Wowee! What a beautiful sight it was pulling up at Castlefield on Sunday afternoon, the ground bathed in sunshine. Wonderful Melbourne autumn weather.
We were facing an opponent who had already earned the right to play in Div 1, Beaumaris Sharks. A bit of rivalry with these guys as we have few Beaumaris Nth primary families in our team.
Kian was captain for the day to celebrate his great achievement of 51 games. The boys ran through the banner for the first time and loved it.
We got the jump on the opposition in the 1st quarter led by Kian. Mikey was solid down back and Will showed his prowess down forward by getting our 1st goal for the second week in a row. Kaden played forward and was tenacious in keeping it in our half of the ground. Ollie has improved his game and always makes the right decisions. Mitch R kicked another and the two Ben’s added another 2 before the quarter time siren.
Our 2nd quarter was a little tougher as Beauy got back in the contest. James P was playing his role well. I change him from forward to back, back to forward and he gives his all. Sandro took on a giant and got a holding the ball. Toby C helped out again and he holds his own a year up. Took a few cracking speccies and always uses the footy well. Harry took over the handing out of candy this week and was dancing around backmen willy nilly. At half time the margin was back to a couple of goals and we’d lost Geordie to a leg injury whilst he was doing great in the ruck.
The 3rd term was the tightest of the match. We kicked a goal, they kicked a goal. Kaden has been adamant i play him up forward and he didnt let me down. Was a ripper goal and the boys got around him. The smile on his face was brilliant. I asked for some smothering acts in the 3rd term and Mitch G got busy in that area. Assistant coach Graham was calling for D.N.A testing after Ben H kicked one on the run with his left foot. Huddy was his usual hard running self getting touches everywhere. At the last change we were still holding a slender lead.
Into the last and we had plenty of run left. Ryan was adding to his posession count and took a ripping mark. Freddie continues to gather the ball all over the midfield. Hugo was running into contests and getting the ball clear. Maxy took a couple of big grabs and got onto the end of some great play for a goal. Will got another to give us some breathing space. Leo got a free and skillfully passed to Ben W who kicked truly twice in the final term. We ran out winners by 5 goals and were pretty excited to get around Kian and belt out the theme song for the first time this year.
Great team effort and was good to get a win. Possibly the win keeps us in Div 1 and we will face Brighton Beach this Sunday.
Great effort – Hampton Rovers – best mates!
Cheers
Wayno
