Hi everyone,
For the second week in a row, 11 players out, the bare 18 to start the game, a ten goal loss…but an incredibly proud coach!
This week was even better than last week.
We were up against Beaumaris, the best side in the competition for the past 5 years, who had 21 players available.
The brief was to play with flair…play man on man but run hard, spread, look for the short & wide option, and get the ball quickly into our forward line where we would set up as a “Fish Bone”.
What a start! 2 goals on the board before the mighty Beauy even scored and only 1 point the difference at quarter time…game on.
Sadly, Josh Le Grice went down with an ankle injury right on the quarter time siren and we were down to 17.
A solid 2nd quarter with one short saw us only 22 points in arrears at half-time and the boys were playing unbelievable football…fierce tackling, sensational spot kicking, running to space and creating the loose man.
The third quarter saw us lose Cam Morris (one of our first quarter goal-kickers who had to move down back after the loss of Josh) and we were down to 16…too much of a gap to fill and the might of Beauy saw them slam on 6 goals to 1 for the quarter.
The final quarter was just inspirational…with only 16 on the field and more than half of them having played the day before, we kept Beaumaris to 2 goals for the quarter while scoring 1 ourselves (thanks to a sensational snap from Ferg Murray). The desperation in the backline was incredible, the clearance work from our midfielders superb, and the drive from our forwards magnificent…we had so many entries it was a joy to watch. Unfortunately, with only one forward target, the weight of numbers were in Beauy’s favour and we could not convert more of our opportunities.
The final result…a 62 point loss…with only 16 players…against Beaumaris! Sensational.
The style of footy was the best we’ve played all year and If we could have been lucky enough to keep 18 on the field I truly believe we had their measure. You guys were ON yesterday and it was a joy to watch.
Awards:
Per Bellarts – his best game for the year…played most of the game on their best player from last time and rendered him ineffectual
Frank Morris – two great games in a row…stunning first quarter making space on the wide open far side of Boss James and repeatedly carrying the ball forward
Ferg Murray – several intercept marks, fantastic switch of play & a wonderful goal
Chris Perkins – sensational game firstly at CHB on a very good player and then in the midfield and forward capping off with a terrific goal
Nick Van der Linden – all class and grunt once again with terrific ball use & a great goal
& the Robert Connor Dawes beanie went to Max Hanna who unselfishly put his hand up to take over from Perko and play on Kyle Yorke at CHB…not only did he do a terrific job (I bet you learnt a bit Max) but he thrilled all with a 3 bounce run & carry in the last quarter
Special mentions: Tweeds for some incredible dashes out from full back (many unrewarded); Lachie Fraser for his gutsy work in the midfield; Larkers for continuing to present as a forward target against several extra players; Goldy for an excellent all-round game (especially your last quarter); Spaz for his two incredibly tough marks.
There were many others and it was a terrific team performance…once again you should all be very proud of yourselves because I am very proud of all of you!
Only 2 games to go and this week we lose all of the Brighton Grammar boys to School camp so we will be very low on numbers…please give us early warning if you are unavailable this week as we will need to do some careful planning and work out whether we will indeed have enough numbers to field two teams this week.
Our best wishes go out to Will Nolan & Zeb Skellern who suffered long-term injuries and join Zac Watson who is also out for the season…all the best & we hope you all recover well boys.
I hope to see as many of you as possible on Wednesday night for our second last training session at Castlefield at 6pm – 7.30pm.
Cheers,
Ralph Bergman
