Round 14 2016 – Elsternwick

Despite the weather, Saturday was a great day down at the Snake Pit, as the Cobras won both games for the first time since the opening round of the year. The club played host to Elsternwick, and while the Wickers showed plenty of fight in both games, in the end the Cobras were able to get the points in both games.
 

Reserves

Goal Kickers: A. Szabo 3, M. Crawford 2, S. Hanrahan 2, M. James 2, T. Finnin, L. Venditti, D. Robinson, L. Robertson
Best Players: M. Crawford, S. Hanrahan, B. Lashbrook, A. Stals, A. Szabo, L. Venditti

Saturday was a great day for our reserves. It had been a tough year, with a number of heavy losses to strong sides, however, we were able to turn things around this week. 

We started slowly in the first quarter, as we were unable to take advantage of a number of forward entries. However, late in the first quarter and into the second we were able to pull away.

They second half was a strong performance from the whole side, as we continued to extend our lead. I was particularly impressed by our ability to finish the game strongly and capitalise on our dominance.

We had great performances by Stogdale, Stals, Terence, Szabo, Hawker and a number of others.

YNSA

Sean
 

Seniors

Goal Kickers: S. Fitzgerald 4, N. Szabo 3, M. Szabo 3, J. Price, J. Gillen, R. Hobson, T. Lowden
Best Players: S. Fitzgerald, T. Lowden, J. Gillen, J. Wilson, J. Wilson, C. Brock

We hosted Elsternwick on Saturday and were confident that we could have two wins for the second time this season. The reserves duly saluted, leaving it up to the seniors to complete the double.

But from the first bounce, things didn’t really go as planned. We were started slowly, many of our players struggling with the windy and greasy conditions. Elsternwick jumped us and skipped out to a fourteen point lead at quarter time which they extended by a goal immediately after quarter time. We were missing the drive of Wombat around the stoppages, and struggling to get the ball down to our forwards. Despite all this we able to work our way back into the game and were behind by a goal at halftime. During the half time interval, we resolved to work a bit harder and felt that if we did, things would turn around for us. 
Kicking into a stiff breeze in the third, we held our own and found ourselves sixteen points adrift. The floodgates opened during the last and we piled on seven goals seven to run home comfortable winners.

Tom Lowden was dominant all day, and when Mitch Szabo lifted in the second half, our forward line was able to capitalise on the hard work up the field. Fridge was a colossus in the ruck and chipped in with four majors while resting forward. Wheels was very good playing in a new position at CHB, and then gave us scoring opportunities when we threw him forward in the last. The Other James Wilson had perhaps his best game for the club as we threw him everywhere from full back to full forward and his ruckwork and desperation at the stoppages was very effective. Jezza gave us plenty of grunt around the ball and Fish was reliable and clever down back. Hobbo and Woodsy contributed all day and it was a luxury to finally have our skipper, Peely, back and he gave us plenty of drive. Marty Astbury blanketed Elsternwick’s main forward target. Sadly. Marty was playing his last game for us before moving back to Perth, and will leave an enormous hole in our defence. Others will need to step up. Thanks to Marty for his outstanding efforts this year, and we will miss him both on and off the field.

#YNSA

Reevesy

We’re at the Snake Pit once again this week, where we’ll meet local rivals Hawthorn. The Hawks have been strong all year in both grades, both of their teams sitting top two. Our boys have shown when playing at their best they can match it with most teams all year, let’s hope they bring their A game on Saturday.