I agree outer, that win was right up there. To come back & win from that position against a fit pro side with their tails up was almost unbelievable. I must admit i thought we were gone at 3 qtr time & this would be a short & unhappy summary. As it stands i still cant believe that they were allowed to have the likes of Blee come back into their side this year, make no mistake its early days & they will be a very dangerous side at the business end.
Rumble started on Sinclair & Stevo on Lycett. They are a very tall side. The first qtr was almost perfect footy from us, highly skilled ball movement, no errors & just tough footy. It wasnt so much that they were bad, we just made them look slow & untidy. We ended up 6 goals up at qtr time but could have been a couple more up -Boland got shoved fair in the back about 35m out with the orange maggots looking the other way & Waters running into an open goal only to be called back a free kick to the eagles. They began to hold their own towards the end of the 1st though, an ominous sign i thought.
The 2nd was fairly even until about the 15 min mark when we started playing the exact opposite of the 1st- fumbles, poor skills, no toughness or pressure & even the likes of Yarran, who is an animal of a tackler, was getting brushed aside with ease. Within about 20 min they had caught up to us. Thats how dangerous they are, but like i said we made it fairly easy for them with weak footy, we looked slow & gassed.
So they caught up to us by about 5 min in the 3rd but really we were lucky as we held on due to some easy misses from them & some solo efforts from Stockley, Bristow & Phelan in particular. When DeLuca used his body superbly to mark 10m out only to be penalised by the maggots again which resulted in the ball rebounding down the other end in record time for a goal to them towards the end of the 3rd, i thought thats it we are gone.
At the break Schoey had a crack at a few of the boys individually inc Hilda & Hampson but also the whole 22 who were weak for almost 2 qtrs. He asked to just get back to tough footy & dont save the game but win it & win it well. He also said we all said we would do it for somebody, cant remember his name but he must be ill or something? We came out tough in the 4th & made the "pros" crack, I found it hard to see much up our end because of the shit lighting & my good eyesight but from what i could see DeLuca scored, Boland one or two & big Frank an inspirational one from clean possession from the ruck. Delahunty was good in this qtr, heaps of spring in his heels, super fit.
My best would go to big Frank Stockley, we have got a good one here, not quite a Rix but i will go out on a limb & say he will be when he matures. He was up against Johnson, Lycett & Sinclair (with the help of Delahunty) and more than matched them. Lycett was really good though, & Sinclair hard to out reach at the taps, but it was Franks toughness around the ground which impressed me the most. Bristow & Hampson were good for most part, Boland is dangerous, probably beaten by McGovern(who was very good in the air) but still managed 4 goals. Phelan was one who kept us in touch when we were struggling & Mahoney typifies our toughness by even being out there today & throwing himself at it as usual. Horse was steady in the 4th, wont be long until hes back to his best i feel. The passage of the day was in the 1st qtr - kicked in from a behind strongly marked by Yarran who proceeds to kick it 60+ metres straight to Hampson who bangs it through, great stuff! This win could really shape our season...inspirational stuff!!!
