Hawks by a point, or was it?
Woodend-Hesket v Gippsland
Gilbert Gordon Oval
July 29, 2012
By Daron Jacks
Without a doubt Sunday’s game was the coldest we’d played in. Sure we’d been threatened with frost bite at Trentham under lights, played a game in snow and sleet, but nothing … NOTHING … matched the brutality of being saturated by freezing cold rain.
Still, we soldiered on toward hypothermia.
Checking out the Gippsland fellas who’d taken a two-dray trek to get here, we thought we were a fair chance.
Fordey sat out the game and moved the magnets, whose first move cost us Fish. He gave the Tigers Fish to top up, in his first game all winter, who duly set about kicking arse… for them! Earning himself a six pack for his efforts.
Great move, Fordey!
The ball was nothing more than a bar of soap and those of us who held a mark should puff our chest out and claim greatness such was the skill required. Even Razor held one… in fact his second game in the ruck earned him the Milko award for a brilliant game.
He dominated the ruck setting up Mango to drive the nut out of the guts time and again. As Fordey said, it was his best game for us in three years. Anyway, that’s enough about Razor. He’ll tell you all about it next time you see him, if not just ask him.
The game played out like a junior match with the ball on the deck and a crowd wrestling to clear it. So much so that Junior, who took the whistle in Mick’s absence, had leather poisoning from the amount of ball-ups he had to perform just to clear the nut!
While the Gippsland fellas weren’t fast they were smart with the footy and found space often. Our backline held tight and stopped more goals than were kicked, with yours truly even using his face to smother a ball during a clumsy high-marking attempt. And Junior pinged me for it and handed their unfootballer-like full forward and easy goal.
Regardless of the dominance of our midfielders, our forwards just couldn’t convert anything to end the quarter scoreless to 2.4. Three points to 3.5 at halftime said so much. It said get McBride out of there, off his knees and into defence. Where he didn’t stay anyway.
Still after the main break we rallied. Koliba continued his brilliance off the half back flank with plenty of dash and a dash of lairising. With me looking like I’d sewn up the Tool award for my falcon, Jase collected the ball in the defence and took off…. And bounced… fumbling and slipping up to just miraculously tap it away to avoid a shameful turnover that could have resulted in a goal. Lucky Mango, the reigning weekly Tool, was on hand to hang shit and lock in the handover later.
Drewy found form in the third to take a great juggling mark and snag two sausages and Robbo, fresh of a 10km fun run with Crowie, was relishing his new found freedom in the forward pocket to kick our third. Kudos to Robbo who after three seasons has just worked out a forward pocket doesn’t line up in the back pocket and run forward to slot goals, while exposing defence. The Robbo wing is now inside-50 and primed for some larrikin-like shots on goal.
By the third quarter talk turned to hot showers and cold cans. If only we knew what awaited us!
The Hawks peppered the goals for rushed behind or just rushed missed shots, while the Tigers forwards were exposed to hypothermia and remained scoreless for the quarter.
It was fitting that when Junior called the game that scores were level. It was a great game in spirit, but scrappy game in skill, but both teams played in the spirit of Masters footy and laughed throughout the match.
The run to the hot showers was short-lived with the outrageous news that the Seniors had stuffed up and there was no gas… which meant not hot water… which meant hot soup and not cold beers was the post-game preference. Still, beers were accepted.
A huge thanks to everyone who chipped in with catering and coaching roles.
Our next game on August 11 is an intra-club touch footy non-contact style game where we encourage everyone who trains to participate and bring a mate. Pure footy for fun.
Woodend-Hesket: 00. 0.5 3.5 3.11 (29)
Gippsland: 2.4 3.5 4.5 4.5 (29)
Goals: Poynton 2, Robinson 1.|
Best: Tadd, Poynton, Mangan, Koliba.
B.O.G: Matt Fish (for both teams)
Milko: Ray Tadd
Macedon Chiropractic: Drew Poynton
Tool of the Week: Jason Koliba
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