East Sandy Rovers Div 3 had 4 players out (at least) and others deserving an opportunity to play up a level. We did however have some gun fill ins from the U14 ranks who deserve a special mention: Christian Ballarin, Lucas Civitarese, Jack Cahill and Ben Davis. They played the whole game and were courageous and skilful in equal measure – thanks boys. We also were grateful to have Jack Tuffley, Jamie Delaney and Ryan Lewis have a run with us this week. All three showed their class.
We knew that Murrumbeena were good on the road. After 3 away rounds they had not lost a game and were sitting atop the Div 3 ladder with a percentage of 276.36%. But could they play at home???
Err, yes, it turns out they are rather good at home too.
Spoiler alert for those who like to read the whole write up before knowing what the final score is.
Q1 (7.9) 51 vs (0.2) 2
Q2 (9.13) 67 vs (0.4) 4
Q3 (14.19) 103 vs (1.5) 11
Q4 (22.22) 154 vs (1.6) 12
Ouch.
So, what can we say about our Div 3 boys – what did we learn about them?
We learned that this young team have a BIG heart. They were out played but they did not drop their heads. They tackled their guts out and they ran their legs off and they supported and encouraged each other through all four quarters. They did themselves proud. Coach Ryan commented after the game that he had not experienced a more pleasing thumping because, despite what the score may suggest, the boys actually showed immense character and courage along with some decent football.
Special mentions go to the following boys:
Jorge Houridis who tackled and dominated his patch of the oval – on one occasion winning the ball against 4 Murrumbeena players through sheer dogged determination.
Christian Sallabank who showed his best form of the season and ran, tackled, shepparded and offered himself all game long.
Zac Zeising who rucked all day, never shirking a contest, he snagged our only goal and earned the oppositions respect.
Adam Doyle who was a machine in the middle, continually being brave in and over the ball, showing clean hands and distributing will intelligence.
Mitch Gathercole who was courageous in defence, kept his shape, disrupted their play and brought his A game.
We should also mention Will Tuffley, who was subjected to a rough two movement sling tackle early in the second quarter. His head hit the ground hard and as a precaution he did not play for the remainder of the game. The Murrumbeena player was yellow carded which was subsequently up-graded to a red after the game. To be fair on him, he checked in with Will at the end of the game and they shook hands.
So, that’s the end of the grading rounds. I think we can safely say that Murrumbeena will move up and we will start the season afresh after winning 2 and losing 2.
