On Saturday, the Warhawks travelled to Albert Park to take on MCC. It’s always a pleasure just to arrive at the historic Albert Cricket Ground and such a nice change from the recovered tip sites, rough footy ovals and odd-shaped spare Council parkland that usually serves as division 3 lacrosse fields.
The weather was fine, and chilly. Great to play in.
The Warhawks were short of midfielders, with three or four regulars out, and one of our centremen unavailable. Fortunately Steven Nunn could play (and also stood in for centres) and Mal Webb (my brother) pulled on the boots for a rare appearance, so we had three on the bench and 13 to start. MCC had 11.
The Warhawks got off to a good start, winning the ball well out of the centre. An early goal from a really well executed fast break (two quick passes and a good shot – the Webb brothers were back in business, with the assist from Mal and the goal from John) gave Bendigo a nice confidence booster.
A second goal from Alex Orr as he snuck round from behind and took a pass from John Webb, gave us more reason to think we were going to have a good day.
MCC managed one goal for the quarter, with some good ball movement, but largely, the Warhawk defence held their attack out and applied the punishing physical presence that our backline is known for, frequently turning MCC possession into good Warhawk clearance. A 2-1 lead to Bendigo at quarter time.
The second quarter saw plenty of change of possession and an exciting end-to-end spectacle. Ian Lock deftly mopped up a spilled save from a big Wookie shot and found the back of the net. Alex Orr put in his second goal and later also assisted John Webb with his second goal just seconds before half time. MCC added one for the quarter. The score at half time was 5 – 2.
During the third quarter, the scoring dried up for both teams, though the Warhawks had plenty of good movement out of the midfield and up-front, with some good shots and misses being backed up well. The Bendigo backline held out the MCC attack and served up some great disciplined body checking (only one minute of penalties to our long-stick players for the whole game testifies to that). The MCC goalie may re-think his habit of running deep into the opposition forward line after a convincing deterrent from Mark Reader.
In the final quarter, MCC were unable to score, but Mark Reader found his way down to the forward line and put in a nice goal for Bendigo to close out the game. Other members of the backline also decided to try their luck with shots, but with less success. Bendigo didn’t really make good use of a blinding late-afternoon sun in the goalie’s eyes on the low right side (and we’ll have to remember that for next time), but regardless, the Warhawks ran out winners, 6 – 2.
This was a great win for us, especially because we lost what was a tough arm wrestle with MCC the last time we played them at Bendigo (a change of goalie helped significantly too!). Gino Iuliano was certainly very excited to get a win against his old club, and had a very pleasant time afterwards reminding anyone in the MCC clubroom who he felt might have forgotten.
Votes went to Steve Nunn (3 Association and 3 club) after great game on the midfield and stepping into the role of centre and creating play all over the ground. He also got an injured shoulder for his trouble late in the game. MCC are heavy hitters. Alex Orr got 1 Association and 2 club votes for another great all-round performance (with an injury, I may add) and Mark Reader’s solid defence again caught the eye of the refs and was given a single club vote.
Furthermore, Jarrod Topp-Lowe reached his 50 game milestone, what a way to celebrate it with a win.
Well done lads! We take on Malvern at Maiden Gully next week.
John Webb
Senior player
Last Modified on 23/06/2015 11:03