We played Diamond Creek today at the Hurstbridge ground due to the Creek oval being resurfaced. The Monty faithful packed their suitcases, checked they had enough money to purchase fuel for the return journey and travelled to a ground that is beautifully set in picture perfect surroundings and should be on a postcard or a postage stamp. The surface was wonderful to play on, at least Mont found it wonderful, as Diamond Creek must still be wondering what hit them as we steamrolled them in our first away clean sweep for the year.
The day started in very cold conditions and didn’t get any warmer as large coats, hats and gloves seemed to be the norm. It’s never good to have a home game in bitter conditions as the crowd will always be smaller, it’s even worse for the budget of the host club when most of the crowd have had a big day the day before. With all the Anzac Day festivities there were some very seedy looking people that had obviously had a hard Anzac Day who were glad the drinks were so expensive it gave them an excuse not to take their hands out of their pockets and get caught in a shout.
The 19’s started the day with their second win for the season, first time for two wins in a row for Coach Grant Reinkie since joining Montmorency FC. In what turned out to be another goal fest Matt Knight kicked another 7 goals to back from his bag of 9 last week while the boys put on a tough fighting effort to eventually win by 37 points.
The reserves game was interesting in the fact that the objective seemed to be to age Hoffy. The game started well enough with a truly miraculous goal from the boundary by Banbury but after that Mont couldn’t buy a goal as the ball missed to both sides of the posts and kept Diamond Creek in the game. Poor old Matt Brown, aka Barney Rubble, added to his season tally of points as he missed the impossible to miss shots frustrating himself and giving the small crowd ammunition. And didn’t they give it to him from the boundary. Finally Barney goaled, but I don’t think he was even sure if the goal umpire would award the goal as it looked like he tripped over the ball on the goal line rather than putting it through. The goal umpire raised the two fingers and Barney’s drought was over. He managed another goal in the last quarter and the balance in the universe had been restored, Mont went on to win comfortably by ?? points.
The senior game was held in good football playing conditions, cool and overcast but with a strong breeze blowing diagonally across the ground favouring the pavilion end. When the senior players ran out it became obvious how small this ground actually is and the bets were on that Daniel Sage would either A: have a shot on goal from a full back kick in, or B: hit Brett Hayes on a lead from the kick in. It wasn’t long into the game before Sage had his chance to kick in, and though he did neither of the above, he still thumped it past the centre upsetting the Diamond Creek defensive set ups.
Mont started the game against the breeze and after a short time started to cope with the conditions well. The first goal of the game came 3 minutes into the quarter from Brett Hayes who marked on a long lead to a ball perfectly delivered by Sage. A minute later Wayne Pavitt had the ball deep in the forward pocket and was dancing around the Creek defence drawing all the defenders to him which released Derryn Stanley to stand alone in the goal square. Pavitt saw this and with a perfectly weighted hand ball gave Stanley the easiest goal he has had this year so far. Stanley had his second goal and Mont’s third less than 30 seconds later when Jarrod McGough blind turned out of the centre and found Stanley on the lead. Diamond Creek were shell shocked as the goals rained in.
Diamond Creek finally settled and goaled after a free kick directly in front of the posts, but this was not the most convincing way to get a first goal. Mont responded immediately from the centre bounce when Brent Gutterson marked strongly then kicked long to the goal square where Hayes disposed of his man and marked with three Creek players trying to stop him. After this the ball was stuck between the centre circle and the Mont half forward line as Creek flooded but then had no one to kick too. This meant Mont was able to mount attack after attack keeping the pressure on the Creek defence, the only problem was the Mont players were kicking points now and were letting Creek off the hook. Creek was able to go against the trend of play and break clear and score a very good goal, but this was to be their last for the quarter as Mont just kept pounding the Creek defence until it cracked. A goal to Gutterson gave Mont a total score of 33 and had we known that was all that was needed to win the game we could have gone back to our warm homes. Late goals to Pavitt and Hayes gave Mont a commanding lead at quarter time.
Mont 7 4 46 Diamond Creek 2 1 13
The second quarter was looking ominous as after kicking seven goals against the wind, the question was with the wind behind them by how far would Mont be in front at half time? You could see the body language of the Creek players and could sense it was already game over and when Stanley, Keenan and Hayes all goaled early the game was well and truly over.
The rest of the game became a bit of a procession as Creek didn’t have the answers or the ability to counter attack and put any pressure on the scoreboard. The game fizzled out to a convincing Monty win, with the only interest in the last quarter being if Hayes was going to kick ten goals. He started the quarter on seven goals and kicked two more early on and the small crowd came to life with every possession Hayes got. Unbelievably Hayes had at least two opportunities to kick his tenth but gave off the ball to a player in a better position much to the disbelief of the crowd. Such has this team bonded that individual milestones do not out weigh the team rules.
There was a brief moment of comedy when Ben Finnan who had an exceptional game in the back line was asked to come off for a rest. Ben looked up at the score board where it was 100 points the difference and had to ask if the runner was serious. In all it was a great day for the club and next week we take on Lalor back at the nest as we attempt our third clean sweep of the season.
Last Modified on 13/05/2008 23:09