Division 3 men’s, Bendigo vs Footscray at Angliss Res. Footscray, 14/7/18
The weather smiled upon us again last Saturday and the brightness of the winter sun determined the decision of the winner at the coin toss. Footscray were able to field a very strong line-up of 15 players, with a bye in Division 1, while Bendigo continue to struggle for a bench and almost lined up with 12. With regular goalie Gino Iuliano out for the day, Lester Young was asked to change places and pull on the boots as goalie, but unfortunately, someone ‘incapacitated’ him with a practice shot, leading to a quick change of goalie (Dylan Le Clercq stepping into the cage) just before the game started, leaving Bendigo with a solitary sub on the bench to begin.
I guess the big win for the day for the Warhawks was the success of our centres, Russ Crofts and Brett Ruiz, who dominated and supplied middies with plenty of chances to gain possession. In the first term, Bendigo did quite well getting ball over the restraining line, but still lacked ability to settle into structured attack. Stick work also let them down and the Footscray middies punished mistakes. The Footscray forwards, in contrast, were switched on and showed well-practiced moves and good understanding between experienced players. Despite solid effort by the Warhawk defence, Footscray just had too much of the ball and pummelled the Bendigo goal to the tune of nine in the first quarter. Bendigo had their chances, but were not able to beat the goalie more than once for the period, when Alex Orr drove on goal and sent one home, at least saving Bendigo from the indignity of a clean sheet.
At quarter time, a discussion at the Footscray huddle led to one of their players, Merv Davies, approaching our huddle with the very sporting suggestion that he and another of their players come over to bolster our numbers. Bendigo accepted and now had three on the bench.
The second quarter saw the Warhawks invigorated by the enthusiasm of the additions, though frustratingly, they were unable to trouble the scorer, while Footscray added a more-modest six to their scoreline. 15-1 at half time.
The third term saw a recovered Lester back into goals and Dylan back out onto the field and a further marginal improvement in the Warhwark forward line. Alex Orr snared another goal from a John Webb assist; Mason Matheson beat a defender to put in another and Merv also put one past his own goalie to make it 3 for the quarter. The Warhawk defence applied better pressure to the Footscray attack and kept them to four.
The final quarter saw a change of one of the Footscray subs and the addition of Footscray stalwart, Rich Tonelli to the Warhawk line-up. With the old firm of him and Merv operating up front, the Bendigo forward play looked much sharper, and Merv added two more for the quarter. In the mean time, Footscray marched on and added four more to run out winners, 23 to 6.
Votes for Bendigo went to Alex Orr (3 Club votes and 2 Association) on a really tough day for a midfielder, and Brett Ruiz and Russell Crofts deservedly got two and one club votes respectively for a great show at face-off.
Thanks very much to Footscray for saving our dignity and helping us out with numbers, when they could easily have done what certain other clubs have done lately, and used us for target practice and brutal percentage enhancement. Neither will be forgotten.
Thanks to Gino Iuliano for reffing and to Lester Young for volunteering to play goalie. In the end, we just don’t have enough players at the moment and when we play with low numbers, the pressure is on old players to run the midfield, which isn’t ideal, and it also puts undue responsibility on new players to perform above their level of skill.
After so many lop-sided scores in games against top sides in recent weeks, I felt that we seemed very quiet and demoralised, almost punch-drunk. This was highlighted when the Footscray players joined us and it was noticeable just how much more energetic and talkative they were.
It’s tough to play out the season without enough livestock in the paddock, but our run to the end is MUCH more favourable than what we just went through. Five out of the next six are very much winnable games. We just have to have everyone at training that we possibly can and in particular, get the forward play to work. We can’t do anything co-ordinated if only a handful train.
Again, I recommend wall practice. It really helps. I’ve been away from my practice wall for two weeks and you could see the resultant disaster that was my stick work on the weekend. God, it was horrible.
Chins up, see you at training.
Around the grounds:
The Brunswick club junior sides again benefitted from Warhawk contributions on the weekend:
In U13s, they lost 6-7 to Altona with Christian Iuliano scoring 4 goals and an assist. Well done. Get older and bigger, Christian: We need you at home!
In U17s, Will Kenny scored two goals in a 7-4 win against Melbourne Uni. Good work.
In Women’s Division 1, Warhawk girls helped the MCC/Bendigo team to a victory over top side, Newport 7-5 on Sunday. A couple of the Bendigo girls couldn’t play due to too many players, but as they say in the classics: “They also serve, who only stand and wait …”
Senior player, John Webb
Last Modified on 16/07/2018 11:16