Week 13 Update

Where are the Students..

It must be June and Uni Holidays as the students have bolted for the sun or mum's roast lamb is calling in the bush! With Semester 1 exams finished it has seen the annual migration of the student from McGillivray Oval to all parts of the globe, resulting in a difficult period for the club to negotiate. As such, given the man power available on the weekend the results were commendable. The A grade had at least 6 players out and faced off against third placed TA's in a must win game and fought back from five goals down to record a memorable 9 point victory to return to the five. The A reserves considerably undermanned fought gallantly before going down to TA's. The colts only able to field 17 and 15 in the A and C's respectively were impressive despite missing out on the four points. It is a credit to the guys that we haven't had to forfeit C colts games as we have done previous years, this demonstrates the strength and depth we have this year. While the lower grades also undermanned put in impressive performances winning both grades as they strive towards September action!

A grade - 14.9 - 93 def TA's 13.6 - 84

A res - 7.3 - 45 lost to TA's 20.6 - 126

A colts - 11.7 - 73 lost to TA's 11.12 - 78

Thirds - 10.2 - 62 def TA's 8.3 - 41

Dingoes -12.8 - 80 def TA's 5.10 - 40

C - colts -4.3 - 27lost to TA's 9.11 - 65

Following round 12 we have four sides in the final 5 - A grade 5^th, A colts 5^th, Dingoes 1^st,and C-colts 3^rd with the Thirds currently a game outside the five!

For a full summary of all games please see the match reports below.

THIS WEEK

This week again sees a number of important fixtures, starting with the Colts who are likely to be undermanned again looking to bounce back to the winners list as they both strive to lock in a top 3 position. The thirds and Dingoes face stern opposition in North Freo and will be a good test to see where each team is at. The Reserves are looking to get back on the winners list and have a real opportunity this week against Stirling. The A grade competition is unbelievably close with 1 game separating 4^th and last so each week is vitally important, Stirling are just outside the five on percentage and after defeating North Freo last week are in good form. It is shaping up to be a great contest so get down and support the Green Machine in must win game as they look to cement their place in the five!

A Grade v Stirling - McGillivray Oval - 2.30pm

A Res v Stirling - McGillivray Oval - 12.35pm

A Colts v Stirling - McGillivray Oval - 10.45am

Thirds v North Freo - Gil Fraser Oval - 2.30pm

Dingoes v North Freo - Gil Fraser Oval - 12.35pm

C- gulls v North Freo - Gil Fraser Oval - 10.45am

Look forward to seeing you at McGillivray to support the boys, it has to be better than watching the Eagles or the Dockers!

100 / SUPPORTERS CLUB DAY - 1^st AUGUST

This year the 100 club / Supporters Club event will be held on the 1^st of August when the A grade side plays Whitfords at McGillivray Oval. There will be drinks provided and door prizes on offer for those that turn up on the day including golf sticks, wine and other items.

If you are yet to renew your membership please contact Andrew Johnston - acjohnston@kpmg.com.au or myself - peter.toll@bdo.com.au we look forward to seeing you all down at the club on this day.

MATCH REPORTS

A Grade

Uni 14.9 - 93 def Trinity Aquinas 13.6 - 84

Down at TA's cow paddock in Como on Saturday the Uni boy's had a terrific come from behind, fighting win against the 3rd placed side.

With the boys taking a quarter or so to get used to the difficult underfoot conditions Uni found ourselves down by 5 or 6 goals midway thru the second quarter. But from then on hard work, persistence and a willingness to run combined with better execution and constructive talk from every player in the 22 saw Uni work its way back into the game by 3/4 time.

The last quarter was a cracker with Uni hitting the lead for the first time in the match with 7 mins to go. But then TA struck back with a goal to go 3 points up with less than 5 mins on the clock. That was the sign for the boys to dig deep and they did pushing the ball deep into the fwd line to allow Jones the opportunity to mark on an accute angle - go back and slot a banana kick thru to reclaim the lead then a minute later snap another to seal the game.

A magnificant team effort from every player this week. This week we take on Stirling (who accounted for Nth Frem on Saturday) at McGillivray in another critical game. Hope to see you there.

A Res

Once again the A-RES were as consistent as a cheap custard and delivered only two quarters against top of the table TA's.
After matching it with them in the first quarter the newly formed A-RES (a lot of changes) were then over run in the 2nd and 3rd quarters.
Winning the 4th quarter was a little consolation but in the end the Res went down by 8 goals in a disappointing day out.

Good players were 2 Dads and Kal Williams.

A Colts

The boys only managed to get 17 players on the field this week due to3 players missing through injury. We were up against TA's who are top of the ladder in A colts with their only loss against Uni in round 3. Uni started in fine fashion having the better of a first quarter shoot out with Uni kicking 6 goals to TA's 4. The second quarter however had TA's having the better term kicking 3 goals to our 1 allowing TA's too enjoy a 7 point half time lead.

The second half tightened up with both teams wasting chances to build a lead. In what was a epic final quarter Uni fell 5 points short of what would have been a fantastic win against the odds. Many positives can be taken from the loss as they lads played a great style of running footy to get themselves back into the game and many back line players playing on much larger quality forwards. Well done to Jules Burzens who played his first game for A Colts.

In what was a good term effort it was hard to determine votes but the best players were. Nathan Stewart who came down from Subiaco reserves, Cal McNish continuing his great form, Angus Merrideth, Tom Kaskow and the Troll Wrestler aka Pete McGinnity returning from a broken hand to kick 3 goals. Stirling next week who like their A Grade can turn it on on their day.

Thirds

This week the 3rds took on TA's in a very important match in the context of our season. Coming off a good 6 weeks of football, we were looking to continue our recent good form at home. The team had a number of changes this week as the uni holiday period took full effect. Thanks must go to Fido and Quigs for doubling up after the seconds match and Blair for doubling up after the morning colts match. All three of these guys made valuable contributions with both Fido and Quigs kicking 3 majors a piece.

Played in perfect conditions we went into quarter time a goal down after dominating much of play. TA got the jump on us at the start of the second quarter racing to 3 goal lead. The boys then clicked into gear kicking the next 4 goals to head into half time with a six point lead. With the first two goals after half time it looked like we would run away with the game. To TA's credit they hit back with the next 3 goals to take a two point lead into ¾ time.

With the game on the line we ran out the game considerably better and keep TA scoreless while adding 3 goals our selves. The win puts us at 6 and 6 of the season, which is good position after being 1 and 4. Better players for the day were Labrat at CHB, Moorey who provided a heap of run out of the back pocket, Witty who dominated the ruck and around the ground, Kaneo who ran his guts out and Inspector Gadget Blue who was great in the back pocket.

Dingoes

E Reserve vs Trinity Aquinas

After a cool 9 years between drinks, Lewie was finally able to notch up his 100th game against a vastly improved Trinity Aquinas outfit. This was to provide plenty of motivation for the boys although perhaps the emotion of the occasion was too much for us as poor disposal crept in early. Trinity Aquinas were able to get the jump 1.7 to 0.1 and if not for poor efforts in front of the sticks could have put the game out of reach by quarter time. The Dingoes however, have shown a timely ability to respond when challenged this year and a strong second quarter ensured we headed into the main break with a slender advantage. It was hammered home to the boys by one of the many coaching talents on display, that our fitness and hard run would leave TA's wilting in the second half.

An increase in centre clearances set the tone for an improved second half performance with the likes of Boom, Stats and Roids able to get first use of the footy. This was aided by a strong defensive effort with Cat ably supported by Linga and Kracken. The game was still well within the balance at 3-quarter time but the Dingoes forward line pressure meant that the ball rarely left our forward 50 in the last quarter. This was the result of the success of our defensive wall, with Jingles able to use his spindly frame to good effect. Our forward line, which had been well contained for the most part of the match, came alight and we were able to run away comfortable 40-point victors. It was perhaps not the 4-quarter effort we were looking for but it was great to have a win for Lewie and the match gave us the opportunity to test ourselves ahead of a much sterner challenge against North Fremantle next weekend.

UFC 12.8. 80
TA's 5.10. 40

Goals: Roids 3, Pricey & Boom 2, Geortz, Tradey, Wooda, Bully and Lawto 1

Votes: 5: Jingles & Cat 4: Boom 3: Roids & Swannee 2: Stats 1: Linga, Kracken & Tommy Clapin.

C-colts

For the third match in a row the mighty c-gulls marched onto the field significantly undermanned. However the increased game time given to those boys who have hung around for the holiday over the last few weeks appears to be showing dividends as the c-colts put up a good fight against TA's. Last time the two teams met Uni won by the slightest of margins, with Julian Berzins kicking the winning score in the dying minutes (a goal that is often wrongly attributed to his c-gull look-a-like Chris Bragg). TA's set out to avenge their previous defeat, coming out firing, kicking 5 unanswered goals in the first quarter. At quarter time Sam Macpherson was moved onto the dangerous TA's forward and with the assistance of James Maddock and Tim Shakespeare, helped to stem the flow of opposition scoring.

After half time Uni rallied and kicked a quick goal to start the 3rd term. TA's reacted quickly kicking a goal of their own an began to push numbers into their backline, the memory of the 5 point defeat earlier this year obviously still fresh in their minds. Uni looked to be the better side in the second half however the boys were unable to move the ball deep into the attacking 50 enough to reclaim much of the ground lost to TA's in the first quarter. TA's ended up winning by 38 points; however the dogged 4 quarter performance by the all of the boys was very encouraging with many players improving with each game.

Uni - 4.3.27 def. by TA's - 9.11.65