Seniors
A terrific day greeted players, supporters and officials at Waverley Park, but for the seniors that would almost be the last bright thing to look forward to. The umpires were missing a boundary, so young Liam Kelliher fresh after running the boundary for the 3rds at Crawford oval in the ice-removing game time of 9.20am was drafted in to run the boundary to allow the game to go ahead. In a game of this nature with 2 playing 3 and as always elevated stakes to play for it was disappointing that this occurred, but we move on. His old man will be sending the VAFA a bill for the increased food bill as a result of this.
The game always loomed as a test of character for the seniors as we were a vastly different team that confronted the visitors in the opening round. There were 9 changes from the Rd 1 team and 12 from the team that played in the preliminary final last September.
To say the team was inexperienced is an understatement, as the following shows:
* McDonough playing his 2nd game in a key defensive post,
* Wall 2nd game with McKay in his 3rd senior game both a tad over 6 foot as our undersized ruck man against the strongest ruck brigade in the competition
*Sticks Convery in his 3rd game against big Handley. The right leg of Handley has a larger circumference that Sticksy's waist!!
* brothers Charlie Haley in his 4th game and
* Harry Haley in 7th senior game being used as an on-baller up against former AFL player Matt Ball and the vastly experienced Darvell.
This was truly a case of boys up against men.
To compound matters we lost another player on match day with Tom Humphrey pulling out as a precaution and we were forced to draft in another player upsetting the already fragile starting team. Things went from bad to worse when Sam Brooks, one the few regular defenders taking part, had his ended early in the first ¼ after aggravating a knee injury. It makes you wonder what we have done, or what we need to do to redress this situation, but thankfully as a club we have that intangible ethos amongst the players of just working together and just rolling up our sleeves
The game started and stayed at a frenetic pace but it was pretty obvious there were issues for the home side to deal with - we were undermanned, we were significantly smaller, we were missing a host of players and we seemed to be on the wrong end of every 50-50 decision from the officials.
There was the difference in style - the Old Xav's with stronger, taller on-ballers and more precise kicking skills were able to dictate the game by forcing the home side wide whilst they were able to run the ball through the corridor with speed and efficiency to taller targets who were one out in marking contests.
The did however offer up the sight of Jake Williams from de la playing on Jake Williams of Old Xav's to determine who the best Jake in the VAFA was and it was 1st blood to the old Xav's variety as he kicked the opening goal of the match.
Both sides were able to penetrate their respective 45 forward areas, but it was the visitors with taller marking forwards who were making more telling contributions as they continuously isolated the very inexperienced De La backs which included the aforementioned 3rd gamer Sticks Convery and 2nd gamer McDonough to slowly but inexorably draw away from a dogged De La.
The break at 1/4 time was 14 points and at the start of the 2nd Charlie Haley was able to wriggle free of the over-zealous attentions of his opponent to kick start a bit of a De La revival as we were able to trade goals with our opponents. It must be said that Xav's with their greater height and more fluid ball movement were able to respond to goals with greater ease and it was as if they waited for De La to labour and earn a goal before they would almost immediately reply to establish a natural order.
Hine scored his 2nd to close the gap to under 10 points to only see Goss respond on the siren and open up a handy, but not conclusive buffer.
The game was as a good as over in the 3rd when the Xav's machine was able to just roll over the top of the game De La group with an exhibition of strong, relentless pressure, precise ball movement by both hand and foot and selfless running off the ball by a committed group of players who worked for the good of their team.
Such was the dominance of the visitors that the 16 point halftime lead had blown out to 42 points by halfway through the 3rd and the contest was as good as over, with De La really struggling to exert any influence over the game at all. A late rally where Clinch, Hine with his 3rd goal and Clinch again allowed us to get it back to 30 only for Goss to kick his 4th and re establish the old Xaverian dominance and give them an unassailable 36 point lead at lemon time.
It was almost inevitable but 36 stretched to just under 10 goals as the Xaverian machine enjoyed the late winter sunshine and with less than 10 minutes to go they finally relented and the pressure valve was released and De La through Pickett, then Semmel and Sam Williams fought the game out to bring the margin back to 45 points and mercifully the game was ended so the home side could reflect momentarily and then consign this game to rubbish bin of history.
Better players were Jake Williams - the evidence is decisive and the blue and gold Jake Williams was the winner of that duel, Clinch who worked and ran hard all day, Haslem across half back and Matt Hine in the middle was a clear winner.
In summary they were too big, too strong, too committed and injury free - despite their inevitable protestations about injuries, and we were game, hard working but unbowed as we continued to work until the end of the game. But the 4 points deservedly go to Toorak Park and we look to regroup next week against Beaumaris.
As if to sum up the day the visitors even won the after match raffle - just about says it all really.
De La Salle 9.7.91
Old Xavs 15.16.106
Goal Kickers: M. Hine 3, E. Clinch 2, S. Pickett , S. Williams , C. Haley , L. Semmel
Best Players: J. Williams, S. Haslem, E. Clinch, J. Gotch, M. Hine, J. Vickers
Reserves
A slow start and you just can't do that against a team like the Old Xav's as they like to establish leads early and impose themselves on the contest allowing them to dictate the overall terms of the contest.
The teams are evenly matched, but to give up a 5 goal start to Old Xavs was not good enough, and it as always going to be a struggle from that point. However, a quick look at the scores after 1/4 time showed that the game was extremely tight as there was a 1 point difference over the resultant 3 quarters of the game.
The game is always tight and in many ways it is a tense and sometimes emotional fixture given that the 2 teams have played off in the last 2 grand finals, but credit must go to the officials who stamped their authority over the game as a result of a couple of unsavoury incidents which marred the game and well done to the younger de la boys who probably weren't expecting the level of intensity or 'emotion' displayed by our visitors and matched their older, more experienced opponents for 3 of the 4 quarters.
We just have to get back on the track and continue to work hard to get that game back - it's now 2 losses on the trot, and we need to redress that, so we can again reshape the finals and see if we can defend our premiership and overturn this result.
De La Salle 10.3.63
Old Xavs 14.4.88
Goal Kickers: N. Fyfield 4, H. Nicholson , L. Bull , S. Griffin , J. Griffiths , J. Terrell , D. Millwood
Best Players: B. Nethersole, L. Bull, D. Close, R. McDonough, H. Nicholson, J. Terrell
Thirds
The day started off a very cold morning at 9.20 at Crawford oval in Carlton with only 16 players listed on Friday night because of call up to the 2nds. We had to call on Steve Brown and Simon Brown. And a player running late, we only started 17 players on the field and with uni blacks having a army of players to call on with 6 on the bench. The boys started hard and kept that fight up, with great leadership from the Brown boys on field and off the field
After the first quarter the boys were only 3 goals down and felt they had more to give. The 2nd quarter the boys came out firing and had this real dogged attitude that this game wasn’t going to get away from them.
With Nick Hogan been a great marking target on the wing and Adam Kovarik a target down forward. And Aaron Kneebone and Declan freeman in the middle the boys started to get on top of uni Black. At ½ time the boys were 6 points up and still fighting hard.
The 3rd Quarter The back six stood up again and kept repelling the ball to the mids so the boys just kept running with great tackling and pressure uni blacks turned over the ball. By the end of the 3rd quarter the boys were 14 points up.
The 4th quarter started off the same way as the rest hard close in football the blacks started to get a run on kicking the first 4 goals and finishing the term with 6, with de la only kicking 2 for the quarter. In the end it came down to fresh legs on the field and the boys just ran out of puff.
In the end Uni Blacks got on top and won by 26 points.
De La Salle 12.8.80
Old Xavs 16.10.106
Goal Kickers: A. Kovarik 4, S. Brown 2, T. Naughtin 2, A. Kneebone 2, E. Murphy , E. Espinosa
Best Players: D. Freeman, A. Kovarik, S. Hogan, E. Espinosa, A. Kneebone, E. Murphy
Club XVIII
De La Salle 13.16.88
St Bernards 9.7.51
Goal Kickers: N. Stewart 4, B. Oakley 2, T. Kovarik 2, J. Haley , W. Dwyer , T. Leary , C. Millidonis , Z. Dickinson
Best Players: H. Browning, Z. Dickinson, T. Leary, C. Millidonis, N. Stewart, B. Oakley
19 Blues
Season hanging on this game, which was a tough road trip to St Bernards. Fantastic backs to the wall win to re-ignite the season. Pat Hatch and Sam Harrignton the best while James Howard slotted 5 goals.
De La Salle 13.10.88
St Bernards 10.11.71
Goal Kickers: J. Howard 5, A. Wheatley 3, H. Ramsay , D. Anastasio , O. Purton-Smith , K. Wallis , L. Wood
Best Players: P. Hatch, S. Harrington, K. Wallis, L. Wood, J. Howard, D. Craig
19 Golds
This week Golds played top of the ladder - Oakleigh Krushers at their ground. Unfortunately, due to a spate of injuries we started the game with only 17 players. The first quarter saw the boys battle hard against strong opposition with Oakleigh kicking 5 goals to nil in opening term. Aaron Wheatley (from the Blues) arrived to help with numbers and Damon Grant, with a bad ankle, also arrived to support on the bench with numbers. Second quarter saw boys continue to battle and we outscored Oakleigh 3 to 2 goals for the qtr. We trailed by 4 goals at half time with Jack Hanley, Hamish Curtis and Dylan Cowan doing well around the ball and Tom Still dangerous down forward. After half time Oakleigh came back strongly and kicked 7 to our 1 goal. The last qtr saw Aaron Wheatley leave for Blues game, but De La continued to fight. Tom Still with 5 goals and Jack Hanley the standouts.
De La Salle 7.10.58
Oakleigh 21.13.71
Goal Kickers: T. Still 5, D. Cowan , A. Wheatley
Best Players: J. Hanley, T. Still, D. Cowan, L. Carracher, A. Hay, H. Curtis
Last Modified on 13/10/2013 11:34