The Tigers fielded their youngest senior side in years in going down to the more experienced Gorillas on Saturday at Everton Park. In what shapes as a terrific pointer for the future, Mayne had 11 players aged 18 – 19 years of age in the line up all of whom performed admirably in front of a vocal home crowd. The group was also honoured to be presented to players from the 1958 premiership side who had gathered to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the flag, which incidentally, they won with a similar number of young players in the side.
The match started at top pace with the Tigers contesting hard but unable to convert their forward entries – kicking 2 goals 6 behinds. Brownie – again captaining the side with Andrew missing the last 3 games with a knee complaint, racked up 14 possessions in a dominant display, however Wilston were cleaner with their forward line entries and kicked 4 goals to take a small lead into the break. In the second term Gards continued to battle hard against much older and experienced opponents in the ruck but Wilston’s stronger bodies were proving hard to stop at the clinches and they kicked straight up forward with an 8 goals 1 to 3 goal quarter. The third quarter was more of a grind with both sides defending well. Tom was showing clean hands at ground level and young Taylor in his first game was standing strong across the half back line. A big crowd gathered at the last 3 quarter time huddle of the year urging the boys to take up the challenge to the Gorillas but it wasn’t to be. Wilston lifted a gear and the lads couldn’t go with them with the goal kickers for Wilston spread amongst quite a few players.
There were plenty of lessons to be learnt from our opponents for our young fellas – particularly the way their experienced players worked at the stoppages and their ability to hit targets around the ground. The challenge is to work on this over the summer to come back next year better equipped to handle the competition.
In the early game the reserves showed some terrific resolve against a quality outfit with all the side pulling together and battling out right to the finish. Trent and Tom played well but the real highlight lay with Russ Ditchburn whose 3 lads played together in the same side for the first time at senior level. Tom, David and Sam took the field and certainly looked for each other when they had the ball. The last time this feat occurred was with the 3 Nolan boys who played together in the seniors a number of times in 2002.
A big thank you to everyone who supported us this year as we made a number of improvements on and off the field with some strong foundations being laid for the seasons ahead. Watch this space for further updates on what is happening in and around the club over the break.
We look forward to seeing all players, supporters, officials and special guests at the trophy night to be held at the Full Moon Hotel on Sat Oct 18. Please call Anna Fell to arrange tickets.
Go the tigers
Last Modified on 20/08/2008 11:22