Frankston vs Rye – Reserves
After a disappointing loss last week Frankston needed to come out firing in order to beat Rye and avoid crashing out of the finals in straight sets. Frankston have beaten Rye in their two encounters this season, the most recent time being back in round 16 by a massive 64 points. However finals are a different game and another result like that was unlikely to happen.
Frankston were kicking against a strong breeze in the first quarter. That didn’t stop them kicking the first goal of the game though. Frankston couldn’t increase their goals tally for the remainder of the quarter and finished with just the one goal into the breeze. After the first goal was kicked, Rye did then go on to kick the next 4. However the breeze they were kicking with was worth a lot more than the 4 they got and despite only kicking the one goal, Frankston were still well in the game.
It was Frankstons turn to kick with the breeze in the second quarter. They could only manage 2 goals for the quarter, despite having 6 scoring shots. Frankston held possession of the ball for the majority of the quarter. Frankston repelled every attack Rye had during the quarter and as a result Rye could only manage 2 behinds for the quarter. At the end of the first half Rye were still in front on the scoreboard, however Frankston had their tails up at half time and were determined not to put in the same performance they did the week before.
Frankston stepped up the intensity in the third quarter which may have been due to the Frankston supporters finding their voice during the half time break. Each side went goal for goal during the quarter although a couple of Ryes were from Frankston giving away undisciplined free kicks. It was important for Frankston to kick as many against the wind as Rye did with the wind and even though Rye were in front and had been for most of the day the feeling was that Rye were just hanging in with Frankston and at any minute Frankston could break the game open. That didn’t happen and at the final change Rye were still in front by a slender 5 point lead.
When Rye kicked the first 2 goals of the last quarter and extended their lead to 17 points, the momentum had obviously switched to Ryes favour however no one had told Travis Reints as he was very influential across half back and through the middle. It wasn’t until Dan Myers had run on to a loose ball inside the forward 50 and booted an important goal that Frankston had given themselves a slight chance at a come from behind win.
Ryan Lia then kicked his third goal within a minute and Frankston were well and truly back in the game. With only about 5 minutes left Frankston were still 3 points down when Rye got a clearance from the centre bounce and got a wobbly kick forward. Frankston didn’t panic and thanks to some great work in the backline they were able to force a behind. From there they were able to work the ball up the ground where another forward 50 entry resulted in Dan Myers almost running on to another loose ball and kicking the goal however the Rye defender managed to also get his foot on the ball and score the rushed behind.
Rye nearly broke the zone from the kick out however Frankston forced the ball over the line for a boundary throw in just on their forward flank. There was very little time left in the game and this was possibly Frankstons last shot at kicking the winning goal. From the boundary throw Frankston got the clearance and as the ball came in to the forward line Mick Maiorino took a spectacular mark 25 metres out directly in front. If there was any pressure on him to slot the goal, he certainly didn’t show it as he calmly went back and slotted the goal to put Frankston back in front for the first time since the first quarter. 30 seconds later Frankston were celebrating a fantastic win and the clubs first win in this years finals series.
Frankston will now have to wake up nice and early to travel down Rye for their Preliminary Final match against Dromana where they will be looking to improve on their last outing in the Qualifying final.
Goal Kickers: RLia lead the way up forward with 3 goals, D.Mullavey and M.Maiorino each booted 2, while M.Dillon and D.Myers kicked 1 each.
Best Players: D.Myers, R.Renouf, D.Elliott, S.Cameron, S.White and P.Schultz were all among the best for Frankston.
Frankston 9.11.65 def Rye 9.8.62
Last Modified on 05/09/2011 19:37