Round 11 - Seniors Match Report

Round 11 Report: Seniors

Hinterland 8.8-56 def by Kedron 19.8-122

There are no good losses but some are far worse than others. Last week was a shocker, we were pumped by the Tigers and played poorly all over the park. This week the margin may have been more but our fight to get through one of the worst runs of injuries and dubious calls I’ve seen at the club was second to none.

We were always confident going into the game, we fielded a strong team and always play that bit better at home. In a tight first quarter we came into the break 8 points down, our pressure was outstanding and again it was only our poor forward entries that stopped us going in ahead. DJ was again outstanding from the outset and worked hard all day as the sole ruckman. He was ably supported by Belly, Tim, Dan and Lachie. We were probably a bit sloppy with the ball early which had us on the backfoot but we definitely ran the quarter out well and looked to carry that momentum into the next quarter.

The second was the beginning of the end though in terms of our ability to run the game out. Blakey was out early on with a concussion and was quickly followed by Johnny when he rolled his ankle. Lachie was hit hard in a contest that resulted in a fair bit of vomiting at half time whilst Woody was given a red card, I’m still not sure why. That left us with 17 men on the field for the rest of the second and into the third, but strangely we actually started to get back into the game at that point. Kedron had come out firing kicking the first 4 goals of the quarter before big Sting struck back with an absolute ripper on the run up against the boundary. That was quickly followed by an equally impressive goal to Malachy from a 40m set shot on the opposite boundary. We ran it out strongly to trail by 17 at the main break and still be right in the game.

Our lack of numbers really started to hurt us midway through the 3rd as Kedron made the most of our lack of rotations kicking 6 goals to 1. I can’t fault the effort from anyone as they kept pressuring all day. We did lose a bit of discipline in defence though with some old habits creeping back into our game, namely overcommitting players to the ball carrier and watching it get handballed over the top and cleared. That and not sticking our tackles was hard to watch, but against a hard-running side like Kedron it was always going to be a huge task without rotations. A shining light though was the return of Razor to the senior line-up, he played undersized and often under-paced all day but rarely lost a contest and always used the ball well. With the absence of Fairy down back a glaring issue it was great to have a bit of experience back in to complement Simmo.

More bad news in the last on the injury front as Belly pinged his hamstring again and was out for the remainder of the game. Princess hobbled on with a dodgy groin and Simmo had to push through some nasty cramping towards the end as there was no-one there to replace him. Hynsey finished the day with a goal and we are still waiting to hear back from AFLQ regarding changing the result due to the “last goal wins” rule, however it is looking more likely every day that the result will stand. Frustrating for all involved as it was clear to see in the first that we could match it with the top team in the comp, just not with 18 players.

When all is said and done though it was another game we will learn from. We need to sharpen up in a number of areas but the steady improvement we’ve had throughout the year gives me a great deal of belief that we are on the right track. Hopefully we get some good news on the injury front as we have a big game against another top opponent in Wynuum next week. Another good opportunity to have a crack at a team that beat us earlier in the year, I know the boys will be keen to dig in and give it their all.

Go Blues