazz, Liam O’Driscoll, Per Bellarts and then doubled up in Div 2…great stuff, sang the song twice — how good is this!
A bit of a slow start to the first quarter, ball watching, plenty of forward entries but leaking like a sieve…and then bang, 4 quick goals starting from a couple of 1 percenters: one from Sam Wilson who hunted down and ferociously tackled their prime mover after a couple bounces exiting our forward line (great forward pressure) and a smother from Joe Lynch, and then a four handball sequence off half back followed by quick and efficient ball movement by foot into the forward line…great to watch. Goals to Will, Liam, Jack Bell and Josh.
Second quarter another slow start and they came out of the blocks fast, moved the ball on the switch with pace and started to look dangerous…again some individual efforts to kick start things; Will Nolan attacking lead gives off (no U-turn) to oncoming Per using great voice. Andy Bird 4-5 repeat efforts to work the loose ball forward out of the half backline to set up quick ball movement – relentless effort. Coops with relentless in and under hard ball gets using quick hands to outside players – signature stuff. Sam Elliott attacking the footy out of full back – backed himself, steadied and delivered kick multiple times – awesome stuff. Josh provided a great target up forward with a couple key goals to steady things. The backline was defensively very good this quarter manning up and backing yourself to attack out of the backline at the right times.
The third quarter was a bit of a nothing quarter from both sides. Our mids stopped working as hard and there were plenty of opposition forward entries. Our backs and mids got caught half in / half out of the contests in no mans land…we weren’t hurt on the scoreboard…basically lost of a bit of shape defensively after being excellent in the first half. A great quarter from Zeb who must have had 10+ tackles, smothers, chase downs, shepherds, outstanding, really using that rugby background to great affect (and did it the whole game, plays physical accountable footy). Josh and Tom McKinley steadying things with a goal each.
Fourth asked that we not let them get a sniff, and to maintain or better the five goal lead – well done boys, you did a great job running the game out with goals to Jack Bell, Liam O and Per…some gut busting repeat leads from forward line up the wing by Liam in particular to create marking options and eventually rewarded. A well deserved win all round lads – a unit that is gelling nicely.
Awards:
Tom M. – the rock, marks, kicks, handballs, rotating through the mid-field off half back – sensational game.
Joe L. – congrats on your first (and second) games on the same day for the Club – rotating through the ruck with Jack Bell – for a guy who has never played tuck before, your competitive ruck work at centre bounces and around the ground was excellent.
Zeb S. – first chance for me to see you play, great to have another new face and the two-dozen plus 1 percenters and accountable efforts around the contest really stood out.
Sam Elliott – went to full back to give the team flexibility with rotations and played a great game, judged the flight of the inbound ball, backed yourself to attack the lose ball and run it out of defence – real attacking game out of defence…that is the way to play it.
Will N – just gotten better every game, a real excitement machine with overhead marks, versatile around the contest, attacks the ball with confidence, like you really want it and know what you are going to do with it, read the play well.
Captain: Charlie Officer – well played buddy, good to see you up the ground and having some time in the midfield after time out, always look dangerous up forward.
A great win – enjoy the break boys!
