Men’s Division 3, 25/5/19, Melbourne Uni/Brunswick vs Bendigo at Park St Oval, Brunswick.
A reasonably pleasant and cool afternoon greeted Warhawks as the bus parked at Uni’s home ground. Rain held off and there was even some pause for consideration over ends at the coin toss due to a real risk of sunshine.
Uni/Brunswick were slow to arrive and eventually fielded fifteen. Bendigo had some major outs with Mason Matheson, Mike Bell, and Brett Ruiz still unable to play, leaving a bench of two and Russ Crofts to take all the centres again. As it happened, Russ won most of them (or possibly even all of them if you believe his post-game analysis) and the early part of the game was a battle of the Uni/Bruns midfielders trying to dispossess him and the Bendigo middies capitalising on his win. Bendigo looked quite dangerous early on in attack, though some skill errors robbed them of possession, which a younger Uni/Bruns defence was able to turn into sharp clearances and transition.
Bendigo scored the first goal of the game through Alex Orr, who was able to drive on the goal after other players cleared out the crease with good movement. There were plenty of Warhawk shots, but it became evident that Lester’s pre-game commentary that “the Uni/Bruns goalie is no mug” was painfully true and Bendigo were otherwise held out for the quarter. Uni/Bruns played very wide in attack, with the Bendigo backline again proving intimidating to young forwards and the usual cut and feed that they play tended not to come off often and shots were long and either missed the goal or were snapped up by Gino Iuliano who kept out all but two shots, giving Uni/Bruns the lead 2-1 at quarter time.
The second quarter followed on a similar vein, with Bendigo playing well in attack and peppering the Uni/Brunswick goal with shots, but going largely unrewarded, except for another single goal for the term from Alex. Again, the Uni/Bruns clearing out of defence was very good and they were able to get back into attack often, but their forward line played without much penetration and Gino only had to reach into the back of the net twice to give Uni/Brunswick a half-time ascendency of 4 to 2.
The third saw a change of gear and more control in attack from the Warhawks, who were able to find holes in the defence, with Ian Lock, Tim Davis (a long-stick surf-casting special) and Alex Orr each slotting one. At the Bendigo backline, Uni/Bruns were held scoreless by a fantastic show of desperate Warhawk defence and Gino was a brick wall in the goal. Bendigo had ground out a lead of one going into the final quarter.
The last term was an end-to-end battle of attrition as legs tired. Bendigo were still able to keep Uni/Bruns out entirely, while in the Warhawk forward line, shots went unrewarded except for one more successful cut from Alex, that attracted a sharp feed from John Webb and was nicely put past the goalie. The final whistle blew, with Bendigo winning 6-4.
Many of our games against Uni tend to have hockey scores, as aged wisdom and size are matched against impetuous youth. But this time, Bendigo prevailed and I think part of that was our injection of midfield youth in Matt Saxon and Christian Iuliano, which gave us mobility right to the end of the game.
Votes went to Alex Orr (3 Association and 3 club) for being both our relentless engine in the mid-field while also being our major firepower up front. He must have been tired on Saturday night. Mark Reader was given 1 Association and 2 club votes for another big day of crushing defence and ability to get the ball off the opposition and up to the forwards. And one club vote went to Tim Davis for his work as a long-pole middie. It was a day where the midfield runners won it for us, against a young team, and were rewarded accordingly with votes. Well done!
Thanks go to Lester Young for reffing for us and Ross O’Meara for scoring.
We have Surrey Park at Bendigo next week and let’s try to keep our winning run going.
John Webb, Senior Player
Other club news from Gino:
U15 Boys MCC v Williamstown
The day was fine and sunny, but MCC learnt a lesson from a well-drilled team. The MCC had 11 players against 16 and they were up against it at Willy.
However, the boys played a great first half keeping Willy to 0 to 5 goal score. As the game went on the MCC boys were tieing and the goals started flowing for Williamstown in the second half.
Matty and Christian fought hard all match, but they realized that they will need to keep improving to match it with the best in their age group.
Quarter time scores were 0-2, 0-5, 0-8, 0-14.
They still suited up for the seniors in the afternoon.
Thanks Boys!
Women’s B grade MCC v Newport
MCC had no Bendigo girls playing this week, due to school activities, however the MCC girls recruited another 3 players from MCC football.
According to the Coach, Barry ‘Nuggie’ Nugent, they did well going down 12 to 5.
Last Modified on 28/05/2019 14:36