Hi to everyone out there,
The weekend saw a return to competition after the Interleague break with "The Mighty Bloods" heading down the hill to battle Upwey/Tecoma FNC.
Perenially, The Tigers are always a benchmark team in all grades and are extremely tough to beat at home.
In Netball, we saw 3 losses, again against quality opposition. With all 3 Upwey sides sitting in the top 2 in their respective grades, it was always going to be a huge challenge. In C Grade, the girls played alot better than the previous match but were eventually outplayed and lost 40 to 20.
They currently sit in 4th spot and host bottom of the ladder Woori Yallock this week. In B Grade and A Grade, the girls were again super competitive but just cant cannot seem to get reward for their efforts. Both scorelines eventually blew out ! This week sees a huge chance for all 3 teams to register wins at home against Woori Yallock. Keep working girls, the results will turn in your favour !
The football day turned into one to remember though. The U18s were missing three of their top liners but still managed to win by 2-3 goals. This allows them to continue to sit atop the U18s ladder. The Reserves could only muster 8 behinds to half time but came out blazing in the 2nd half, with an 8 goal to 3 effort to win by 2 goals. Well done boys, a really huge effort that sees them slide up into 4th, 1 win behind top spot. It paved the way for a sensational Seniors match. The 1sts got off to a slow start and by half way through the 2nd Qtr, were behind 10 goals to 3 and looking gone for all money. In the last 10 minutes though, we kick 4 unanswered goals to be 3 goals behind and a real sniff of victory. An outstanding 13 goal to 5 2nd half saw The Bloods home by 4 goals in a truly memorable day.
To put this into context, this is the 1st time Olinda has won all 3 football games at Upwey ever. Its the 1st time Upwey have lost all 3 games at home on the same day since Rd 14 1995. It is our 1st Reserves win against Upwey since 1991 and our 1st Seniors win against Upwey since 2001.
As much as we would love to dwell on that, we have massive games against Woori Yallock this week and we just cant afford to drop away.
In other news, we need to keep an eye out on the health of a couple of our club legends. Namely Arthur "Choofa" Charteris who suffered a minor heart attack late last week. He is currently doing well at Maroondah Hospital.
Choofa as we know, celebrated his 50th year as an OFCFNC Life Member in
2009 and is still actively involved each weekend. Another well known legend is also unwell currently, John Faull. John's involvement in our club goes back to the 1950s and he's also had the pleasure of watching both his boys, and now grandson (Jayden) representing the Red & Whites on Saturday afternoons. We wish both men a speedy recovery and look forward to seeing them back in action as soon as possible.
And finally, it would be remiss of me to not acknowledge the recent announcement by Garratt McDonald, that he has popped the question to his magnificent partner Janine Cranston, and incredibly, she said YES !!!
Gazza is one of our most popular characters around our club. A dual Premiership player and our heart and soul in the Seniors. We are very pleased for you both and wish you a long and very happy life together !
So, that ends a big weekend. You can catch all the scores, reports etc on the website.