Men Rd 4 – Albert Park | Women Rd 1 – SKOB

Women

Four goals to none saw the SKOB Saints victorious over Canterbury Football Club with a 35-9 point win at Canterbury Sports Ground. A dominant first half shaped the win for the Saints, with standout performances from Elena Edgewood, Ebony Davies and Chloe Hunt.

Reserves

Goal Kickers: R. Hummerston 2, M. Crawford, T. Wooster, S. Woodward, M. Kirk, A. Panjwani, R. Hawke, J. Price, D. Gates
Best Players: C. Hains, T. Wooster, S. Strater, R. Hawke, D. Gates, A. Panjwani

Round four against Albert Park, we arrived like brown cows with everyone being late except for about 6 players which just effect’s everyone’s preparation, I know sometimes players will be late, but not 16 out of the 22 picked. The last four latecomers all sat on the bench for the start of the game. This only shortens the time allowed to be ready and I believe affects the whole team prior to the game. The attitude before the game normally gives you a good indication of what’s to come. The warm up and approach prior to the game was very ordinary, which was taken into the game, not sure why after our great win last week, maybe everyone thought that Albert Part would be a pushover.

Mangoes lost another toss of the coin and we were kicking against the wind, we started slowly with Albert Park winning the clearance and kicking the first goal. As the quarter went on we started to win the clearances with Gash in the ruck and drive from our mids, we move the ball quickly down to our TF’S. Hummer presented and gave us an option up forward, he kicked two goals for the quarter, woody chimed in with one along with Wooster kicking one also. Even though we lost the stoppages during this quarter and our work rate was down, we picked this in the second half of the quarter. We lost J.Collins due to injury which was only going to affect was mid rotations. We were up by 7 points at quarter time against the wind. Our defence had tightened up and are mids were playing more accountable football.

We spoke about the clearances and stoppage setups at quarter time as we needed to change a few things in order to being accountable and playing to team structures. The second quarter we had the wind and reminded the players that the wind doesn’t do the work, you need to make it happened. We increased our intensity around the ground and with drive from Gates, Hainsy, Boyd, we kicked the ball long into our forward 50 but we missed our chances in this quarter with our forward structures not working and leads going in the same direction and are crumbers were also non-existent at times. At stoppages, we were tending to be on one side at times which didn’t make sense to our normal setup. We manage to score two goals with the wind, Gates with one and Hawke the big man roved the pack and also kick one. The Cobras were down 4 points at halftime.

The 3^rd quarter normally the premiership needs to be a good one, changes to our mids and forwards line was the key as we required fresher players around the ball. Albert Park kicked two goals early through our unaccountability so we decided to put Haines on their dominant on-baller, which once moved too Hainsey had shut him down, great work. Albert Park kicked the next goal and were out to a 17 point lead half way through the quarter with the wind. We manage to score the next goal, which was kicked by Arun to put us back into the game. The next goal came from a kick in, we took the ball from coast to coast with hard running and great ball movement and Pricey kicked truly, a great goal. Shortly after Pricey with hard D1 forward pressure pulls his hamstring, out for the rest of the game. The next goal also comes from some forward 50 pressure and Crawford kick truly; six points the difference. We then got the next centre clearance with Hawke in the ruck, Arun kicked the ball into our forward 50 and after moving the skipper forward, Mangoes takes a mark with 3 seconds to go, plays on and just gets his kick before the siren goes and also kicks truly, scores level, we now have a game on our hands. The effort was encouraging the way we got back into the game when we were virtually down and out is a testament to the team, also with only two players on the bench and are mid-rotations limited, the team was working hard.

We were definitely in for a fight whoever wanted the win the most would probably prevail. At 3 quarter time, we spoke about keeping the forward line open and small forwards needed to be under the feet of our tall forwards. The rain decided to arrive just before the start of the last quarter.

At the centre bounce of the last quarter Gash gets taken out and goes down injured, we are now down to one on the bench, mid-rotations were now down to a minimum and this game was going to come down to how bad we wanted it. We had the ball in our forward 50 for 70% of the quarter and couldn’t convert on our chances. We won the ball around the stoppages and had plenty of drive through Boyd, Gates, Arun and Straeter, but we kicked the ball long to one on threes where if we lowered our eyes the opportunity could have been different. The scores were level with about 5 mins left on the clock, both teams had kicked only two points for the quarter. Our defence stayed firm and composed in the last 2:30 mins of the game as the play was in Alberts Parks forward line for the rest of the game, we had managed to hold on for the draw.

As I reflect on the game it was probably a missed opportunity for us to be three and one as we had plenty of the play in the last quarter. The positive was the way we worked ourselves back into the game in the third term to put us in a winning position with only two on the bench was very pleasing.

See you all on Saturday.

Go Cobras !!!

Uncle Den

 Seniors

Goal Kickers: T. Lowden 3, A. Hummerston 2, N. Szabo 2, S. Fitzgerald, L. Venditti, R. Goodwin, M. Szabo, S. Murphy, R. Walmsley
Best Players: S. Fitzgerald, M. Szabo, A. Hummerston, R. Walmsley, A. Wheeler, T. Lowden

In a must win game for the seniors at VAFA HQ (Elsternwick Park) v Albert Park FC, we were dead keen on bouncing back from our football lesson taught the previous week v Power House FC. With the weather looking ominous and rain predicted to fall, we knew that we may have to adjust to the conditions and play a more direct brand of footy as opposed to our “run & gun” game of fast ball movement and link up handballing. 

By the time the first bounce sounded Jane Bunn’s predictions were correct (for a change) as showers were falling, which made the ball hard to pick up and mark in the hands. The game was reduced to ground play very quickly, and the forwards for both sides found it very difficult to mark overhead. Albert Park were matching it with us and in patches beating us at the stoppages,  so some necessary adjustments were needed to our structure as we subbed out a tall forward with a small and put our strongest tacklers and “contested bulls” in the midfield of Wombat, Goodwin, Choco and both Wheels to win the ball from Fridge’s grunt work in the coal face.

By ¾ time the game was a real arm wrestle, as we managed to kick 2 late goals to grab back the lead and go into the last break a mere 1 point in front. This next 30mins was season defining, as we needed to get the points here to establish ourselves at the top of the ladder with 2 tough games coming up in Westbourne & Swinny. As the rain clouds cleared and the ground dried up, we got our game going in a big way and smashed Albert Park with relentless running and team footy not seen so far this season. We slammed on 8 goals 1 to 1 goal 1 to run away with a strong 43pt win. This game was a lot closer than the result suggested, but our superior fitness and work rate was the difference here, and it’s hard to keep a good man down, with several of our stars in Lowden, Wombat, Hummerston, Buckets, Mitchy, & Murph all running rampant when it counted most.

We are now in a great position to tackle Westbourne Grammarians this coming week at home……In another great team effort, it would be unfair to single out a top 6, but Fridge was super again in the ruck all day directing the mids and setting up our structures, Lowden clunked a dozen high marks, kicked 3 and covered Fridge well in the ruck when Jimmy went down with an injury, Smurph had his best game for the year to date, playing his role with discipline around the stoppages and showed flair when our inside mids of Goodwin, Wheeler, Wombat & Choc fed it out, Mitchy and Hummer applied serious forward pressure, doing their absolute best to lock it in and do their Dadt proud, and the backline held firm again when under siege, pressing strongly and quickly. Johnny McDonald (Jmac) was great in his first game for the seniors and looks to be a player for the future which was also pleasing, and young Ryan Pearce was fantastic in his first game for the season……Go Corn Cobs……Love Dadt……