Hello and welcome to the Finals - Week 3 review, the 2nd last for 2010.
With our U18s having already qualified for the Grand Final, the job still remained for our C Grade girls and Reserves footballers to also try and get through to the big day. Last weekend, we travelled up to Healesville and were met by much more favourable conditions than the previous week.
Over on the netball courts, the girls arrived a little earlier than usual and had themselves a really good warm up. A couple of the girls had been fairly ill during the week so this altered the starting players for this important match. We got off to a terrific start, especially defensively all over the court. Caz Fuerst and Alex Wall put the Wandin shooters under enormous pressure, our mid court used the ball well and our shooters Elise and Kristy started very positively. At Qtr time, we held a 4-2 lead; starting well in finals is so important so the first box was ticked. The game began to open up in the 2nd Qtr, the ball moved from end to end and this seemed to help Wandin as they began to create, and take their opportunities. On the flip side, we made a couple of errors coming out of defence which allowed Wandin some easy ball. Elise and Kristy were still teaming well in the ring and shooting very accurately. At halftime we were down 13-9 and had some work to do. The girls came out fighting in the 3rd Qtr and took the game right up to their opponents. Sensing that this was their last roll of the dice, they worked harder than ever defensively. A couple of stray passes around the top of the semi circle saw us miss some chances to score again. However, we had done enough to get back in striking distance, being 15-17 down but with a huge belief we could pull this off. The last Qtr couldn't have begun any better for us. After breaking the Wandin pass and scoring off it, we then went forward and scored again to level the scores at 17 all. With 7 or so minutes to go, you got the feeling that we might be about to run right over the top of Wandin, but suddenly, our whole game ground to a holt. We got called for crucial contacts (which hadn't been paid all day), we were a bit sloppy with our passing and Wandin were pinpoint with everything right to the end. We didn't score again after those 2 early goals, whilst Wandin piled on 8 unanswered to win 25-17. It was such a deflating finish for the girls, who had absolutely "tried their guts out". Elise finished with 12 goals and Kristy finished with 5. Emily Dunn was excellent in the mid court and our new League Best & Fairest, Caz Fuerst was outstanding over the whole day, playing under some physical duress. More will be spoken about these girls in the coming weeks, and especially at Presentation Night, but for 1st year coach Sammy Royce, and her gang, this year has been an absolute pleasure for us to watch you. It's been fantastic the way you've come together as a brand new team, formed yourself some great friendships, and played awesome netball. You should all be mighty proud of your 2010 Season. Great job Swannies !
Across to the footy, and our Reserves were also shooting at the same target with a Grand Final spot up for grabs. After last weeks sensational effort to beat Upwey, the attitude and belief was back with our guys, who also had a point to prove against a Warby side that had embarrassed us in the Qualifying Final 2 weeks back. As with our netballers, our boys got off to an absolute cracker of a start. Ten minutes in and the Warby boys had no idea what had hit them. We were relentless in the middle, impassable in defence and were clean and well structured up forward. At Qtr time, and with the aid of a slight breeze, we lead 4.3 to 2.1 The 2nd Qtr began well for us with some early clearances but we couldn't get that final kick inside 50 right and Warby swept it away. They suddenly found some confidence and began to run more than us. This lead to a couple of scores against us which hurt and at halftime, she was all tied up at 4.4 a-piece. Kicking with the breeze in the 3rd term, we really needed to extend a lead of 2-3 goals to be in the hunt. We had plenty of the ball throughout the Qtr but missed opportunites all around the ground with poor ball use. Both Warby's goals for the 3rd term were as a result of our mistakes, and at the final break, we were down 6.4 to 6.7 The first half of the final term was a huge struggle like last week, neither team conceding anything. We missed some chances around goal early before banging one through. Warby then had a purple patch 5 minutes where they slammed on 3 goals to open up a match winning lead. A couple of half chances late in the Qtr could've put us back in it, but we were unable to convert and we finally went down 10.8.68 to 7.9.51 For our boys, Stevey Gannells incredible year finished with yet another Best On Ground display. Kirk Irvin also had a day out, running himself into the ground. Sammy Schauble was excellent in defence and went forward and did some great things. Symon Hill and Russ Sloan bashed and crashed all day through the middle. Again, a dissapointing result on the day as I felt we really had Warby's measure this time. They'll be a tough opponent in the Grand Final for Monbulk next week. Congratulations to Shane Colee on 2 outstanding years as Reserves coach. Having taken the OFCFNC to its 1st ever Reserves Flag in 2009, he's been able to back it up with a Division 1 Preliminary Final appreance in 2010. Well done Shane and all the boys, this years been a great experience and will hold you in really good stead for the 2011 season.
Well that signs me off for another week. This Sunday see's our U18s shooting for Back to Back Premierships, when they take on Healesville at Woori Yallock. The game starts at 9.45am so make sure you get out there dressed in as much Red & White as possible. We also will be back at the clubrooms at 5pm on Sunday for the U18s awards, immediately followed by the counting of the 1st 12 rounds of Best & Fairests votes for all grades.
Hope you enjoyed the read, looking forward to seeing you all on Sunday at Woori Yallock and "Go Those Mighty Blooders"