Coburg visited ladder leaders Port Melbourne on the weekend, and suffered a 55 point loss in what was their captain John Baird's 175th match.
Coburg went in to the game without key players Robin Nahas and Aaron Edwards who were named as emergencies for Richmond in the AFL, and this lack of quality showed in the first quarter. Port Melbourne controlled the ball for much of the term, and after a few goals in a row looked like they were going to steal the game away from Coburg early. To the Tigers credit though, some well applied defensive pressure kept Port Melbourne to just 3 goals and the score for the quarter was 3.5.23 to 1.0.6, Port unable to capitalise on a vast majority of posession.
The second quarter showed a very similar story, with Port controlling a lot of the ball in the midfield. Coburg managed to get their hands on it more often however, and got some forward 50 entries through the midfield group, with McBean looking dangerous once again and taking advantage by kicking 2 goals for the term. Port kicked 4 goals to 3 for the quarter and went in to half time 7.8.50 to 4.2.26 - 24 points ahead, with Coburg just hanging on.
The game opened up in the second half, something that was to Coburg's disadvantage. The positive for them in the first half was the strong pressure and resilience in defence, managing to slow Port's scoring and the pace of the game. In the third quarter however, the game was played on Port's terms as they started to take more of their chances in the forward line, mostly due to quicker and more accurate delivery from their midfielders. Port ended the term with another 4 goals to Coburg's 2, McBean adding another to take his tally to 3 for the day. The score going in to the last change was 11.11.77 to 6.4.40.
Port continued where they left off in the final quarter, dominating the ball through the middle, and continuously peppering the Tiger's defence. It could be seen that the fight to stay in the contest all day had taken it's toll on the Coburg players, as a bit of life went out of the match due to fatigue. Port were playing in a milestone match for their captain however, so didn't slow down and continued to apply pressure on the scoreboard. They added 5 more goals in total, to Coburg's 2, to make the final margin 55 points.
Some positives for Coburg included the continued form of Liam McBean who kicked another 3 goals to take his season tally to 17, as well as taking a handfull of strong grabs. Zac Keogh also put in a strong performance after spending most of his season in the development squad, a positive sign showing that some youngsters are coming through. Arnot and McDonough put in strong performances once again, and Nick Maric looked dangerous whenever he got near the ball, kicking 3 goals including one miraculous effort from the pocket.
Port Melbourne 16.16.112
Coburg 8.9.57
GOALS: McBean, Maric 3, Arnot, McDonough 1
BEST: McBean, Verrier, Dea, Elton, Arnot, McDonough
Coburg's Development Squad had a great win earlier in the day, defeating Port Melbourne 16.7.103
to 13.16.94 after being behind all day. The win obviously meant a lot to the players and coaches judging by the reactions at the final siren, and some strong performances added to the extra effort shown implies good things for the team in the rest of the season. Vesnaver followed up his bag of 6 goals last week with another 5, while Anderson kicked 3 in a brilliant individual performance. Fancellu also kicked 3 and Ozgur Uysal was critical in the last quarter surge, kicking 2 great goals.
Next weekend see's Coburg face Bendigo on Sunday 2nd of June at Mantello Holden Oval.
Development 11am
Seniors 2pm.
Last Modified on 27/05/2013 13:41