"The Big Fella” from ‘The Outer Eye’
Its hardly a secret to readers of this column that Leigh Williams is somewhat of a favourite. Some might even say a “love child”. At 6’5 and 95kgs, with AFL list experience, hands like a vice and supreme aerial judgement, good pace and ground level skills and a thumping (if occasionally mildly inaccurate) kicking boot, Leroy has all the attributes to be a star at EFL level with Norwood. And guess what, he is just that. A walk-up start for any EFL rep team, a premiership player and GF medallist, he is without doubt the premier forward in the EFL, and one of the very best players of any type at this level. As evidence, all the above mentioned skills of Leroy’s were in plain sight on Saturday as the Big Fella slammed home 9 majors after quarter time to spearhead the Wooders to their 4th win on the trot, a hard-fought and well deserved 24 point away victory against a plucky Sth Croydon.
We didn’t have it all our own way to begin with however, as Sth Croydon owned the ball and field position for the first 10 minutes of the game, slotting home the first four majors to lead 25-0 as we barely went inside F50 at all. Finally it was Kreusser who broke the ice for us after a tumbling punt forward fell kindly for Leroy who dished to him into the open goal. Moments later Kreusser doubled his tally with a classic piece of front-and-square roving and a clever check side conversion. Just like that, we were back in the game. 20 minutes in to the quarter Blair “Hawk” Hudson marked strongly and kicked truly from 45, and when Leroy stayed down from a pack rather than making a marking attempt he feasted on the crumbs to hand another one on a plate, this time Gibbo the lucky recipient. At 1/4T we held the narrowest of leads 4.2 - 41.
The start of the 2nd quarter coincided with the beginning of the “Leroy” show, as he opened it immediately with the first two goals, one after marking a quick snap from Hawk in the goal square, and the other a nice set shot from a tight angle after a well weighted diagonal pass, also from Hawk. Sth Croydon finally got one back after conceding 6 straight as the game evened out. Leroy flashed into the play again, a low drop punt to the goal square straight into the path of Gibbo for his 2nd as we went back ahead by 2 goals. It was goal for goal as Sth Croydon scored next, then Bater marked strongly and honoured a lead from Leroy who comfortably outmarked two opponents and nailed his 3rd for the quarter, an excellent set shot from a tight angle. Not to be denied, Sth Croydon kicked their 7th to make it just a 4 point game at HT, 8.3 - 7.5. Late in the quarter Leroy's day took a brief turn for the worse, yellow-carded mystifyingly after tangling with a Sth Croydon defender. He would sit out the rest of the 2nd and the first 10 minutes or so of the 3rdQ.
Whether just coincidence or not cannot be totally proven, but with Leroy cooling his jets on the bench Sth Croydon registered the first two goals of the 3rdQ to grab a 9 point lead. Within three minutes of coming back on after serving his penance, Leigh bagged his 4th, Fingers wriggling out of a pack on centre-wing and spotting him on the hard lead 45m out with a well weighted pass. Once again his kick was true, he’d certainly picked the right set of boots out of the locker this day. Sth Croydon’s big forwards were causing us headaches as they kicked the next, but a precise 35m kick from the boundary after a two-grabber saw Leroy pocket his 5th goal and we clawed within 3 points. No prizes for guessing who kicked the next goal, as Hilly rebounded off half-back, found Fingers (coming into the game prominently), who dished to Bater, his long kick allowing Leroy to outpoint his multiple opponents and mark powerfully 20m out. His 6th gave us the lead back and there were no more goals for this quarter, the game delicately poised at 3/4T with Norwood holding a slim 4 point lead, 11.5 - 10.7
Darin Stewart, who had played a very lively game across high half forward taking several strong grabs and making himself a great target for our midfielders, began the final quarter by drifting forward and marking virtually in the goal square from a nice Kreusser kick, but inexplicably Stewie missed. Minutes later he atoned for that with a huge grab in almost the same spot - again the kick came in from Kreusser, and this time Stewie made no mistake as the lead grew to 11pts. At the 8 minute mark Leroy was freed in the pocket and executed a perfect check-side, not the first time he’s done that, his 7th goal extending the lead to 17. Sth Croydon clung on, getting one back to reduce it to 11pts, but then at the 18m mark Writta marked a poor defensive kick and sent it back over the goal umpires hat to re-establish the 17 point lead. Still Sth Croydon would not go away, immediately replying. Soon after Leroy marked again, but his kick from 40m slid narrowly across the face, the margin 13 points with the time clock ticking to the 25m mark. To emphasise exactly who this day belonged to, Leroy marked strongly (yet again) 40m out, and then through sheer frustration a Sth Croydon defender knocked the ball from his hands. With the aid of the 25m penalty Leigh banged through his 8th to seal the deal. Moments later it was celebration time as Kreusser directed the centre clearance to Stewie, who had no hesitation in centreing the ball to the main man. I think everyone in the ground knew Leroy was going to mark it as soon as Stewie kicked it, and sure enough, Leroy took another huge grab and popped though his 9th goal, closing the game.
Final scores Norwood 16.7.103(Leroy 9, Gibbo 2, Kreusser 2, Writta, Stewie, Hawk 1) def Sth Croydon 12.7.79
Without any shadow of a doubt the best player on the park was Leroy with 9.2 in a simply stunning display of overhead marking and accurate goal-kicking, with Kreusser and Fingers both playing super games as well. Writta, Gouldy, Blake Charles and Stewie rounded out the best players.
The win sees us get to a 5-6 win/loss ratio, and we move up to 7th on the ladder, a game and percentage from Noble Park in 5th place. East Ringwood are 6th. Our season is on the line in the next two home games as we play unbeaten Vermont, then Noble Park. To have any hope of making the finals we must win AT LEAST one of these two games, possibly both. If we’re good enough, we can do it. If Leroy brings that sort of form again, we WILL do it. In other games the development squad and Colts both saluted comfortably to deliver us our 3rd "Wooders Day” in the last 4 rounds, during which time we’ve lost just 1 match(the development squad v Blackburn). This is much more the sort of form we’ve come to enjoy from our club. Lets keep it up. Winning is a lot more fun than losing.
Go Wooders
Last Modified on 28/06/2016 10:38