We had been looking forward to playing Strathpine again ever since they handed us our first loss for the year when we met first met them. Strathpine had been undefeated since the week before that game, are the only team to have notched up wins against every other team in the competition, and were sitting half a game behind us in second spot on the ladder. Whoever won this game would be in first place and both teams would have loved the psychological advantage of the win, and the top spot going into finals.
The game started at a great pace with the first quarter seeing some open free running footy with the ball moving quickly from end to end. Our defence was working hard whenever the ball came down, forcing turn-overs and finding players in space further up the field. Our midfielders were getting plenty of it and also finding some targets up the ground and things were looking good. Strathpine are a fast hard running team who are well drilled by ex-aspley boy, Adam (Pugsy) Holland, and refused to lay down and worked well to stay with us for the quarter and the teams went to quarter time with only a few points separating them.
The second quarter the game slowed down a little and Strathpine started winning more of the clearances. Their half back flankers provided great run out of their back line and their wingers, and on-ballers really lifted their work and were pushing hard into their forward line putting a lot of pressure on our defence. We lost Pumba in the quarter with a twisted ankle and he didn’t take any further part in the game which affected our on-ball rotation and messed up the structure of our back line. Strathpine converted this pressure into points on the score board and half time saw us a few goals down but still playing good footy and by no means out of it.
In the third I had hoped that our boys might start to get back on top in the midfield, and hoping that we had younger fitter legs, thought we could start to claw our way back into the games and set up a good final quarter. Somewhat the opposite happened and it was Strathpine who again come out firing and full of run. Our backline was put under enormous pressure with the ball constant being pumped down there, and with Strathpine’s midfield coming down to provide extra targets inside 50, they were finding it hard to cover everyone. They worked hard all night but in the end the weight of procession and number of inside 50s played their part and Strathpine extended their lead going into ¾ time.
The 3rds this year are no strangers to close games and certainly no strangers to being behind at ¾ time. We had been in this position numerous times throughout the year and to our credit we had always worked hard all game and always played the game out til the end, coming away with wins the majority of the time. I had belief in the boys and I knew if we got back to doing the little things we set out to do at the beginning of the game again, then this game was far from over. Once again to our credit we did work extremely hard in the last quarter and had the majority of the play. Unfortunately inaccuracy in front of goals failed to see us convert all this play into majors and at the end of the game we fell short by 3 goals.
Special mentions to a few guys from Friday night. Dave Nobel who has been good for us most of the year showed another aspect to his game on Friday night and showed how hard he can work both offensively and defensively. Every time the ball was turned over he worked hard sprinting to the back line to help out. John (JD) Dellit has hit a bit of a purple patch of late and has been a great target at centre half forward for us. Working hard and marking anything that comes his way. Scott Winter, another who has found his spot in a key position at centre half back, continually puts his body on the line and shuts down his opponents, again was great for us on Friday night. Sean Kilsbury, a newcomer to the club has been a great find and adds a lot of strength to our back line and combines this with some great skills and hard running. And the every reliable Michael (Spider) Kettlewell was again good, working hard in the ruck and equally hard around the ground.
We can take a lot out of it and it was good to see how Strathpine went about their game. We are still rotating our playing staff in and out of the team as we said we would do at the beginning of the year, and as you need to do when you are still getting around 35 at training to choose from on a Thursday night. I look forward to getting another crack at Strathpine again this year and hopefully we will get the chance to play them come finals time. With the likes of Kumar, Weller, Ward that can slot into our midfield rotations and the likes of Blackmore, Gallagher, Kendrick, Atyeo, Kershaw, Knowles, Oldham, McGuire, Gregory, all still training well and all of whom I know I can put in and they will do their job for me, things are looking good for the finals. Well good except for the selection problems it is causing us in finding the right combination on any given day.
Special thanks once again to the guys that would much rather be playing but put the disappointment of missing out behind them and come down and help out how ever they can to be part of the team. It has probably been the most pleasing aspect of being a part of this team this year and I hope we can all stick together like that for the rest of the year. So thanks to Dutney, Atyeo, Blackmore, Kendrick, Knowles, Kumar, Foote, Adams, Weller for giving us the help we need. Thanks also to Chooka, Sally, and Gregory for all your help.
Cheers guys and see you all at training.
Last Modified on 21/07/2008 13:50