It was an early start for us this morning. So while the boys were kicking the dew off the ground during their warm up some of the parents were plucking the poo off the ground trying to keep warm.
After last week’s big win the group was just a little bit cocky before the game sizing up the opposition and perhaps underestimating them from their size. It was quite a rude awakening for the team when we were being beaten out of the midfield and the ball spending most of the quarter in the Vampire’s forward line. It was only due to some strong defensive work from Sunny King, Josh Meikle and Campbell Holtham that held East Brighton to just the one score. Will Boyd Turner started getting his hands on the ball and kicked our first goal.
In the second quarter we began to control the game bringing the pressure we know we need to win games. After the first quarter on the bench Sonny Gittus came on all fired up and tackled and hassled the opposition for the whole quarter. The boys started to use some handball through the midfield which opened up the play.
The third quarter was much tighter. Josh kicked us a goal while Will and Paddy kept throwing themselves into contests to keep us in the game with Paddy eventually coming off due to two knocks to his nose.
We went into the last quarter with a very slim 1 point lead. I challenged Jack Carson, Hugo Tuffley and Sonny to put in a big quarter in the midfield. Will was again wherever there was a loose ball until he also had to come off with a head knock. The boys kept it tight throughout with the Vampires managing to score just the three points. It was up to Domenic Todarello to seal the game for us by kicking a point and then intercepting the kick in and finishing them off with a goal.
In a tight game we only had three goal scorers for the week.
Goals: Josh Meikle, Will Boyd Turner, Domenic Todarello
Our captain for the game today was Miles Cooper who earned this for his consistent performance throughout the year. His vice-captain was Harvey Atchison who is continually improving with each game. The award winners this week were led by Campbell Holtham and Josh Meikle who have been amongst our most consistent players over the first four rounds. The two of them have been demonstrating how they have been listening to instructions and trying to implement the tackling pressure and using handball today to try create space for the team. The other award winners were Domenic Todarello who was dangerous all day with his long kicking and then slotting through the winning score for us and Harvey Atchison whose confidence just keeps on growing each week playing the best game I have seen from him.
