A great turn out of some 550 people were at University Oval last weekend to celebrate our Sponsors & Family Day.
Special thanks go to:
- The Epping Hotel (Major Sponsor)
- Hans Smallgoods
- Clive Anthony’s
- The Weekly Times
- Villi’s Pies
Special thanks to the YMCA who helped out by providing jumping castles, face painting and kids games. This helped top off a great day.
Seniors got the season back on track with a 100 point win and Ressies did the same with a 150-odd point win. The U18’s cruised along nicely smashing the 4th placed Rams and the 2nd Division side shook hands with the milkman in their dewy game against UTS.
SENIORS
Round 5 saw us take on Penrith at home for our first time back since Round 1. Coming off 2 losses made it important to get off to a good start. 1st quarter saw the centre line work extremely hard in centre clearances to give the forward line ample opportunity to kick goals.
The 2nd quarter saw Penrith come out and put some pressure on our guys by kicking two goals in a row with the Warriors deciding to stop running and looking for other guys to do the hard work. The pleasing aspect of the quarter was the guys being able to get back to the game plan half way through the quarter and go into the into break 9 goals up.
With the problems addressed at half time, we saw the 3rd quarter get off to a very good start but to Penrith’s credit we could only capitalise with four goals.
Last quarter saw an undisciplined Penrith help out our goals scorers with 50m penalties. With a good win and things to improve on, we should be able to fine tune things in the coming week.
Coops had an awesome game with 5 goals from the Wing and it is good to see a 17 year old stepping up to the mark, with a solid performance from Reece deputising in the middle.
Mac Uni 23-9-147 beat Penrith 6-9-45
Best on Ground – Coops, Reece, Inches, Croc, Barnesy, JJ
RESERVES
Home game for the Sponsors and Family Day and we set out to play a disciplined game of footy. We needed to build a score and our plan was to keep the forward line open and feed them the ball. All credit to the team as they stuck to the plan and the scoreboard built. 4 quarters is what we need to play to win and the last quarter we got tired and slowed the play down. If we are to be competitive we need a bit more out of all the players.
The centre worked well again and we rotated for fresh legs this helped the forward line and Wes in his first game at FF presented well and was supported well by Damo and Jimmy. We are building each week in confidence and the team is gelling well but we simply need to work a bit harder on the paddock for the spot we want at the end of the season.
Away this week against the guys from Richmond and we again must go in hard and play the style of footy to make sure we come home with a win.
Mac Uni 28.22.190 beat Penrith 6-2-38
Best on Ground – Rooster, Wes, Hero, Damo, Goldy, Popey
U18’s
After playing away for the last few weeks it was great to be playing back at home and the boys put on another great team effort in front of a vocal crowd to record another win.
Set up in the first quarter with 11 scoring shots to 1 the boys had turned up ready to play. Dylan and Bubsy were taking advantage of our ruck dominance and both played their best games so far this season while the backline stayed solid and played to our game plan. This enabled Dunc and Ranga to have room to move and kicked 9 between them.
In the end we ran out 65 point winners with everyone contributing. A big game looms for us next week so a big week is expected on the track.
Mac Uni 16-14-110 beat Penrith 6-9-45
Best on Ground – Dyl, Bubsy, Hobo, Dunc, Belly
2ND DIVISION
Saturday’s game saw the Mac 3’s shaking hands with the milkman with the duel against the Bats kicking off at the very un-footy time of 8.15am.
The boys were up against it with only 14 fit players available along with the injured pair of Cowboy and Burkey filling in an already undermanned forward line. Club stalwart, Sticks Hardman answered a 7.30am SOS call from the President & rushed to the ground just in time for the centre bounce.
The dewy conditions saw the boys chasing around a very slippery pill in what was a low scoring first quarter with neither side really dominating. A loud twang was heard in the car park and Cowboy hobbled off with a hamstring injury after a long lead and chase. He did not return and we were down to 16.
The second quarter saw the bats gain some momentum but they could not kick away as the backline pressure from the likes of Mr Ed, who plays well above his weight, the miserly Mickey D keeping their full forward almost kickless and the old warhorse, G Stud applying the pressure to keep them kicking one pointer’s. Meanwhile the straight kicking Mumbles got us on the board with a set shot from 45 metres after some solid work from big Westie. At the long break we were close enough if only we had an additional two players plus a six man bench as they did.
The third quarter was a mixture of fortunes as we lost Burkey to yet another hamstring injury. The highlight however was a run from the clever backman Stumpy which saw him bust out of defence and down the wing and even having a couple of bounces along the way. Storky continued his impressive early season form after switching to the wing from the ruck mid way through the second quarter. A move to the backline had Nippa finding his feet, and coincidently the ball, helping out the solid Punter to continue the pressure.
With the final term call being “let’s win the quarter” we suffered another setback with the loss of the slippery onballer Jism to a shoulder injury. We were down to 14 but this did not seem to worry the lads as Sticks turned back the clock and recorded a possible 50 possession game, Timmy was outstanding as a mobile ruckman, Punchy ran close to 15km’s and the ever-young Smiley kicked 2 goals to almost steal the quarter. If not for a dubious line call we would have won the term. But it was not to be. The boys all left the field with their heads held high and smiles on their faces and all looking forward to next week’s match against Pennant Hills at Ern Holmes.
Mac Uni 3-2-20 lost to UTS 8-23-71
Best on Ground - Stumpy, Timmy, Micky D, Mr Ed, Stix & G Stud (could have put several others in there as well).
