Men Rd 6 – Swinburne | Women Rd 3 – Hawthorn

Women

Best Players: M. Spillane, J. Lee, R. Azzopardi, E. Hall, E. Pittonet, T. Healy

Despite weather reports warning of possible early morning showers in the Eastern Suburbs the weather at The Snakepit was beautiful, if not a little bit breezy at times, in other words, pretty much perfect for football.

Having played Hawthorn AFC in their very first (ever) game of football, the Lady Cobras knew what to expect in terms of the level of physicality that Hawthorn would bring to the game and our girls matched them bump for bump, and tackle for tackle and then some.  Hawthorn were stunned by our level of intensity and attack on the ball as well as our second and third efforts; two elements to our game which we have worked on over the last 4 weeks. For the first time ever, we held our opponents to 1 goal in the first quarter, an outstanding effort and definitely a football KPI met.  Our backline was absolutely dominant in the first quarter, their relentless pressure forcing Hawthorn into kicking 4 behinds and only the 1 goal from multiple entries into their forward line.  Once again, the combination of Emma Hall and Bella Mentor shoring up the last line of defence made it a frustrating 1^st quarter for Hawthorn.

Evie Hall shouldered ruck duties from the second quarter onwards and the basketball convert’s tap skills won us a number of quality hit outs to advantage for our mids but we just couldn’t find our way through Hawthorn’s wall of defence. Once again some fleet-footed running from Rita Azzopardi and Mary Spillane ensured some quick take-aways from stoppages but the Hawthorn defence’s disciplined, double teaming of our key forwards was cutting off our targets and creating too many stoppages inside of our forward 50 for us to be able to get a run on and a clear path to goal.  Our only scoring shot resulted in a behind for the quarter and unfortunately Hawthorn were able to score another 2 quick goals to put us further behind the 8 ball going in to half time.

Splitting into our respective lines we spoke about our focal points for the second half of the game, the over arching message across all lines being; keep up the intensity, keep up the pressure and step up the physicality.

Some tired bodies ran out for the third quarter but as coaches and as spectators I don’t think anyone could have picked it. The girls turned the thumb screws a little tighter and Hawthorn came off second best in a couple of contests through the middle with a Mary Spillane tackle seeing play stopped for 3 minutes whilst her opponent was walked off by trainers.  We employed a hard tag on one of their most damaging midfielders to some degree of success, Fiona Yeaman acquitting herself honourably in that role. The backline was again superb stopping anything and nearly everything that came near the goals.  Elise Pittonet was forever finding the right patch of grass to drift into to take intercept marks and when co-captain Jess Lee wasn’t busy at the bottom of packs shovelling the ball out to her team mates, she was breaking lines and taking the game on to try and get us some momentum out of our defensive 50.  At ¾ time, Hawthorn had been held to only 2 points scored for the quarter, our best defensive quarter for the year to date.

One last huge effort was going to be required to hold off Hawthorn and to try to generate a goal or two for us in the last quarter. We had several forays into our forward 50 in the first few minutes of the last quarter and we were hoping for a repeat of last week with a couple of quick goals in a couple of minutes to give us a sniff but unfortunately some wayward kicking saw us turn over the ball for some cheap coast to coast Hawthorn goals. A disappointing last quarter saw the girls concede 4.2, not the best way to end what was otherwise a really solid showing from our girls.  Definitely the hardest we’ve seen the girls play and from a coaching perspective I know I speak for John McCully too when I say that we couldn’t be prouder of the continued improvement and willingness to learn that our Canterbury Women/Ladies/Girls bring on a week to week basis, we just need to get that elusive W!

Jade Shanahan – Assistant Coach, Senior Women.

 Reserves

Goal Kickers: R. Hummerston 4, M. Crawford, G. Driscoll, T. Wooster
Best Players: C. Hains, G. Driscoll, R. Hawke, N. Stogdale, R. Hummerston, M. Crawford

Round Six against Swinburne played down at the St James Park, we were going to be in for a fight as Swinburne are always hard to beat at home. First time for the year Mangoes wins the toss of the coin, we are kicking with the wind.

The first quarter our attack on the ball early on was excellent and our quick ball movement down to our forwards set up opportunities with Hummer presenting and kicking two goals and Wooster one, we had marched out to a 3 goal lead. But that’s when the momentum stopped and Swinburne took control and stopped our entries into our forward line and started to run, carry and switch the ball to create their own opportunities, which resulted in them scoring 3 goals and going into quarter time with a 4 point lead. Our D1 D2 pressure was nonexistent along with our forward press. We had a lot of work to do as the 2 qtr was against the wind.

The second quarter was probably one of our worst for the year Swinburne took control and the play was virtually spent in their half of the ground .We hardly got our hands on the ball and when we did we couldn’t keep position. We struggle to get the ball into our forward and when we did any entries were mopped up by Swinburne, who switched the play out the other side. Halftime we were 47 points down.

At half time we spoke about playing on at all cost to get the ball down to our forwards quickly as possible to create the opportunities to get us back into the game. We played some good footy in the term and moved the ball well at times for our 4 goals, Hummer kick another 2 goals ,who was presenting well and giving opportunities, but needed assistance from the other forwards. Dris and Crawford chipped in for a goal each to cut the margin back, but with our lack of defensive running and manning up, Swinburne kicked the last two goal of the quarter. At three quarter time we were 41 points down. Our ball movement and attack on the ball was a lot better in this term but we need to sustain this effort for longer periods rather than in patches.

The last quarter we tried hard to stem the tide with our backline and mids getting back to help out.  Stogdale and Woodsy repelling a lot of their forward entries, but the damage had been done. Swinburne wins by 78 points.

This was a disappointing result for all as if we don’t play to our structures and be accountable and play team football than this type of result can happen. No matter what the team looks like on paper, actions are what’s required.

Let’s look forward to getting back on the winners list this week.

Go Cobras !!!

Uncle Den

 Seniors

Goal Kickers: A. Hummerston 6, S. Murphy 2, M. Szabo 2, S. Fitzgerald, M. Careri, J. Blakemore, N. Szabo
Best Players: S. Murphy, A. Hummerston, J. Blakemore, R. Walmsley, J. Wilson, J. McDonald

On another sunny May day (that was supposed to bucket down) we were all set to play local rival the Swinburne Uni Razorbacks 5mins up the road @ St. James Park Hawthorn. With a strong northerly blowing straight down the guts like last year to the Burwood Road end, Smurph lost the toss as we had the unenviable task of kicking into the wind straight up. As we know, windy games can be won/lost in 1 good/bad quarter of footy, and after another sleepy start, we were staring down the barrel big time if not for a late goal to Hummer that reduced the margin back to 23pts at the first break with the Pigs having 11 scoring shots to our 3. With some fierce tackling and defensive pressure in the 2^nd , we started to get our handball game working well, but some inaccurate kicking from Swinny kept us in the game to only be down by 16pts at the main break. This should have been 35pts. The half time break was a great chance to regroup, adjust our wing structures, and devise a plan to get us back in the game and do things on our terms. And what a 3^rd quarter of footy we had, kicking 5.1 to Swinburne’s 3.3 into the breeze to close the gap only 6pts at the last break with the momentum in our court and our players full of run with a strong breeze behind our backs to finish off. With Sammy Murphy running rampant on the outer wing and Scoot shutting down their run on the other, coupled with 20 tackles for the quarter, we had them panicking with no avenues to goal from their D50. Fridge was dominating the stoppage work, setting up his fleet of soldiers in first gamer Blakemore, Wombat, Mreulje and Peel, but with no bench for majority of the last half due to injuries to Wheels, Mitchy, Robbie Goodwin and Carapetis, we unfortunately ran out of legs in the end. It really was a gutsy performance, to fight back the way we did, especially again in the last when we were down by 29pts to get back to within 7pts with a minute or 2 left on the clock. If we can manage to arrest our poor starts, and keep working on our game style and ball movement, we will be a formidable force by season’s end and in a position to not only challenge the best sides in D3, but beat them when it counts. Smurph was super again on the wing, Andy Hummerston kicked 6 and single handedly kept us in the game late with some powerful pieces of play, Fridge continued his outstanding season and has stamped himself as the best ruckman in the comp with his deft rucking skills and fierce combative presence, first gamer Blakemore from SA looks absolute class and is tough on the inside with great leadership skills and gut running ability which is fantastic, Ryan Pearce laid countless tackles and showed signs of brilliance and is set for a career best season in my book, Mreulje provided much needed grunt on the inside and linked up beautifully around the ground once more, Wombat did his usual silky thing and was super important for us in the mids, Bucky showed glimpses of his best on the wing, Scoot returned to some form, McDonald and Carrington were very defensive and saved many goals, and Jimmy Wilson continued his improvement especially late in the game when it was there to be won. Keep working hard lads, we are on the right track……Go Corn Cobs…….Love Doaky…..