Seniors
Round 11 saw us travel to Mentone for the Lasallian cup played between the two largest De La Salle schools in Melbourne. It is always a keen encounter when the Lasallian cousins meet in combat. Since St Bedes arrival in ‘A’ grade in 2008 the head to head count before today stood at De La Salle 7, St Bedes 5 with 1 draw. De La won 5 encounters in a row between round 16 2008 and the drawn game in Round 3 of 2011. St Bedes best streak is 3 in a row from round 15 2012 to Round 4 this year when De La saluted by a big margin at home. However the Malvern team has not won at Mentone since 2010 and have generally struggled to adapt to the smaller dimensions of the Brindisi Street ground.
Kicking into a healthy breeze we would have been reasonably pleased to go in at quarter time trailing by just 9 points. The defence was very solid and we worked hard around the contest but all the good work was undone by a very poor second quarter. Inexplicably we could not manage a single major kicking with the breeze while allowing the opposition 2 goals. We gave away a ridiculous number of free kicks (14 for the quarter) largely due to being second to the ball and applying undisciplined, lazy tackles. Having kicked just 1 goal in a half of football the 19 point half time margin looked substantial.
The 3rd quarter was better. We worked hard into the breeze and at least tried to maintain possession. One goal a-piece and the 19 point margin remained at the last change. Plenty of chances in the last but some poor decision making and a lack of composure when moving the ball forward proved costly. Again we were outscored when going with the wind and in the end the final margin of 26 points probably flattered us.
This game was certainly not one for the archives. A very scrappy game played in blustery conditions with lots of stoppages. While the opposition was a bit better with ball in hand overall the skills on display were poor which made for a forgettable day all round. We have regularly kept the opposition to modest totals this year and 7 goals was enough for St Bedes to get the points today with our inability to score proving once again proving to be our undoing.
Tom Humphrey had another terrific game. Ant Forato is finding some form and dominated the ruck while Chuck Haley was our only winning forward. Matt Fiedlsend, Adrian Indovino and Dan Close have all been consistent performers all year and were again good contributors.
We have won games when we have had 22 contributors – sadly today we had too many players who had little or no impact.
De La Salle 4.4.28
St Bedes 7.12.54
Goal Kickers: C. Haley 3, J. Oakley
Best Players: T. Humphrey, A. Forato, M. Fieldsend, C. Haley, A. Indovino, D. Close
Reserves
An appalling first quarter when we gave the home team a 7 goal head start proved the difference. Fought it out well and had the better of the remaining quarters. A disappointing result in a very winnable game.
De La Salle 8.7.55
St Bedes 11.11.77
Goal Kickers: M. De Luca 3, M. Carney 2, M. Hogan 2, S. Lowe
Best Players: J. Mattiske, J. Bull, J. Slade, S. Hogan, M. De Luca, D. Freeman
19 Blues
There were a couple of late callups from the Blues to help our Reserves play St.Bedes, with Dave Commins and Darcy Craig elevated to play their first senior games for the club. Back at Waverly Oval we had Joel Whitehead and James Cook from the Golds getting there first opportunity to play Blues..Our boys were primed and ready to play Beaumaris, it had been a close game last time with Beauy getting the points. This time Beauy were clinging to 4th spot and we were stuck at 6th. Our Boys were committed to giving them a hard contest and take home the win.
The weather was threatening and the wind was blowing across the ground. First quarter was hectic with both teams moving the ball well and scoring 3 goals apiece. It was great to see some of our younger brigade get on the board early with Mason Martinez, Jack Hanley and James Cook getting one each in the quarter. Jack Gava had the job on Smout and was beating him soundly. Sef McGraw was running thru the mid field and showing his customary hardness around the contest and pushing the ball forward.
2nd quarter saw Beauy scoring early, with their mid field lifting to the challenge. Aaron Hay and James Howard were battling down back and giving plenty of rebound. Aaron Wheatley and Jack Hanley scored goals, but the Beauy team piled on 6 to give the lead at half time by 4.
The 3rd quarter required our boys to lift and provide some run as we had shown earlier in the game. Nic Halliday was providing a tough contest in the ruck and dishing out some great tackles and taking marks around the ground trying to lift the team. Joe Cox was giving some great playons from deep in the back half. Sef McGraw scored a goal, but Beauy put on another 5.
The last quarter needed our boys to pull out all stops. Matt Dumbleton and Jake Pirovano were getting ontop in the clearances and Aaron Wheatley, with Dan Anastasio scored goals. But despite our boys giving their all, the Beauy team put on 3 goals to run out winners.
De La Salle 8.2.50
Beaumaris 16.12.108
Goal Kickers: J. Hanley 2, A. Wheatley 2, S. McGraw , D. Anastasio , J. Cooke , M. Martinez
Best Players: J. Gava, A. Hay, S. McGraw, J. Howard, N. Halliday, J. Cox
19 Golds
What can you say about a game where the gulf between the 2 teams was so vast. It was a predictable result and one that probably did no-one any favours, MHSOB were gallant, tried hard all day but were outnumbered and eventually overrun by the De La Golds. For the De La Golds it was nice to kick a big score, get a bit of confidence and enjoy a relatively easy day (despite an ankle injury to on-baller Adam Tonkin) and sit back and enjoy a huge win. However, there is always the other side, that if you're on the end of such a result it doesn't do much for your players or the competition.
The scoreboard can sometimes not truly reflect the truth of a game, however this one did. De La were dominant and the scoreboard reflected that. 6 goals in the 1st, 7 in the 2nd and 10 in the 3rd were indicative of the gulf between the 2 teams. In the last the 2 coaches along with umpires agreed that a shortened last quarter would be beneficial to all parties given all said above, and as such the game was completed in good spirits and both teams can move on.
It is hard to assess the better players for De La, because of the gulf between the 2 teams, and the lopsided nature of the game where the contest was essentially over before it all began. That said it was pleasing to see that De La were looking to spread the play and looking to link up with each other to achieve team goals, and that players were willing to play different roles, willing to share the ball around and were also looking to get the job done.
In all reality it could be argued that we should have won by more, but given we have sometimes struggled to kick big scores over the course of the year it was pleasing that with an open forward line and with better ball delivery into the forward line we did do what we planned - to kick a big score and restrict the opposition to a low score.
Well done to all players and particularly those who started with the Golds and then at very short notice due to injuries and lack of playing stocks in the reserves helped fill in for the Blues in our Under 19 premier grade team (Hanley, Cooke, Whitehead). They are to be commended and it reflects well on them as people that were willing to help out.
To the game. Great to see a lot of run and carry from Ollie Milner in a wing, "Shredder" across half back, on ball and up forward, Hamish Wardlaw in the ruck, "Dozer" Cowan (when he finally woke up and made it to the ground) up forward giving us a big contest when the ball was brought in, Jack Short on ball and up forward along with the 3 Tom's: Hyland, Nicholls and Still who all looked to share the ball effectively and use it well by foot. It was also good to see James Dennehy and Scott Vaswer back and getting a touch. And finally - with 17 goal kickers it demonstrates we were happy to share the load, but it also shows what was evident on the scoreboard - there was a huge gulf between the 2 teams.
Overall we have set the season up quite nicely and with the break next week which allows players to rest up, enjoy a week off, do some study, complete some school assignments, get over any niggling injuries etc.,.
We now sit in 3rd and hoping to continue to build on it for the longer term, and next we play a fairly resurgent and confident Hampton Rovers on the big expanses of Boss James. We would not want become complacent given the last 4 weeks and our run home so the challenge is there and we should embrace the challenges ahead and look to continue our improvement.
De La Salle 27.23.185
MHSOB 1.1.7
Goal Kickers: J. Short 4, T. Nicholls 4, D. Cowan 3, J. Hanley 2, M. Laoumtzis 2, T. Hyland , S. Taranto , J. Dennehy , E. Avis , J. McGAW , H. Wardlaw , L. McCluskey , J. Stewart , O. Milner , T. Still , S. Vawser , A. Wood
Best Players: O. Milner, E. Avis, H. Wardlaw, J. Short, T. Hyland, T. Nicholls
Last Modified on 06/07/2014 19:15
