Woods scrap to victory against Devils
Arkaba Oval Heathfield was the venue for the Round 11 clash between the Mt Lofty Devils and the Blackwood Football Club. After some mid-week rain the oval presented in a rather soft condition as the sides ran out on to the ground for the warm up. Blackwood made two changes to its side with Daniel Benson and Jacob McCarthy coming into the line-up in place of Sam Fotheringham and David Xian.
The home side started kicking up the hill. Mt Lofty managed to get the ball to their end in the first minute of play. Blackwood’s defenders provided lots of run with Scott Bricknell and Haydn Kenny having numerous touches inside the first 5 minutes of play. As most pundits would have thought before the bounce, Blackwood began to get on top around the ground controlling most of the play for the quarter. However they failed to convert the numerous opportunities they had moving forward. The ball bounced between half back lines on regular occasions with big men Jesse Watchman and Mark Nielsen taking several intercepting marks in the first quarter. The Devils managed to kick two goals whilst visiting side only managed one goal for the quarter through crafty half forward Michael Minuzzo who roved the back in the scoreboard pocket and slotting a nice goal from the boundary line. Mt Lofty went into the break with a 3 point lead, 2.2.14 to 1.5.11.
Coach Salievic let loose at the main break as he was unhappy with the work rate and effort of his players. The Mt Lofty supporters shouted out some friendly advice to the visiting huddle as they were confident their side could cause an upset against the higher ranked Blackwood. The Woods made a solid start after the first change controlling much of the early play. However the Mt Lofty team once again held strong pushing numbers behind the ball making it hard for Blackwood to hit up a target coming inside the forward 50. Minuzzo was providing all sorts of headaches for the home side kicking two goals for the quarter. Big man Matt Waldron had a purple match in the middle of the term taking to big grabs and converting truly to see the Woods to take an 18 point lead into half time.
Both sides regrouped inside the rooms as the crowd shivered through the break as it was getting rather cold under the disappearing sunlight at Arkaba Oval. Mt Lofty looked to be up for the fight in the third quarter as the game lifted in intensity and spot fires broke out around the ground on several occasions. Minuzzo booted his fourth goal for the match with a clever gather and turn in the forward pocket as both sides broken even for the quarter with Mt Lofty kicking 1.2 to Blackwood 1.1. Mt Lofty huddled tightly at the final break as Coach Dawes gave his side some real belief at the final change that if they continued to work hard and attack they could take out the victory.
Lead by its younger players including Daniel Benson, Jacob McCarthy and Matt Tuck, Blackwood lifted at the start of the final quarter. McCarthy got on the end of a free kick after a head high bump from an opposing Mt Lofty player. The resultant scuffle saw the Mt Lofty player given a red card by the umpire. McCarthy was in the play once again in the next minute of the game as Blackwood got the ball moving forward up the hill to kick another major. The final quarter then ran its course as Mt Lofty pushed all of its players behind the ball. On several occasions they turned the ball over in the defensive 50, kicking it out to wall of Blackwood players with no Mt Lofty player in sight. The final siren sounded with the visiting side taking a scrappy victory, 9.14.68 to 4.6.30.
Defensive players featured heavily in the best players for the visiting Blackwood side with Jesse Watchman taking numerous intercepting marks being the best in the eyes of the coaching staff with fellow back liners Kurt Thompson and Scott Bricknell also featuring. Minuzzo kicked four for the match and young ruckman Todd Lewis took out the last two awards.
It wasn’t the best game of football to watch from the side lines with both sides making several skill errors by foot across the day. Blackwood controlled the ball for much of the day however with Mt Lofty’s tactics of pushing numbers behind the ball, and some inaccurate kicking in front of the big sticks they were unable to turn the possession dominance into a big win on the scoreboard. Mt Lofty seemed to lack genuine forward targets, as the tight Blackwood defence showed its class once again and why they have conceded the least points in the competition to date, restricting Mt Lofty to one major in the second half.
Blackwood did enough to take home the two points however they will need to improve across the board in the coming games if they are going to take the step up and beat the other finals contenders in the coming rounds. They have the talent to be a real player come finals time if they can get things working.
It was another great weekend for the other grades within the club, with the B & C Grades, Senior, Junior and Mini Colts all winning their retrospective matches.
Moving forward, Round 12 sees the club travel up the hill to take on arch rivals Ironbank, whilst the C Grade make the long journey to Milang on Sunday to take on Uraidla Districts.
#REDANDGREEN2016
Last Modified on 29/06/2016 08:32