***Clash of the Titans***
The biggest clash of the season is just days away as the strength of the Hawks face up against the previously invincible Bombers this Saturday at Riddells Creek. The Senior Riddells Creek team have only suffered defeat at the hands of the Hawks and will be bitter about their minor blemish on the board given to the team who has long been dubbed Premiership favourites. The Top of the table clash lies in a 3 way tussle for 'Top Dog' position after round 11 on the ladder.
The Hawks only loss this season was to the Kangaroos who lost to Riddells Creek who lost to the Hawks. The fact that one team will be sent to the wolves and left to fight it out for a double chance as the finals linger, has no bearing on the clash of Titans this Saturday. The Bombers have discovered some new found depth, the Hawks have unearthed a new superstar in Justin Rodda to cover the loss of possible Best and Fairest favourite Matt Stacey.
This is one of the biggest games of the season for all three football teams and 2 netball teams. The U18's will have fond memories at the Riddells Creek ground having been the only team to defeat their counterparts in season 2006... 12mths later, it is the Hawks now who are the Hunted but can they maintain their ultimate supremacy and close down another premiership contender?
Round 10 against Macedon saw the highly anticipated local derby. The mid-week re-signing of Luke 'Digger' Barker proved to be a vital cog in the Woodend line up. The promotion of Justin 'Hotrod' Rodda to the Senior team was an enormous bonus and a confidence lift to any 2nds player striving for a spot in the team.
The advantage of having many clubs postponing home games early in the season was a gift in disguise to the club as Gilbert Gordon has turned into slush with the use of the ground treated like a delicacy... a Picasso painting... look but you may not touch... with the ground you can jog, but you can't dump your team mates into it with bone-crunching tackles.
The bravery medals of the week are awarded to Matt Perkins, Pat Kopke and Ric Cerminara as an unfortunate incident that took place at Matt's dad's house saw the bungalow caught alight at 4am after the boys returned home from a party. Ric was the first to wake and dragged Pat and Matt out of bed and outside as the Bungalow went up in flames. Luckily the guys were able to get out alive and hopefully the insurance bill will cover lost possessions including Ric and Pat's phones and wallets.. the damage was significant and the night saw everyone on the street... Ric in just a pair of boxer shorts at that time.
Arriving at the Macedon ground last Saturday, the ground was like skating on ice with players slipping over at random. You would think that with all the gear hiding beneath the boot of Gum's car that he may have 22 pairs of ice-skates in a box for the guys to wear. The start of the 18's saw the 'Ben Shippard initiative' take place as he looked to have brought along his own pair of skates as he roved a Robbie Hughes tap from the centre bounce, jogged to the edge of the centre square and sent a bouncing ball through the goal square for the first major of the day in under 15 seconds. A drop down into the U18's to rebuild some confidence was already starting to pay off.
The game saw another demolition derby as the young Hawks toyed with their Macedon opponents and holding them to just one goal, while they landed another triple figure margin of destruction. Cam O'Loughlin's goal on the run from 50mts along the boundary after running from half back was the clear highlight of the day. E.J's Army were singing in high voice on this day as the lads were keen to get into the famous Macedonian Dim-sims after the game. Did they taste good Webby?
For the first time this season, the 2nds team were desperately lacking talls as General Muppet (Marcus Stevens) and Marto (Dan Martin) were left to soldier on through the ruck duties. This position mattered little as the forward line was bombarded with in-coming kicks and Digger thought all his Christmases had come at once. After sturdy performances at Centre Half Back in the Kyneton Seniors in attempt to stop goals, he had lost none of his kicking confidence to get them. He nailed 4 in the first quarter. Could we see the first double figure goal tally at Hawkland this season? He finished the day with 8, but as Liam 'Ron Burgandy' O'Meara would tell you, he personally would've kicked 10 had he not been placed in the backline. He managed to kick one which was still a good effort. Brent 'Ollie' Olivieri had more than 30 touches and linked well with Govey and Justin 'Chris Judd' Bobic along half back and the centre line. A big 130 point win was a great effort and a better coaching effort from Pup Bowen who was without his sidekick Ross 'Rocky' Barker who controlled the troops on the field.
The Seniors danced with Macedon for the Bill Tunn Cup. Bill provided excellent services for both teams and it was fitting that the teams played for a cup named after him. The Hawks held unhappy memories at Macedon, losing to the Cats in the inaugural match for the cup and the Preliminary Final against Diggers Rest last year, which no-one talks of to this day. The Cats got the first goal of the game and the memories started to flood back, but through the efforts of Rick Dowling, that lead was crushed.
The highlight to start the game was the growing cheer-squad and support for the new freshman in his first senior outing, the 'Hotrod' as he convincingly won his opening few ruck contests. The Hawks pulled away to an easing 3 goal lead at the change, but I'm very sure that Gidds wasn't sitting in the winners circle just yet and had one target plan in mind to really close the game out... put Warren 'Plugga' Else to full forward. The plan worked instantly as Plugga kicked 4 goals in the 2nd quarter to help set up a 10 goal halftime lead. The Cats fought well and nearly took out the 2nd half honours, but the ghosts of season 2006 had been put to rest and a 10 goal margin was a fitting end to the days play.
All to play for this Saturday against the Bombers. Make sure you don't miss a beat on what will be a memorable day! Let's go Hawks!!!
Last Modified on 11/02/2008 21:43