Under dark and rainy skies Anzac Football took pride of place at the MCG of the East this week when the Mitcham boys played host to the boys from South Belgrave. With a good crowd in and an Anzac Ceremony before each game, it was a similar tune to last week with the under 19s and Seniors getting the chocolates with the Reserves left to rue another lost opportunity.
The Under 19’s kicked the day off with what was a good tough game of football. In wet and slippery conditons our boys made the football their first priority and gave themselves the opportunity to hit the scoreboard early. South Belgrave would not go away and the battle continued for the majority of the game. It was the second half that the Tigers started to sneak away. Dale, Sammy Howell and Nathan George worked well together up forward combining for 6 goals in difficult conditions. Downsey and Doidge were fantastic in the midfield with their work rate unquestionable, while Tommy Peace and Mick Barro were solid in defence all day long. So far so good for the 19’s. with Mitcham home by by 41 points,
Coach Jimmy Quilty Comment - To play in ANZAC day was a huge honour for our team and an occasion which demanded a spirited performance. We thank Robbo for his inspirational words before the game and for putting life and football into perspective. The 19's set about rectifying the deficiencies in our game this week against Sth Belgrave. Early lack of discipline in our behalf gifted the visitors easy shots at goal early in the first quarter. Our midfield worked solidly and after oregano being asked to lift heir workrate the likes of Sullivan, Lucas and Doidge stepped up and showed the way. Our torment was tested on more than one occasion and credit goes to the team for flying the flag but then making the football the objective. A sign of a maturing team. The second half we really dominated contested possession and were unselfish moving the ball forward. Our take away from the game... If we are to be successful we must work harder than our opponents. We move into Silvan in round 4 with a chance knocking off another competitor. Well done 19's we hope our performance was worthy of the opportunity to compete on such a special day.
Mitcham 11.8.74 def Sth Belgrave 5.3.33.
The Reserves had a game they will want toforget very quickly. Having plenty of opportunities with forward entries the Tigers could not convert on the scoreboard managing only two goals for the entire match. Sth Belgrave on the other hand finished the game off strong after managing only 1 goal for the first half of footy.Daniel Bowyer and Mark Parente were the two goal kickers while Bluey McKeown, Ruddy, Benny Bradford, Rob Durham, Jack Wakeling and skipper Matty Beagley were named the Tigers best. One good sign is the under 19’s coming through from last year starting to get among the better players. Sth Belgrave way too strong
Coach Steve Jordan Comments “This week proved to be another tough encounter for us against Sth Belgrave who are a quality line up with more than half their side having Senior footy experience. We fought hard all day in trying conditions to go down by 3 goals, frustratingly for us was that we had much more possession of the footy and twice the forward entries but we could not convert and take our chance when it arose. Two weeks in a row now the game was played it in a similar way with missed opportunities, our better players saw Bluey excel in the conditions with his head over the ball all day in a terrific performance, Ben Bradford up from the 19’s last year had his first hit out and was great providing a contest at CHF, Ruddy was solid also with plenty of run from half back and Beags again lead from the front. We are very disappointed not to get the win as we had the bulk of the footy all day, the positives are though that we have played probably the 2 best sides in the last 2 weeks and we have held our own in both games with only a couple kicks the difference. We will continue to improve and work hard on the track this week and we are looking forward to heading up to Silvan this week.
Sth Belgrave 5.7.37 def Mitcham 2.3..15
The Seniors got off to a good start in their match and looked like controlling the play for the majority of the first half. It was a good tough game of footy as one would expect to see on Anzac Day.Both teams played their hearts out with neither side willing to concede defeat. Pimm (5 goals) and the Hoegel brothers (4 goals each) were dangerous all day up forward providing plenty of scoring opportunities and helping with assists when they weren’t kicking goals themselves. Watson, Bell, Winterton and Faulkner demonstrated their capabilities when the going got tough while Witnish and Higginson continued to impress through the midfield. The Tigers second half proved to be too good for the Saints eventually running out with a solid 6 goal win.
Coach Neil Winterton comment “It was a great honor to play on Anzac Day, we were coming up against a desperate Sth Belgrave opponent who were staring down the barrel of a 0-3 start. In slippery conditions the first quarter was tight and contested but we were able to generate some quality shots on goal and take a handy lead into the first break. The second quarter was very similar with a lot of contested footy and despite the fact we were in front at half time we gave away a number of dumb free kicks because we were second to the ball. The third quarter was much better and we opened up a comfortable 5 goal lead going into the last quarter. Sth Belgrave came out firing kicking the first 2 goals but pleasingly we were able to steady and run out winners by 6 goals. Jack Purcell was a rock down back all day, Josh Bell provided plenty of run out of defense and Jayden Hoegel was classy inside 50 all day. Special thanks to Justin Robinson who gave an inspiring pre game speech about some of his experiences serving our country, it's a real honor to have a person of that quality at the club. Hope to see all supporters up at silvan on Saturday night.
Mitcham 16.12.108 def Sth Belgrave 10.13.73.
Congratulations to Steve Pimm on a fantastic 200th game of senior football. The big man up forward is showing his career is far from over playing some of the best footy we have seen in several years.
The club would also like to thank Gavin Ward (Our Junior footy Operations manager and one of our under 19 Dads) for setting up the sound system and running our Anzac Day tributes before each of the three games along with the theme songs of the competing clubs - It added a nice touch to what was already a special day. Thanks also to the Under 19’s who helped the club by volunteering their time with the BBQ etc after their game. its much appreciated by the committee and coaching staff. Looking forward to our first night game at Silvan this week. GO TIGERS
DONT FORGET to check out a host of photos courtesy of Graham Bradtke, Paul Corris, Bec Clarke and Aly Waters at The Offical Mitcham FC facebook page click link below
https://www.facebook.com/mitcham.fc?fref=ts
Last Modified on 28/04/2015 08:52