Seniors
The match against Old Carey saw yet another debutant with Brad Wilson becoming the 49th player to represent the seniors in season 2013. He was joined by Dave 'stix' Convery who was a late replacement for Tom Humphrey in what was the last game of the season.
It also signified the last game for our long serving and universally highly respected team manager, past president and needless to say life member Col Glover performing team manager duties for the last time. The service that Col has performed for our club cannot ever be truly be appreciated, and to merely list what he has done would be a great disservice to him and his contribution an never be measured merely be statistics - somewhat ironically despite actually leading our statistics team!!
In addition, our senior coach Greg McLoughlin announced to the players and supporters on Thursday night he too would be stepping down after 3 years, and again the players would be looking to sign off Greg's tenure with a stylish win.
The game itself was played on the lovely wide expanses of the Old Carey sports fields, which was bathed in early spring sunshine with a gentle breeze drifting across the ground. This was a bit of shame because the surroundings and surfaces and the day itself deserved more than a game where the fates of both teams were sealed and there was little at stake except pride in team and personal performance. In addition, after 4 successive losses by more then 100 points the home team would no doubt be looking to restore some much needed pride and build for next year whereas De La would be looking to sign off the season in style as a belated thank you to both Col and Greg.
The game started at a frenetic pace with De La led by David Lowe, Luke Semmel, Matt Hine and Tim Kovess all giving us 1st use of the ball and any ball that did cross the half way line was quickly sent back into the De La front half by Jake 'date night' Williams, Tom Moloney, Ed clinch and Sam Brooks.
All this placed the home team defence upon pressure and they were a little like King Canute trying to hold back to tide - they were slowly being overwhelmed after 12 minutes the scoreboard read 5.2.32 (with goals to Lowe, Semmel, Clinch, Semmel and Pickett) to nil and the mother of all hidings looked to be on the cards such was De La's dominance. Debutant Wilson came on and immediately offered an insight into his ball winning ability as he quickly dished off a series of hand balls to outside running players which allowed De La to push home the advantage and extend the lead, but also offered an insight into what can be when afforded time and space on the wide open expanses.
The 2nd did see the home team seek to frustrate De La and they certainly lifted their performance and the game whilst still relatively open had tightened up and scores became a lot harder to get. That said it also looked like De La were squandering an opportunity to really hammer home a big score as they continually went the long way home as they played the big ground quite badly continuously going wide, ignoring options available inside the centre corridor and playing a style of game that would only lead to slow scoring and assist the home team to build confidence.
The long break couldn't come quickly enough as it allowed the coaching staff to consider that after kicking 7.4 in the opening quarter we had only been able to add a further 2.5 in the 2nd which after the exciting opening was quite disappointing. However there may have been a mitigating circumstance as we lost young utility Ben Humphrey early to a knee injury and this forced us to play U19 Mitch "Coach" Carter in the ruck and he was giving away years of experience, height and weight against a much more vastly experienced opponent.
The 3rd did see some semblance of a return to running football, but the home team did work to try and take some positives from their disappointing season and they actually won the quarter by 2 points. No doubt they were encouraged by the vociferous and somewhat/completely inebriated support from their past players being particularly brave from the confines of the scoreboard where came a constant stream of ill-informed comments which were amusing only to themselves, but still they did win the quarter and the De La faithful were looking for more positives than were being offered by the players. With the season effectively in mothballs Sam Pickett was brought off with a severely bruised heel early in the quarter which again affected rotations, but also robbed us of scoring options as we were reliant upon our fleet of smaller running players and small forwards to provide goals.
I suppose that you could forgive the players as the season was effectively over, but it would have been nice to see the team give the supporters, coaches and officials a more fitting season ending performance by really following on from the opening quarter and putting down a marker for the next year.
Perhaps that laissez faire attitude was a reason for the last quarter which was fairly innocuous where after a goal to Carey at the 5 minute mark the ball ping-ponged across the ground until another goal was finally scored at the 19 minute mark.
Overall, the game was done and dusted at the 20 minute mark of the first and both sets of players had put the cue in the rack - Old Carey happy to play the season out and get some belated pride back into the club with a solid performance and De La recognising that there was little at stake happy to emerge from the game unscathed and looking to support the reserves as they begin their finals campaign.
Congratulations to the players ..... all 49 who represented the seniors in season 2013, which was always going to be far too many to realistically allow us to play finals, but with results falling as they did we were able to finish 5th and somewhat remarkably only 1/2 a game out of finals.
Better players for the day were Jake Williams who firmly established himself as a remarkable talent and when his performances are taken into consideration across the competition it surprise none to see him figure prominently in not just the club B & F, but the competition too. He was ably supported by Matt Hine, another to have a consistent year, Jacob Gotch, Sam Haslem, David Lowe and Luke Semmel.
De La Salle 14.22.106
Old Carey 9.10.64
Goal Kickers: C. Haley 4, D. Lowe 2, L. Semmel 2, S. Pickett , J. Gotch , J. Griffiths , E. Clinch , N. Roberts , S. Haslem
Best Players: L. Semmel, T. Kovess, S. Haslem, J. Williams, C. Haley, D. Convery
Reserves
A workmanlike performance against a team that has tasted victory only once this season and it was always going to be a win to the reserves, but the only source of real interest was by just how much. To borrow the parlance of footy cliches the home team had a "red hot go" but they were always going to be battling and that was proven in the end result. A slight injury scare to 100 gamer Simon Lowe, but given the nature of the game we were able to rest him and he should be ok for next week, but it also allowed reserve team debutant Nathan Beaumont to have an extended run on the ground and given his running ability and the bigger ground where he could 'just take them on' he would have enjoyed that.
The score was reflective of the game - they were having a go, we were happy to play the season out and prepare for next week and with the space it allowed us to practice for the expanses of next week.
De La Salle 17.16.116
Old Carey 8.4.52
Goal Kickers: H. Nicholson 5, M. Stizza 2, O. Salvatore 2, B. Nethersole , A. Roberts, L. Bull, N. Fyfield , L. Jarvis , D. Hutchinson , H. Haley , J. Fisher
Best Players: H. Nicholson, A. Roberts, L. Jarvis, D. Hutchinson, B. Nethersole, K. Grant
Thirds
With no Club XVIII or U19 fixtures today it was very disappointing that the 3rds once again had to play short again today so a terrific effort by the 17 players who made the long trek to St Bernard's for a game, which had no bearing on anyone's season. The 17 who turned up are to be thanked and applauded and yet it also begs the question of some of those who did not make the effort or those who didn't support the club after being asked what are they thinking, and why did they not reciprocate the support given to them as we looked to fulfil our final fixture of the season. Still we move on, and the 17 played with grit and determination and did not let the club down as they tried to stem the tide as the Bernie’s used superior numbers and home ground advantage inevitably took its toll.
However, being undermanned and without the full complement of players was always going to be difficult and it was proven as we were over run by the home team in a disappointing end to our season.
De La Salle 5.6.36
St Bernard’s 14.14.98
Goal Kickers: A. Kneebone 2, S. Brown, T. Naughtin , S. Morwood
Best Players: D. Griffin, A. Kneebone, J. Terrell, C. Hyde, J. O''Connor, L. Godhino
Last Modified on 01/09/2013 17:13