On a cold Saturday afternoon the Warhawks made their way to Brunswick to take on MelbourneUniversity at home. The ground was in miraculously good order after much rain in preceding weeks and after the game I was able to simply knock some wet grass off my boots and re-stow them clean.
University were customarily slow to arrive, but eventually started the game with 14 players and had a straggler turn up later to make it 15. Bendigo had 14 to start, including a guest appearance by former club stalwart, Chris Thompson, who lent some experience to the midfield and centre.
The game began very even with both sides unable to settle in attack and midfielders we called on to run the field hard throughout the first quarter. Bendigo were able to score first when John Webb took a ground ball cleanly as it spilled from a pack and threw it into the top corner of the Uni goal. Some controversy from the Uni goalie (over whether it in fact went in) and from the Uni scorer (who actually scored it) was finally settled and Bendigo took the lead. Nick Goddard also scored with a nice long shot and we were looking promising at 2-0. Late in the quarter, Uni sent one net-ward and we went to the break 2-1 up.
In the second quarter, Uni began to settle down in attack and were able to possess the ball for much of the time. They began to pepper the goal, slotting five for the term, but missing or finding the stick of goalie Iuliano with many more. Bendigo scored two through the agency of Ian Lock, assisted by Mike Bell and Alex Orr, from quick moves out of defence, but the Bendigo forward line were not able to set up any sort of structured moves and skill errors let them down and were punished by sharp and fast Uni middies. Something for Bendigo to work on is using quick short passing and spreading middies to transition out of defence, rather than a single player trying to run the ball all the way down, or a long speculative pass from a defender (or the goalie) straight to an attacker. At half time the score stood at 6-4.
In the last half Bendigo were without centreman Russell Crofts, after he was injured, and the Warhawks struggled to get the ball over their restraining line, while at the Uni end the assault on goal continued apace, with the ball striking the mesh another nine times for the half. A last quarter heavy shower of sleety rain added to the discomfort as Uni ran away winners: 15 to 4.
Votes for the day deservedly went to Gino Iuliano in goals (3 club and 2 Association), Ian Lock (2 club) for keeping us in it on the scoreboard in the second quarter and one club vote to Nick Goddard for his usual quiet achievement at both ends of the field.
Anyway, there are plenty of things for us to work on at training. The main thing is keeping the ball up at our end longer. We always look rushed up in the forward line and turn the ball over too easily, and if we’re short of middies, they have no time to rest. As some old guy at Uni in the 1980s used to say, “There’s no need to rush. They can’t score without the ball, so all we have to do is stop letting them have it”. It seems like such an obvious idea, but it’s so easy to forget.
John Webb, Senior player.
Last Modified on 26/07/2016 16:26