Mens’ Division 3, Caulfield v Bendigo at Caulfield, 10/8/19.
As we head to the end of another season, we watch with considerable interest as four mid-division 3 teams jostle for a berth in the finals. The top three was pretty much established in about week three but for the rest of the division, the battle’s been for fourth spot. It’s easy to get caught up in the who-has-to-beat-who theorising and assume that with Bendigo playing the bottom two sides in the last two games, that we are a shoe-in for points in both, with the only question being just how much we can boost our percentage. However …
Saturday turned out nice, against all odds; sunny and chilly. The Caulfield ground is holding up well late in the season.
Bendigo arrived with 14 players, while Caulfield just managed a bare ten. More reason to expect it to go our way.
The whistle blew to begin and before anyone could react, Caulfield had a goal scored. Hmmm. The Warhawks realised that this wasn’t going to be easy. Caulfield had a couple of talented young players, who were clearly going to spearhead their attack. Bendigo managed to score through Mark Reader barging his way to goal, and Caulfield added another to put them 2-1 up at quarter time.
With the two Warhawk centres, Brett Ruiz and Russ Crofts able to share face-off duties, Bendigo were able to gain possession often in the second quarter and they looked threatening in attack, but still tended to rush and sometimes squandered the ball. Time in possession was obviously going to be the key, with Caulfield showing that they could convert quickly if given the chance. With plenty of shots, good backing up and better ball movement, Bendigo were able to draw ahead in the second with goals from Ian Lock and Mark Reader, while a fumbled save off Matt Saxon’s shot dribbled by the goalie into the goal. Caulfield were held to one for the quarter by a more-disciplined Bendigo defence. At half time, Bendigo held the slimmest ascendancy, 4-3.
In the third, Caulfield stepped up the pace and scored five, with their two danger players getting two each. Bendigo were able to score three, with a good team goal from Mark Reader, from a John Webb assist. Alex Orr slotted a great individual goal from a run out of defence and Dylan Le Clercq accurately slotted a long shot from the left, giving Caulfield the lead at last drinks 8-7.
The last quarter was a wrestle, with the Warhawk defence able to hold the Caulfield attack out, allowing only one into the net. Bendigo had many chances to score go begging, but Alex Orr and Mark Reader finally levelled the score and with minutes to go both teams fought hard to get the winner. Alex Orr took the ball from behind goal and ran by, letting rip with a backhand shot that beat the goalie. With seconds to go, a Caulfield forward wound up and left fly with a last desperate attempt to level, but it went wide. Bendigo won by one. 10-9.
A good win. Not the percentage boosting goal fest we hoped for, but we got the points we needed to stay in the race for fourth.
Votes went to Alex Orr (3 club and 2 Association) for a fantastic gutsy effort in all parts of the ground, Tim Davis snagged two club votes and one Association vote for another solid day of damaging work with a long stick in defence and Mark Reader could not be denied the last club vote with his huge day, including a goal a quarter.
Thanks again to Lester Young for reffing.
Well, it looks really interesting for finals now. The divvy 3 ladder has four teams on seven wins with Uni currently in the four on percentage, then Altona at 5, SurreyPark at 6, then Bendigo at 7. In the last round of the season, none of those teams are playing each other. Bendigo plays Chadstone who are currently winless. SurreyPark plays Malvern, so they’ll likely be beaten (serves them right for dropping all those State league blokes last time we played them). Altona plays Caulfield (who have a bye in State League, which might make it tough) and Uni plays Camberwell (who sit low on the ladder but could yet surprise). We are hoping for a Bradbury-style miracle and a first ever finals appearance for the Warhawk men’s team. HOWEVER … we first have to beat Chadstone.
John Webb, Senior player
U15 boys: MCC vs Surrey Park
MCC were victorious 9-6 with Christian Iuliano scoring 2 goals and Matt Saxon one goal and an assist. Surrey are going to be a finals team, so it was a great effort, especially as the MCC team are mainly first year U15s. Things might have also looked better for MCC if it wasn’t for an unfortunate fixture that had them playing teams high on the ladder twice (with improving results on the second attempt) and teams below them only once. This was the last game of the season and MCC ended up 6th on the ladder and with no finals this year.
However it isn’t the end of lacrosse just yet: both Matt and Christian are in training for the U15 Australian Championships in Adelaide next school holidays. Good luck!!
Women’s B Grade: MCC/Bendigo v Altona
MCC/Bendigo lost to second-on-the-ladder Altona 14-7. Altona had 12 players, while MCC/Bendigo had a bare ten, including Ruby, Morgan and Abigail from Bendigo and were also missing a key MCC play-maker.
MCC/Bendigo were a goal up at the end of the first quarter, but Altona rolled them with a 6-1 second quarter to pretty much blow them out of the water from then on. However, Gino says they never gave up and fought to the end.
Next game is at Footscray and should be a good one to finish the season.
Last Modified on 13/08/2019 16:48