The Redbacks ventured up to the top of the mountain on what was a spectacular day to take on old rivals Kinglake. With a couple of new faces and plenty of old ones there was a buzz and a sense of excitement that the footy season was well and truly upon us. Although we were missing our coach and a number of other new recruits we still thought we had a team that could retain the King of the Hill cup.
The first quarter saw us start quite well and our tackling and pressure on the ball carrier and around the stoppages was great, and resulted in us scoring the first major of the game. With new recruit Dave Vangelli in everything and Benn parker showing his usual hardnosed attack, we were looking good. However as the quarter went on Kinglake were able to put a few of their own on the board and held a 2 goal advantage at the first change.
The Hills were asked for a little lift in intensity for the second quarter and again in the first 5 min were able to deliver this. Ben Garrard took a strong mark and goaled early on and another new recruit in Brett Thorn started to get his hands on the footy. But again towards the end of the quarter we started to fall away and Kinglake were able to stretch their lead to 5 goals at the main break.
In the break we had a little reshuffle of the forward line structure. We decided to put Bocca inside the forward 50 one out with his opponent with just one crumbing forward at his feet. New recruit Ryan Byrns was moved onto a wing and old stagger Byron went into the middle.
The 3rd started really well. The boys started to win the close in footy and were able to kick back to back goals for the first time in the game. Byrns was starting to get a little of it on the wing, Bocca was able to hold onto a few inside 50, and the boys started to run the ball out of defence with more confidence lead by our youngest member in Kelly legassick who had been moved to a back pocket. As the ¾ time siren sounded we had managed to get just that little bit closer and trailed by only 19 points.
At the huddle stand in coach Joffa Byron asked for a really strong effort to finish off with and see if we couldn’t somehow get our noses in front. It wasn’t to be. Our boys simply ran out of steam in the last quarter and whilst we battled out till the end Kinglake were just that little bit fitter than us and deserved their win.
All in all it was good to finally get a game under our belt and some run into the legs. With new players coming into the team it will take time to work out how everybody plays.
Last Modified on 04/10/2012 11:40