Friday night saw the Roos take on a much improved and confidant High Park Demons. The Demons were coming off their best win for the season handing out a 50 point belting to the Hawks. The Roos went into the game well under full strength, starting with only 19 players including a rookie Canadian as the only interchange player.
After a very solid week on the training track the Roos started the game well and gained control of the midfield early. Bryce Marshall and Mark Storey set the early pace making the most of Manny Matata’s dominance in the ruck. The Roos new look back six was proving to be very successful and stingy keeping the Demons goalless in the first quarter. With early goals coming from Travis McKenzie and Justin Rigney the Roos took an early lead and at quarter time were up by 27 points.
The first half of the second quarter was very even with the Demons lifting their work rate. But again, it was the work rate of the entire midfield group that turned the tide for the Roos. Marshall and Storey continued to win the contested footy with Adam Paterson and Kyle Bridson working their way into the game. The new look forward structure continued to work well together and applied enormous defensive pressure on the Demons to trap the ball inside their own forward 50. McKenzie and Rigney continued to kick goals and by half time the Roos looked to be well on top. At half time the Roos held a commanding 40 point lead.
The second half was all Roos with Etobicoke players dominating all over the ground. Ben Watts, in his best game for the year, was controlling the back six and racking up possessions at will and was well supported by Damien Smektala, Adam Jacobs and Pete McKitterick. Paterson, Marshall and Storey looked like they had their own footy which is testimony to their dominance. On the subject of dominance, if there was any doubt that Travis McKenzie was not the best player in this league, he surely would have made believers out of any doubters. McKenzie was simply brilliant. His work rate, marking and kicking ability was near perfect and try as they may the Demons had no answer for the man they call “T Mac”.
The Roos third quarter was the best 20 minutes of football played by the club all year, keeping the demons scoreless and helping themselves to six goals in the process. At three quarter time the Roos were up by 78 points.
With some strong urging by the coach at the three quarter time the Roos went in for the kill in the final quarter. The Roos continued to dominate, kicking another six goals with the stingy defence only allowing the demons to kick one goal. The Roos willingness to get to the contest to support their team mates was relentless and allowed them total control at the 50/50 contest. Their field kicking was far superior to their opponents and made the job of the forwards that little bit easier. In the end it was the Roos by a massive 106 points, in a game that started as a genuine danger.
While every player contributed in a strong way it was hard to ignore the work of some of the Roos lesser lights. The work of McKitterick, Smektala and the ever improving Andrew Redelmeier was hard to miss. But for pure entertainment value, the powerful display of McKenzie with 11 goals along with the midfield dominance of Marshall, Paterson, Storey and Bridson was a treat to watch.
Next Game: Friday July 16th 6.30pm Round 9 Vs Toronto Eagles @ Humber South
Quarter By Quarter Scores
Etobicoke High Park
1st: 4.4.28 0.1.1
2nd: 8.6.54 2.2.14
3rd: 14.8.92 2.2.14
Final: 20.8.128 3.4.22
Best Players: Peter McKitterick, Andrew Redelmeier, Diamin Smektala, Ben Watts,
Bryce Marshall, Travis McKenzie.
Goalkickers: Travis McKenzie 11, Justin Rigney 5, Bryce Marshall 2, Chris Haesler 1 Jeff Wingrove 1
Weekly Award Winners Wolf Blass - Gift Pack: Peter McKitterick
Maple Leaf House - $20 Gift Voucher: Andrew Redelmeier
Coach's Award - Beer Mug: Ben Watts
Pizza Pizza - 1 %er Free Large Pizza: Damian Smektala
Etobicoke Kangaroos Next Game Round 9: Friday July 16th Div 1 Vs Toronto Eagles 6.30pm @ Humber South
Division 2 report:
Next Game: Friday July 9th 6.30pm Round 8 Vs High Park Demons @ Humber South
Quarter By Quarter Scores
Etobicoke DevilRoos Tor. Rebel Dogs
1st: 2.1.13 3.2.20
2nd: 2.2.14 8.3.51
3rd: 4.4.28 9.4.58
Final: 5.8.38 14.4.88
Best Players: Bryce Marshall, Adam Paterson, Mike Langner, Murray Lovett, Logan Chambers, Chris Haesler.
Goalkickers: Steve Curran 2, Peter McKitterick 1, Martin Walter 1, Ben Watts 1.
Weekly Award Winners Southbrook Wines: Nick McKinley
BigGrab Sports- Movie Tickets: Grahm Hooey
Next Div 2 Game: Saturday August 7th vs Tor. Rebeldogs 1.00pm @ Humber North
Last Modified on 05/01/2011 08:09
