The opening game of the season always comes filled with optimism and it was no different for both West Preston and Montmorency. After the Reserves had got the job done by 27 points with stand-out performances from James Rizzolio and Matty Whittaker, the excitement was high amongst the West Preston Lakeside players, and you could feel it in the rooms as the game drew closer.
The message from coach Frank Raso was to beat your man one-on-one, apply tackling pressure and win the contested ball and this was shown early on in the match and in patches throughout.
The match began with a bang, with both teams going in hard and making the middle of the ground congested as they fought for the footy. Recruit Alex Gleeson won a lot of the ball early, and was the dominating midfield from either side. West then got the start they wanted after some solid forward pressure, with a clever snap from Glenn Robertson giving them the opening goal of the game.
But things just got worse from here, with full-back Dervis Akkus and star recruit Xavier Clarke both going down with early injuries. These injuries meant that West’s high rotations were going to have to slow down, and also put a lot of pressure on the backline which was now two players short.
A couple of mistakes from West gave Montmorency the upper hand, and Montmorency went in to quarter time with a 24-8 lead. At the quarter time huddle, Raso reiterated the point of pressure, pressure, pressure, telling the boys that they needed to get stuck in and win the contested ball.
The second quarter though was very much played on Montmorency’s terms with the pace of the game really slowed down. Mont kicked clear with a couple of early goals before young Matt Vincitorio used his pace along the wing to bring a spark to West, as the forward line’s tackling pressure paid off with a goal. It wasn’t enough though, as Montmorency kicked the final three of the half including a blinder from the boundary to have a lead of 38 points going into the main break.
The third quarter began as the first did, with West following the game plan to a tee, putting pressure on Montmorency all across the field. But this pressure wasn’t sustained for long enough as Mont’s big men dominated, winning every marking contest that came their way.
The first three goals of the half were kicked by the away side as West continued to pepper the goals but just not being able to split the big sticks, as they kicked a flurry of behinds. West got the run of play for a big part of this quarter, with Robertson kicking their only goal. This quarter was the most even of the four with both sides having 7 scoring shots apiece. The difference was that Montmorency capitalized kicking 5.2 to West’s 1.6.
The three quarter time huddle was met with some positivity, as Frank praised the defence, in particular Kane Heaney, for holding up, and also the midfield group for sustaining the pressure through most of the quarter.
Both teams went goalless for the first 15 minutes of the last quarter before Montmorency extended their lead with two goals. But after that, the rest of the quarter was dominated by West as they ran the bigger Mont team off their feet with another inaccurate quarter, kicking 2.5 in the last. The last quarter was highlighted by the work rate of both Alex Gleeson and Matt Vincitorio pushing right to the very end.
The final score of 15.15.105 to 5.18.48 really didn’t tell the story as Montmorency were nowhere near a 10-goal better side than West Preston Lakeside, with their poor kicking, particularly in the second half, really costing them.
After the game coach Frank Raso said that West were unfortunate to lose Akkus and Clarke in the first 10 minutes as it unsettled the rotations and left the team undermanned. He also said that it will take a while to adapt to the new gameplan. The team won the Inside 50’s, centre clearances and stoppages but just weren’t able to capitalise in front of goal.
Goals: Glenn Robertson 2, Luke McKenna, Damien Smith, Alex Gleeson.
Best: Kane Heaney, Alex Gleeson, Matt Vincitorio, Michael Batey, Steve Shaw, Ali Fahour.
Last Modified on 12/09/2015 17:57