Men’s Division, 3 Bendigo vs Malvern at Malvern Town Hall Ground.
For the Warhawks, the nice weather may stand as the only real highlight to report for this game. Rain fell all morning and for much of the drive to Malvern; then as we arrived, the cloud broke up and the ground was bathed in sunshine for most of the game and rain held off.
Malvern has obviously decided that they’re going to win Division 3 this year, and the team that Bendigo faced had a definite “All-Star” flavour to it, with State League and even some former International representative names on the team sheet. Bendigo, on the other hand, fielded their usual line-up, with a welcome to Anthony Topp, who picked a really bad day to bolster our numbers to 12 and have his first taste of lacrosse. Stick around, mate, they’re not all as bad as this was.
I’m going to spare the gentle reader a blow-by-blow of the Malvern goal fest that followed. Malvern insisted on 20 minute quarters, so we were not to be given any mercy, and they set about adding goals to their scoresheet at an alarming rate: 8 in Q1; 5 in Q2; 9 in Q3 and 4 in the last, to cruise to victory 26 to 2. Bendigo saved some face, with two assisted goals to Ian lock in the last quarter; Alex Orr and Mike Bell managing to find their way onto the scoresheet with the assists.
The Warhawks actually looked OK in attack and there were more chances to score and threaten than the score suggests. The centres did well and kept the ball coming out to Warhawk middies. The Bendigo defence also withstood the barrage and pulled in to a zone for much of the match, to try to limit the effectiveness of the main Malvern feeder (who finished up with 8 assists and a goal). However, Bendigo was simply outclassed in all areas: experience, skill, fitness and confidence and were toyed with accordingly for most of the game.
Three club votes were awarded to Brett Ruiz, for remaining hopeful and showing a lot of heart in the centre on a day when it was hard to find; two club votes went to Mike Bell for managing to shrug the stellar Malvern line-up and get the ball down our end more often than they’d have liked, and one vote had to go to Alex Orr, who continues to amaze us with his ever-positive attitude in the face of crushing odds.
We now have a week off to let the memory fade and then we are back to training on the following Thursday, before we take on Footscray at Footscray on the 14th of July. This will mean that we’ll have played top-four teams in four of the last five games, with all those clubs using games against lower sides to try to build percentage and jockey for top spot on the ladder; especially painful when you’re a one-team club. However, the last part of the season gives us many good chances to snag a win or two, so heads up, deep breath, shrug it off and push on.
Around the grounds:
All games were on Saturday this week:
In U13s, Brunswick lost to MCC 8 to 3, with Brunswick leading 3 – 2 at half time. Christian Iuliano assisted all 3 Brunswick goals. Some mixed feelings for Gino in that result.
In U17s, Will Kenny snagged a single goal for Brunswick in a loss to Malvern/Caulfield 10 – 4.
The MCC/Bendigo women’s team managed to snatch a win in another thriller against Altona with 20 seconds left on the clock to run out with an 8-7 score line. Well done, Warhawks!
John Webb
Feeling-Ever-More-Senior Player
Last Modified on 02/07/2018 16:36