Sat 8th Sept- In what could only be called a perfect day for football, bright sunshine and not overly hot with hardly a breath of wind, the NFL headed out to Preston City Oval for the 2007 finals series. What a pleasant change it was from the wind swept plains of Epping.
Montmorency were to play the old foe Greensborough in the Reserve Grade in the do or die First Semi Final, with Reserve team being Montmorency's only team to compete in finals for 2007. With all hopes on Hoffy's team it was good to see so many of the Monty faithful turn out to cheer the boys on, and what a game it turned out to be.
Both clubs did not have a senior team competing in the finals series, so both clubs were able to draw on a larger than normal pool of reserve qualifed players for todays game. Monty welcomed the return of regular reserve players who had in the past four weeks been promoted to the senior list, Pat Cusack, Luke French, Adam Kochevatkin and Matt Reinke as inclusions from the side that was smashed by Heidelberg last week. The scene was set for a highly skilled game of football.
The opening quarter was a bone crunching affair as both teams showed that they were here to win. Greensborough had the best of the early chances but missed the major score while Monty were missing their forward targets in an opening that finals nerves were clearly having an effect. Goals to Cuthbertson and Ciavola gave Monty a 9 points lead at the quarter time break as no player from either team clearly stamped their presence on the ground.
The second quarter started perfectly with a centre clearance and long kick to the forward line that Sabby Ciavola converted into a goal inside the opening minute. The boys were pumped, the crowd was vocal and finals footy was alive. Monty settled first and players like Joffa Byron and Scott Pepyat showed the true class they have as they started to rack up the posessions. Scott was running the legs off the Greensborough mid field as he ran at them and then dazzled around them in a display of why he clearly won the best and fairest at the club. He was so far in a class of his own that even a miss kicked pass went through for a goal despite D'Agastino's best efforts to try and mark it. By the half time break Mont had kicked clear with a 6 goals to 2 goals quarter to go into the break with a 32 points lead.
The third quarter saw Greensborough come out firing and they opened the scoring in the opening minute, much in the same way Sab Ciavola had for Mont in the previous quarter. This brought the Greensborough fans to life and it was well and trully game on. The pace from both teams had not dropped, neither had the physicality of the game as the tackles remained fierce and the bumps damaging to anyone that got in the way. Despite the pressure, Mont did not panic, and were able to give out to Greensborough as much as was received. Joffa Byron took one of the best contested marks seen for the day and goaled to quickly reply for Mont, but Greensborough were not done yet. Two more unanswered goals by the Boro would have given Hoffy a scare, and when Peter Moore as water boy had a brain fade and walked into the 50m arch during the return kick from a point to give Boro another shot on goal, Hoffy I'm sure aged another 10 years. It must have been the tightness of Moorey's shorts that restricted the blood flow to his brain, but all was forgiven when a run of goals to Cuthbertson, Ciavola, Byron and D'Agastino put an end to the Greensborough revival and by quarters end Mont had increased the lead over "the slime" to 44 points.
The last quarter turned into a spiteful encounter as Boro knew they were gone and only seemed to want to put as many Magpies in hospital as possible. It was disgusting to watch and even more disgusting to sit in the crowd and listen to the Boro fans encourage and cheer the dirty tactics. Micka Stevens was on the end of a cheap shot to the face while Luke French tragically had to be taken to hospital because of being "king hit" from behind by a hit he never saw coming. To hear the Boro fans congratulate the player that "king hit" Frency as the offending player left the field was a true showing of poor sportsmanship, and I hope the League makes more of this incident. Despite all this our boys remained calm and continued to methodically take "the slime" apart. Goals to Cuthbertson, Ciavola, McLoughlin and an absolute ripper from Timmy "Daicos" Moulas finished off the game to have our boys singing the song loud and looking forward to next weeks Preliminary Final as we ran out 63 points winners.
Last Modified on 12/09/2007 09:15