A glorious sunny afternoon greeted players and spectators alike at Maiden Gully last Saturday afternoon. Perfect autumn conditions; in fact perhaps even a little too hot for lacrosse.
The Bendigo team started a little depleted, with a certain ex-Bendigo player showing a distinct lack of judgment by choosing a Saturday afternoon in April to get married and thus cause the late arrival of two players. We also had Mark Reader out injured with a crook knee, but stepping up to referee (thanks Wookie!). So the Warhawks started with 12, while Eltham arrived with a full team of 16 and a formidable collection of older players and speedy-looking juniors.
I think I can spare the reader a quarter-by-quarter commentary this week. Eltham put on a show of good lacrosse, with sharp stick skills, quick movement and confidence all around the ground. Their forward line added goals to the scoresheet in a business-like manner, jumping the Warhawks with 7 in the first quarter, then adding five a quarter for the rest of the game. I even caught myself applauding a couple.
Bendigo suffered early from a lightly laden bench, until the wedding party arrived and added much needed experience and legs. The Warhawks keenly felt the absence of Mark Reader in defence, but still managed to hold out and control the Eltham forwards and prevent a complete goal fest. However transition out of the Bendigo backline was patchy and relied on long passes, and with old Warhawk forwards being pressed into service as midfielders to rest a sparsely populated bench, Eltham punished bad passes and were first to the ball much of the time … and they rarely fumbled the ball.
However, for all that, I felt that the Bendigo forward line showed much more structure this week, with the ball and players moving quite well and there were some really good opportunities to score that maddeningly ended up with the last of three passes being dropped, or the shots hitting the ironwork of the goal (Thommo had two of those!) or being snatched by the experienced Eltham keeper (who has a very good eye). Bendigo managed to beat him only twice, with a goal in the second quarter from a well-executed fast break that finished up with Chris Thompson drawing two defenders and having two forwards to choose from to pass to. He passed to Ian Lock, who scored. The other goal came in the third quarter from good passing and a great shot from Alex Orr.
As the game went on, Bendigo hung on admirably, but injury to Tim Davis forced him to swap into goal for Gino, and dwindling numbers in the heat and tired legs on the midfield meant that Eltham ran out comfortable winners 22 to 2.
Votes for the day went to Alex Orr (3 Club and 1 Association) and Chris Thompson (2 Club) for huge effort in the midfield on a day when nothing was easy (and they had to hit the ground running as they arrived late). Ian Lock was awarded one Club vote for a gutsy effort in the forward line.
Thanks to Sando Webb, for retrieving lost balls, and Angus Webb, for doing our scoring (though the latter somewhat spoiled his kind gesture with the surly teen comment, “Like I had a choice” – but thanks anyway). And a huge thanks to Ian Lock for setting up the ground this week, almost without help. Lastly, thanks to Chris Thompson for bolstering our centre and forward line these last two weeks and bringing some fresh ideas to training.
I think we need to bounce back from this loss to Eltham. We probably played this year’s Division 3 premiers, and they even humiliated last year’s Division winners Footscray 13-4 the week before. So put it behind us, get everyone who we can to training (I’ll be there Tuesday) and to any blokes who might be wondering if we need players at the moment and are reading this, the answer is an emphatic YES! You are sorely missed.
Next week we play Caulfield at Caulfield and we should stand a good chance of a win, but we need livestock to do it!
John Webb
Senior player.
Last Modified on 23/04/2018 17:57