Our captains for the day, Liam H and Harvey, won the toss and with no wind to speak of, and chose their favoured end with the intent to get first blood in the game at Hurlingham Park against the East Brighton Vampires.
The boys got off to a great early start again in the first quarter with George driving the ball forward and Tom being able to get onto a loose ball and snap a great goal to open the scoring.
We had spoken during the week about creating space and leading – and the boys were up for the challenge. Freddie and Marlon ran hard to get into position and as a result were able to take some excellent marks from the running play. George was involved again in several tight contests, moving the ball forward and was later rewarded with a goal of his own.
Liam H, Freddie and Harrison K had the ball on a string in the second quarter with multiple running, marking, defensive, and kicking efforts and Harrison K was able to finish off a particularly good passage of play with a goal.
At half time – the coach called for the backline to be strong on the last line of defence and ensure we dropped back. Cooper, aka The Rock of Gibraltar, took on this role with gusto in the third quarter and produced two outstanding goal line defensive efforts which saved guaranteed goals – to great applause from the team and sidelines. Liam H continued to find plenty of the ball, making several plays and scoring also. Lewis and Harvey played well in defence and linked up with Johnny and Marlon in the midfield to setup Charlie H, who worked hard all quarter, with a well-deserved goal.
In the final quarter, Charlie Q found himself isolated deep in the pocket surrounded by five opposition players, but with some fancy footwork was able to manoeuvre around all of them and set up a centring ball back into attack. This inspired the boys, and Jock took Charlie’s lead and found space to take a bounce, do some weaving and sent the ball to top of the square to give the forwards another opportunity. There was strong marking around the ground by a number of the boys and a number of great passages of play in the final term and Spencer and Lachie able to convert to finish of the game well.
A rewarding game for the boys with many strong contributors across the ground. The boys really put the weeks training into practice and was encouraging to see the spirit in the singing of the song and with a few more of the boys starting to learn the words.
#GoRovers
