Round 1, 2022-Match report

Men’s Seniors

Loss: Defeated by MHSOB 4.6.30 to 14.22.106

Well after what seemed like eternity round 1 was finally upon us.
Round 1 was always going to present us with some difficulties with the absence of a number of senior players away for a Wedding.
Unfortunately, we were missing our head coach Michael Vozzo due to Covid isolation so wishing him and his family all the best.

Despite this the players had a great opportunity to implement all that we’ve trained during preseason into practice.
They did this with great aplomb in the first quarter.
Our pressure rating was at a tremendous level and coupled with our strong structures our backline was able to continually intercept and slingshot into an attack.

The second and third quarters weren’t so good for us with Melbourne’s midfield able to gain ascendency, they are a quality team.
Unfortunately our captain Rory Chipman suffered a hamstring injury which was a shame as he was playing very well beforehand.
We also had a number of other injuries so we had no rotations available in the last quarter.

With those challenges in mind, I was really proud of the playing group in how they pushed hard in the last quarter to basically match it with Melbourne.
That showed a lot of heart.
All in all, there are many positives to take out of the game and I’m sure we will be more than competitive all year.
Special mention to Cal Johnstone who was terrific all day through the midfield.

Goal Kickers: M. Scott 3, M.Young
Best Players: C. Johnstone, W.Fleming, E. Donelan, R.Pollard, M.Scott, J. De Waard

Men’s Reserves

Loss: Defeated by MSHOB 3.7.25 to 11.16.82

After a long pre-season we finally got out to play round one against a very formidable opponent in MHSOB.

Firstly, many thanks to all the players who helped fill in to form a side. Great to have both Ben Seeger and Jono Trend helping our younger players develop. The knowledge and experience both displayed on Saturday was outstanding. Led by our skipper for the day Nick Paton, we jumped MHSOB and slammed on a couple of quick goals to grab the early ascendancy. Jay Skate (first game) looked very lively up forward and was able to snap a brilliant goal to get the team up and running and capitalise on the dominance of our midfield, led by Paton, Steve White and Will McLeod (both also in their first games for the club). Seeger’s experience in the ruck was telling and the strong work of Tom Berry (first game as well) down back led to us being level at quarter time.

The team continued to apply plenty of pressure around the packs in the second quarter and the effort to chase and tackle took our more fancied opponents by surprise and a further goal by the busy Paton had us just trailing at halftime.

Unfortunately, we lost the terrier-like Mcleod just prior to half time and a couple of further injuries to both Paton and Berry during the second half hampered our progress on the scoreboard in the end MHSOB were able to kick a number of easy goals to run out winners by 57 points.

Overall, considering the lack of pre-season of many of our players and the number of new and fill-ins this was an extremely fine effort. The intent to compete was first class and has set us up for what promises to be an exciting season.

Budgie

Goal Kickers: Paton, Seeger, Skate
Best Players: Paton, White, Berry, Seeger, Skate, McLeod, Esdaile, Trend

Women’s Seniors

Loss: Defeated by Old Scotch 2.3.158 to 6.7.43

After a big pre-season, we went into round 1 full of confidence even though we were down on players.

A few setbacks in the 24 hours before the Saturday games saw the program lose 5 players to covid or illness.

Despite this, we battled hard against an excellent team in Old Scotch, who are still yet to lose a game.

A slow start, a good comeback, but then ultimately ran out of legs would be a good summation of the game. That and Scotch had some quality players across the entirety of the ground.

Disappointing, of course. However, to add some perspective when reviewing the game, we had 11 new girls, 3 x 16-year-olds and were down to only 2 on the bench before the game started. The team can hold its head up, move forward and look to making amends this week.

Goal Kickers: I.Zafiriou, L.Hausegger
Best Players: G.Hatton, C.Jevric, S.Padovano, L.Innes, Z.Scanlon, M.Stone, I.Zafiriou

Women’s Reserves

Win: Defeated Old Scotch 6.9.45 to 0.0.0

Our reserves side had a big pre-season coming into this game, three practices matches alongside their fellow seniors as one big squad, then rolling into a solo ressies practice match with a big win against a senior side. Our confidence was though the roof!

24 hours before game day we have regrouped online and discussed our core values and key focuses for the game, we made a commitment to each other to uphold these values, play for each one of our teammates and promised to protect each other.

The girls all got to the ground nice and early, pumped the tunes and everyone got around each other, all we did was hype each other up and again discussed our core values one last time. Once it was game time, we knew we were taking the field as team with a plan on how to win, nothing but disciplined footy, focus and determination.

It was a slow start, being wet as well as Old Scotch matching our intensity as they came at us, but we held our own and broke the gridlock.

Our midfield was amazingly strong and played accountable footy, our back line was solid not allowing anything to get past them and our forwards kept that inside 50 pressures on and rewarded the group on the scoreboard, kicking 4 gold 4 in the first half we knew all the hard work was paying off.

We regrouped and came back out, not ready to put our foot on the breaks yet, we fought hard, Old Scotch kept us honest, they didn’t roll over and let us run over the top, we managed to kick another 2 goals in the third and ran out 45-point winners in the end.

This win was very special to all the Yarra girls who have not seen the ressies record a win since 2019. We are so incredibly proud of what our girls did on the weekend. The focus now will be to get ready to go again. Hopefully we can keep it up and win back to back.

Goal Kickers: K.Brockway 3, K.Lyth 2, J.Evans
Best players: E.Newman, J.Lane, A. Jervic, S.San, M.VV, S.Kerr, J Morton