by Ben Peters
Coming into this week’s Round 6 clash with the Eastern Rangers, we were without four of the seven Vic Country players who were out with State commitments. Jake Garvey stepped up to the captain’s role and gave a ripping pre-match speech and we were keen to get out on the park and show the depth of our list by continuing the winning form and good start to the season.
With the wet weather and slippery conditions, we discussed pre-match about how to adjust to the conditions, which some of the boys haven’t played in for a while, and were looking to do the basics well with high one per centers, guts and determination and moving the ball forward at all cost. The boys were all fired up and talk was high in the warm up, with everyone excited to get out on our home turf and put on a good team performance.
We got off to a slow start in the first quarter and didn’t implement the tactics we had talked about, allowing the Rangers to get a jump on us by kicking a couple of early goals before Dylan Parish took a lovely contested mark considering the conditions and followed through to put our first goal on the board. We went into the break 4 goals to 2 down and knew that it wasn’t going to be a high scoring game so we had to make the most of our opportunities up forward with goals hard to come by.
The second quarter began and the rain was coming down hard. We played more as a team and used the ball effectively, kicking long into the forward line to enable the tall’s, Kieran Robertson and Jake Garvey to create opportunities for the crumbing forwards, like Tim Ruffles, who kicked the first of his four majors. Pat Knott who played a fantastic game all day kicked our second major for the quarter leading into the main break with each team on 4 goals.
In the break we caught our breath and reassessed the situation and knew the wet conditions weren’t getting any better and the brand of footy wasn’t going to be pretty and we would have to fight it out to the final siren. Without three of our regular mid fielders, Josh Free, Oliver “Sylvester Stallone” Tate, Chris “Franky” Giampolo and Andrew Hooper all stepped up, battling hard in and under, getting the ball out to create oppturtunities up forward in the third quarter. We knew this was the quarter that could set up the win for us if we kicked a few early goals and maintained scoreboard pressure.
Alex Gubbins took his opportunities and provided an option up forward for us and knocked the ball forward, finishing off with a soccer goal off the ground which got the boys going. Tim Ruffles again was a live wire up forward, kicking four goals for the match and putting us 15 points up by the last change.
The Rangers provided some resistance, fighting back and didn’t give up, but the Rebels boys adjusted to battle out the last quarter, sticking to the structures the coaches had put in place, to put together a wonderful win and take the Rebels to 5-1 up so far this season.
The boys kept hard at it all day, doing the team thing and playing for each other, to ensure we got over the line against a challenging opposition who had won their last few games against several of the competition’s stronger teams.
Last Modified on 08/02/2009 16:50