Last weekend saw the final round of the home and away season draw to a close. For the netballers, it was the last opportunity of the year whilst for the footballers, top spots on the ladder for all 3 teams were already sewn up, but 3 wins was important to get some momentum going into the weeks break.
NETBALL
AGRADE
A loss of 2 goals to Yarra Junction in our final round for the season was certainly disappointing as it was a game we really wanted and had a good opportunity to win. However, it was a really tightly fought game and the result was not from lack of endeavour from the team.
The attack worked exceptionally well, with Sam Royce & Mel Walter dominating centre court for the entire game. Congratulations to Lucy Allman for a great effort of 23 goals, to notch up a tally of 290 goals for the season and finish 7th on the top 10 goal scorers for Div 2 in the league: fantastic effort Lucy, Nat Sloan is always strong in attack, added a neat 11 goals for the team and won so many hard rebounds. Our defence combination of Elle Rose, Fiona McNair & Cassie Meadows again stood strong & forced Yarra Junction to work extremely hard for their goals. There were no easy contests for the ball all game.
I am still so proud of the improvement the team as a whole and the individual players have made over the season. The skill level, the ball handling & disposal and the way the team plays together has improved so much. 4 wins this season and 3 games lost by the narrowest of margins ( 1, 2 & 4 goals ) is a huge leap forward from last season and a basis on which we will continue to build. The second half of the season saw us have very competitive games with all the teams in the comp with the exception of Powelltown who are way on top of everyone. Congratulations to everyone this season, you have much to look forward to next season -- bring it on !
B GRADE
The girls stepped out on court to give it there all. We tried hard to our credit but unfortunately Yarra Junction were just too strong! It was great to see that even when the girls were losing there were great passages of play, intercepts and a lot of encouragement, much improved from the start of the season. A great performance by Kelli Riddiford, leading strong and dominating in the centre court. With the rate of improvement our girls have made throughout the season next year will bring us bigger and better things.
FOOTBALL
U18s
Once again, Yarra Junction let us down with numbers on Saturday. To our boys credit, they all agreed to supply the Junction team with 4 players each quarter on a rotational basis. All our boys played in a very competitive manner for the Junction. Owen Raszkiewicz was clearly best on for Yarra Junction in the first quarter and went on to have a stellar game for Olinda in the following 3 quarters. Other players to play well in our dominant win over the Junction/Olinda side were- Cal Beattie, Luke Van Lierop, Tom Dawson, Blake Walters( who had a run in the middle and proved to be a valuable ball winner), Ryan MacNab and Tom Lazdins.
Its been a fantastic effort by the boys all year, finishing with the minor premiership has been just rewards for a very consistant and dominant season.
Now for the season that matters - finals. Lets work hard at training over the next month and the rewards will be there !
RESERVES
The Reserve side celebrated their top of the ladder position at the end of the home and away season with a 176 point belting of Yarra Junction on Saturday. The midfield work of Russell Sloan was inspirational, as he racked up a spectacular disposal count with flair. Not far behind him were Gavin Nautili, Tim Wall, Rod McKenzie & James O’Reilly. In defence Lloyd Tanzen & Shannon Fitzgerald were as reliable as eve,r whilst the forward line welcomed back the inclusion of Tim Scott who helped set up Andy Greenall with another imposing display of 8 goals & Adam Borg with his most impressive 10 goals.
Adam now has 86 goals for the season & we all have our fingers crossed that he may ‘snare’ another 14 in the finals to join AG in the ‘100’’ club for the season.
SENIORS
The seniors took on Yarra Junction in very windy conditions on Saturday and the tempo of the game was up right from the first bounce. Junction took it right up to us from the start and showed why they are a finals team. To our credit, we moved the ball well and applied early score board pressure. The defence held strong for the entire day and due to our fitness, we ran out the game well.
A 30 point half time deficit was extended to a 36 margin at 3 qtr time. In the last we kicked 9 goals and won by 80 points.
A terrific year by all 3 sides to finish minor premiers but the hard work is still to come.
Last Modified on 18/08/2009 12:01