Seniors
Wind the clock back a few months when we came away from Beaumaris ruthlessly flogged in both the seniors and reserves. With unprecedented player losses in the off-season the season ahead looked grim. On the other hand Beaumaris sat on top of the ladder and looked for all money to be one of the teams who would be fighting it out deep into September. The gulf between the two clubs looked enormous, insurmountable even.
But since that fateful day coach Paul Satterley and his team have managed to mould this young group into a very competitive unit. For club supporters it has been an exciting time as we re-build and enormous respect goes to players and coaches for the way they have confronted the challenge head on.
We have been on the end of a few decent losses but have managed to get on the winners list 3 times. Beaumaris sit 4th but since our last meeting have also won 3 games. So despite ladder positions and being healthy underdogs, on form alone we gave ourselves a good chance today.
The ground was in good nick and while the rain stayed away the wind was blowing a gale straight down the ground to the scoreboard end. The visitors had first use and were very efficient in piling on 5 goals 2 to our solitary behind. While we toiled hard into the wind but their goals did come a little to easily.
The second started well with Fieldsend landing a long bomb. A nice snap from Hyland followed and we were back in the contest. Further goals followed from Indovino and the Haley brothers as we edged in front close to half time. We dominated the quarter and kept the visitors scoreless but despite peppering the goals we led by just 5 points at the main break.
The first 20 minutes of the 3rd quarter was perhaps our best for the year. While the breeze had abated slightly it was still a healthy advantage to the end Beaumaris were kicking. In the first 20 minutes of the quarter we displayed the composure perhaps lacking in the first half and kicked 3 unanswered goals into wind while holding Beaumaris scoreless. Charlie Haley kicked two in quick time and was proving a real handful while our defence repelled every Beaumaris attack. But Beaumaris have an impressive group of on-ballers and as they got back on top we unfortunatley gave up some late goals. With a 10 point lead and what was left of the breeze at our backs we were still confident of getting the points.
A Sam Williams goal inside the first minute was the perfect start but the visitors pegged one back straight away. This gave them a sniff and they were playing the better football. They came hard and for next 10 minutes or so as the lead was cut to under goal. We re-grouped with goals to Parker and Williams getting us over the line by 3 goals. A huge win in the context of the season.
Ant Forato played his best game for the club today while our experienced players Fieldsend, Williams, Gotch, Close and Jarvis really showed the way.
A very difficult trip to St Bedes next week but the stakes are huge. A win
will not only go along way to securing a place in ‘A’ grade for 2015 but will keep us in touch with 4th position.
De La Salle 12.10.82
Beaumaris 9.10.64
Goal Kickers: C. Haley 4, S. Williams 2, T. Parker , J. Gotch , N. Hyland , H. Haley , M. Fieldsend , A. Indovino
Best Players: M. Fieldsend, S. Williams, A. Forato, D. Close, J. Gotch, L. Jarvis
Reserves
We battled hard but were no match for an impressive Beaumaris outfit. Josh Slade back from injury was very good, as were Dan Millwood and Simon Lowe. Mattiske and McMahon also finding some form.
De La Salle 6.7.43
Beaumaris 14.10.94
Goal Kickers: J. Slade 2, J. Terrell , D. Millwood , M. Carney , S. Lowe
Best Players: J. Slade, D. Millwood, S. Lowe, J. Mattiske, T. McMahon, M. Carney
19 Blues
Tough road trip against ladder leaders. Competitive early but blown away in second half. Report to follow.
De La Salle 4.7.31
St Bernards 22.22.154
Goal Kickers: A. Wheatley 2, N. Halliday , W. Wright
Best Players: J. Howard, N. Halliday, H. Curtis, S. McGraw, A. Hay, J. Gava
19 Golds
The game probably went as expected, De La played well, MHSOB battled, and the scoreboard took care of itself and at the end De La had recorded a big win and kept a potential top 2 finish in their sights.
Winter footy in Melbourne brings about plenty of days like yesterday - a howling gale favouring one end of the ground, watery sun and biting cold wind and you can either embrace it or get beaten before the game even starts. De La embraced it and despite kicking into the teeth of the gale we got off to a strong start. We peppered the goals, tried to work out the tricky wind and tried to work the ball up the ground with numbers and then kick to open forward line where our marking targets could find space and mark balls close to goals. All good in theory, but after the first five minutes it all went out the window as players lost their discipline and started chasing kicks, flooding into the forward line and leaving us open to the sucker punch where the opposition clear the ball over the top, run down the ground exposing an undermanned back line and kick an easy goal.
From that we then remembered that there are two phases to the game - defensive as well as attacking and backs and mids tightened up and we were able to get a stranglehold on the footy and slowly started to squeeze the opposition and gain the upper hand on the game.
The 2nd started and we started to generate run and carry through the half backs, wingers and mids looking to link the play up with attacking handball and kicking deeper to our forward line where Tom Nicholls and Mick Lee (back after 6 weeks out with ankle ligaments) were our marking targets. We had 14 shots with the breeze, but probably wasted it as we continually kicked the ball to the dead or defensive pocket where MHSOB were able to just push the ball out, regroup, work it up the ground, watch it come back and repeat. In addition we started to blaze away and try and kick the Hollywood goal rather than kick the easy one, which was frustrating for all concerned. Our backs were working well, but again they started to drift into the forward area, clogging up the front half, which only served to make it hard for us to get our true reward for dominating the footy. Our dominance wasn't truly reflected because when we looked at what had happened we had kicked 5 goals 7 and chucked in a couple of out of bounds on the full for good measure.
We reminded the players of what was required and the need to be aware of run and carry, numbers at the footy, keep the front half open, look to win our one-on-ones and to borrow the cliche count - make sure we "put in place the right structures and processes" - we did and it was a much better 2nd half.
In many ways what can you say about a game where the opposition were quite undermanned, and despite having some players who were individually talented were being overwhelmed by a much more even team, and it was that evenness of performance across the board that was helping De La to keep the scoreboard ticking over. An example of that was where Tom Hyland chased and harassed his opponent inside our forward half and was rewarded as his opponent ran too far and was pinged. From the resultant kick the other forwards and on ballers keep the space open and Tom Nicholls ran onto a kick to mark no more than 25 out to kick an easy goal.
In the last we got our game going really well and kicked 10 goals by using the ball much better, kicking to the open side and keeping the front half open to allow our forward more space to work in.
In the end it was a comprehensive result and on the balance of play probably was accurate, but credit must go the MHSOB who still persisted and kicked goals in the last.
It was pleasing to see Michael Lamoutzis have a good game deep back, he and Anthony De Luca linked well in the last line to mop up any mess, switch the angle of play and initiate attacking moves. Tom Nicholls with 12 goals was a reliable target and probably could have a couple more, he worked well up front with Mick Lee who kicked 5, the "Shredder" gives us strength around the contests and provides us flexibility with his ability to play in a number of positions, Tom Still was lively when on-ball, and have us plenty of dash off half back, Jack Short (aptly named given his stature) was lively up forward and worked well with the other small forwards to continual harass the opposition backs, Liam Feather gave us plenty of use with constructive handball in the middle and worked well with fellow on-baller Dan Anastasio.
Overall a good result, and one that creates headaches for selectors (albeit, a good one) and we look to next week where we play ....... MHSOB - one of the vagaries of the draw in Under 19 South (a little like playing peninsula away twice!).
De La Salle 25.14.164
MHSOB 7.3.45
Goal Kickers: T. Nicholls 12, M. Lee 5, J. Short 3, J. Hanley 2, T. Still 2, T. Hyland
Best Players: T. Nicholls, T. Still, J. Short, D. Anastasio, M. Laoumtzis, M. Lee
Last Modified on 29/06/2014 14:41
