Mitcham Started the 2015 season in perfect style with 3 wins against Whitehorse Pioneers at home on Saturday. Under blue skies on a perfect day for football, in front of an excellent home crowd the scoreboard perhaps didn’t do justice to the evenness of 2 of the 3 contests. While the Mitcham reserves were too big and strong for a youngish Pioneers side that never stopped trying both the Seniors and Under 19 had their moments as Whitehorse took the game right up to the boys.
Under 19's
Were faced with the task of tackling the great unknown. Each year new sides emerge and we were focused on controlling the controllables like our effort at the contest, pressure and our structure. To the credit of the side they set about playing the game on their terms and applied emended pressure the Whitehorse midfield and back half. We learned how valuable our structure is in enabling us to apply pressure and force turnovers which our back 6 should be pleased with. Terrific performances from Sullivan, Lucas and Doidge in the midfield meant we made the most of the ruck dominance around the ground. The group is ready to tackle the challenge of Templestowe who have had our measure in the last two finals.
James Quilty
Reserves:
Good start to our year with a convincing win against Whitehorse. With nearly half our side different from last year, it was pleasing to see the boys play well together for the first time. The first half was quite clinical with Paul Quon showing his class up forward, our ability to work on our structure and zone showed if we get this right it will go along way for us to be a difficult side to play against. Our 3rd quarter was poor as we blazed away too much kicking 8 behinds, we addressed this at 3qtr time as we needed to show an improvement in the last quarter which we did kicking 10 goals. Could of thrown a blanket over a dozen or so players this week as our best, but will call out Ches, Menzies, Quon, Beags, Murph and Tyler. This week we will have a big step up in class against Templestowe so it's going to be a big test for our group and one we are looking forward to. Well done to the 19's and the Seniors it's great to have 3 wins to kick of the year.
Steve Jordan
Seniors:
Round 1 saw the senior debut of Alex Finch and Jayke Murray, both boys played in the colts last year and it was a fantastic achievement by them both to earn a place in the senior side for round 1. The first quarter was very scrappy with our boys dominating general possession and play but through poor execution were unable to take full advantage posting 2.13 for the quarter. The 2nd quarter was much better with the forward line functioning well allowing us to get some reward for effort, we went to the main break with a handy 38 point margin. Unfortunately our 3rd quarter was very poor with our work rate and intensity dropping right off allowing Whitehorse to control the quarter and kick 5 goals. Luckily we re focused in the last quarter and played some very good football allowing us to run away with a 53 point win. Crossy was fantastic all day with his speed and kicking inside 50 a real highlight, Warney was great across the 4 quarters in the opposite wing, and the 2 Hoegel boys combined for 10 goals between them. Thanks to all the supporters who came down for round 1, hopefully we see you all again this week out at templestowe.
Neil Winterton
Last Modified on 13/04/2015 21:15