Clearly the fixturing gurus had spent many hours analysing crowd numbers in the early rounds, match attendance traffic flows and the local public transport schedules and fixtured the ‘match of the day’ at the home of the Rovers – Boss James Reserve.
Mass excitement in the rooms in the lead up to the game…not sure if that was because we had 27 fit and keen players ready to run out on the hallowed turf….or maybe the fact that the U16 Boys were the next game to play and the potential for dressing room cross over was elevated!!!
Clearly something wasn’t quite right as our girls seemed to a little off colour in the first quarter and pretty much just stood back and watched the Oakleigh girls bang on 5 unanswered goals in the first 8 minutes!! Without the efforts of Jaida Ilhan, Tamsyn Higgins, Jaye Thomas, Amelia Stewart and Tessa Beech it could have been 10 goals.
At the other end of the ground our forwards were left to wonder what a size 4 synthetic Sherrin actually looked like….let alone felt like!!
Quarter Time Score
Oakleigh 5 3 33
Hampton 0 1 1
The second quarter began and it was like a new team had entered the arena (well it kinda was with 9 on the bench!!) Phoebe Landy and Elisha Pickering started to dominate the ruck contests and our midfield led by Maegan Miller, Hannah Neville, Mia (I just jumped out of a plane) Hanna, and Jamie Mawkes were regularly getting the ball forward and keeping it locked in our forward half. Goals to Scarlett Adams and Greta Robertson (2) had us right back in the contest.
Our defenders had come to play in the second quarter and proved to be impenetrable with Tayla Jones, Shae Raywood, Caity Schwarz and Ali Coyne repelling everything the Oakleigh girls threw at us. Outstanding effort to keep them scoreless….game on!!
Half Time Score
Oakleigh 5 3 33
Hampton 3 2 20
With the stiffening breeze working against us in the third quarter, we had a team plan to restrict Oakleigh to 3 goals for the quarter.
We dominated the play and had the ball in our forward half for most of the quarter. The efforts of Makenzy Taylor, Lois Melvin, Jess Bowen, Jaye and Tamsyn (both playing their best game for the Club) couldn’t deliver the killer blow and we managed a solitary point for all of our efforts.
Oakleigh took their one chance on a lucky break forward and snagged another major. Again, our entire half back and full back lines were amazing – pure desperation shown by Eliza Planincic, Holly Moss, Imogen Livitsanis, Tayla and Jaida meant that was the only score for the quarter.
3 Quarter Time Score
Oakleigh 6 3 39
Hampton 3 3 21
With the wind at our backs for the final quarter, the girls were determined to run over the top of the tiring Oakleigh team.
Another goal to Greta had us up and about and the repeated efforts of Gabi Nicholl, Kim Docking and Sophie Lever locked the ball in our forward 50 and we were peppering the goals!! Once again Lucy Grant was reading the Oakleigh kick outs and took some great marks and had shots at goal.
Wayward kicking could only deliver 4 more points and once again time became our major opponent and we fell short by 8 points.
Final Score
Oakleigh 6 3 39
Hampton 4 7 31
A great effort across the board and to keep them to just 1 goal in three quarters of footy is simply outstanding. A bit of luck when shooting for goal and it would have been a different result.
