Round 4 Newsletter

Match day lunch
The first Match Day Lunch of the season is on May 29, v Ajax. Ross Smith OAM, Australian Olympic team Physiotherapist will be the guest speaker. These lunches are very popular and fill up quickly. Go to the website for further details and to download the RSVP form. Don't miss out!

 Attention players and supporters.  This Saturday v Old Geelong there are parking restrictions at Como Park– The City of Stonnington imposes very significant restrictions in relation to car parking at the ground. Due to these restrictions there is no parking available for anyone at the ground. General parking close to the ground is available in Bruce Street, and also in Como Avenue which leads off Toorak Road, beware- Parking inspectors are ruthless in the area.

Seniors
The Wellers got off to their best start of the season to date, with a five goal first quarter, highlighted by some strong marking and conversion in the forward 50. This solid form was continued into the second and by the time of the long break they held a 4 goal lead. Stung into action by the words of the oposition coach, and playing with a renewed energy, combined with some masterful coaching moves, the Rupo boys were able to get their running game going, and were finding the big sticks at the same time. The only thing in the Wellers favour was that they were putting shots on as well, however they weren't scoring goals, points instead. The match was set up to be a "nail biter" with both sides level on 63 points apiece. The Wellers re-gathered their focus, and intensity bringing it up to the level of the opposition and the result was a 4 goals apiece effort, enthralling the spectators in attendance. In the end it was the number of points scored that was the difference, and the Wellers came up trumps for their first win of the season. Better Players were Phil Bennett, Ben Hart, Jack Duke, Jack Le Cerf, Rohan Kapoor and Rob Deev.
 
Reserves
In a complete reversal of form our reserves side recorded a massive victory over a very undermanned Rupertswood side. In a sizzling first quarter we were able to score 8 unanswered goals with Dom La Fontaine providing a new target at full forward and Greg Tolson reveling in his new found freedom in the reserves forward line. Our centre line of Romanin, Cottrell and Storey were in complete control and the back line stood firm. Once again during the second quarter our attack was somewhat haphazard and time and again we kicked straight to the opposition player in defense. Sadly during this quarter Daniel Schmidt suffered a severe knee injury and we await the prognosis this week to discover the extent of his injury. At half time with 10 gls on the board to Rupertswood 2gls we were well positioned to make this game a big percentage booster. After a friendly reminder from the coach at half time regarding the opportunity lost during the second quarter, the third and last quarter produced some real quality football from the team. Big Jon Derry took over the responsibilities of the first ruck and played an enormous second half. Our followers led by James Robinson & Andrew Hudson again led the way with some fantastic hard running and in a superb effort our defense kept the Rupertswood team scoreless during the second half. Once again a special mention and thank you also, to those players that made themselves available to be goal or boundary umpire, team runner or water boys.

Under 19
We travelled to Crawford Oval on Saturday thinking we were prepared for a tough match against a very good team in Uni Blues. As it turns out we were ill prepared for a game of footy to be played at the level that is expected at VAFA Premier under 19’s. Our first quarter was not good enough and to be honest we where lucky only to concede 7 goals and even luckier to kick 2 ourselves. Credit to our opposition they come out full of fire and played some great footy. After a total re-shuffle of the line up and some less than complimentary words we came out with a much improved effort in the second Quarter. Unfortunately we didn’t capitalise on our good work only kicking 2 goals 7 behinds, however we knew we were now back in the contest as the game started to change.
At halftime we decided not to take note of the scoreboard and effectively ‘start again’. What followed was some of the best football we have produced all year. The boys played attacking, hard, uncompromising football, kicking 6 goals 2 behinds against a quality opposition outfit. At three quarter time we had pegged the margin back to just 8 points. The opposition had lost three players to injury and we were feeling quite buoyant given the quality of the footy we had just produced. This success was short lived however as the opposition came out to kick four quick goals in the first 12 minutes of the final quarter to lead by 32 points. Once again we had mentally gone to sleep and it proved to be very costly. To our credit we fought the game right to the end playing some great football along the way. In the end just falling short by 9 points This was our third loss of the year, another loss that could have been avoided had we played more than 2½ quarters of football. It shows how competitive we are at this level; we must now play hard for all four quarters to ensure theses close games have a better outcome.

Under 18
We were about to play St Mary's Salesian on their home ground after they had just missed out knocking off ladder-leader St Bedes/Mentone Tigers by 2 points the week before. The contest loomed very much as a danger game for us with only 18 available players. St Mary's Salesian had 22 players. We were definitely rolling the dice with the odds against us. We came out of the blocks well and were kicking to the scoring end in the first quarter. We slammed on five goals early but then relaxed in the second half of the quarter to let our opponents score 3 easy goals. Our 10 shots for the quarter resulted in 7.3 and their 7 shots resulted in 3.4. We had to hold St Mary's Salesian in the second quarter or the game could get away from us. We had 5 shots resulting in 4.1 and they had five shots resulting in 4.1. Our team's efforts were tremendous considering the scoreboard didn't show we played half of the second quarter without our Acting Captain, Coons, who was sent from the ground for uttering a four letter word. We needed to get at least another 6 goals ahead to manage a lead that our tiring team with no interchange could then defend in the last quarter if we were going to win.
The second half was going to be a real test of the character and fortitude of our playing group. I asked for a six goal extra margin by three quarter time and THE TEAM DELIVERED. We scored 7.3 to our opponent's 1.2 and we had a 60 point break at three quarter time. Such was the momentum instigated that our group again played half the quarter with 17 players when Klash was sent off for another unacceptable utterance. They came out in the last quarter and had the most scoring shots of any quarter - 12 - to score 5.7 against an opponent that they ended up blowing out of the water! 18 blokes took apart 22 opponents by dominating their performance through determination, character and a far superior will to win. There can be defining moments in any TEAM PERFORMANCE during a season that can stamp that team with their own special identity. Our Team could have accepted a narrow win OR an honourable loss last Saturday and there would have been a heap of justifiable explanations for such a result. THIS TEAM has shown by their own deeds that they refuse to accept the acceptable. They want to strive for the UNACCEPTABLE. Well done to all players.

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