Sunday the 15th of April saw the footy season begin for us being paired up with Bentleigh for Round 1, with Marcus White leading the team out (as he was recently appointed the team’s Captain for this Season). He led the team into cold and wet conditions. Pressure was the imminent factor from the first bounce as both teams endeavour for the footy was evenly matched the Sandy-Rovers boys got off to a good start bagging 3.3 goals in the first quarter to build a lead of 9 points over Bentleigh who sat on 2 goals straight.
In sloppy conditions, disposals had trouble finding clean hands and the ball mostly found itself on the floor more than anywhere else, leading to Bentleigh being able to strangle control of the game over us building a 15 point lead going into half time.
After an opportunity to reset, the boys tussled hard for most of the 3rd quarter, but due to a couple of lucky periods of play and lapses in concentration from our boys, Bentleigh gained a 27 point advantage going into the final term.
In the last period Bentleigh’s cleanliness regarding disposal was much higher than ours leading to them building on their ever rowing lead, before the Rovers were able to clinch a couple of consolation goals towards the end. Ending in a 32 point loss for the first game of the season.
Lots of Positive signs can be taken out of Sunday’s loss as the pressure applied by the Sandy-Rovers boys matched Bentleigh’s for the duration of the game, if it weren’t for wet and sloppy conditions the score line could have been much closer.
Notable performances included Ferg Murray who won Best on ground privileges and battled away in the midfield for us all day, Patty Kennedy leading out of our forward line and providing an attacking option when called upon, Cam Morris was able to snag himself a goal whilst battling in and under as well as aerially, Marcus White also grabbed a goal despite playing a pressure position role down at CHB, as he directed traffic for his team mates.
One round down we look forward to next week where back at the Boss we will face Caulfield where hopefully the weather is a little kinder to the boys upon the starting siren.
Goal kickers Cam Morris 1, Marcus White 1, Pat Kennedy 1 , Tom Goldsmith 1 & not sure who kicked the last one email Miranda if you know.
Get to training so we can keep working together to improve.
Well done lads.
Tom
