Round 2 Newsletter

Seniors
There was great anticipation around the club during the week, with our first home game of the season being scheduled. The players enjoyed a strong build up to the match against Beaumaris, another C Grade finals participant in 2009. We realise that the scheduling of matches early on, has come in such a way that our club is drawn to face three of the more highly fancied teams for this season. The challenge for us is to put in some strong performances and send a message to the rest of the competition that, despite the fact that we have come back from B Grade and we have lost a number of key, experienced players, we intend to be a force in this year's Premier C competition. The day started with the loss of Damo McGuigan, and it allowed us to introduce new recruit, Jack Flynn, another recruit from the Camberwell High School zone. We lost Andy Clarke and Rob Deev to injury, but this allowed us to play Mitch Hough & John Frattin for their first senior games for the year.
 Beaumaris took the early initiative on the scoreboard, and were able to continue to exert scoreboard pressure on our boys for the remainder of the game. We encountered our first zone/ "cluster" tactic, which I am disappointed to say, wasn't handled all too well overall by both the coaching staff and the players. Too often we would bring the ball to our half forward line, only to pick out a loose Beaumaris defender. It will require a more considered approach by all concerned in the future. The match was still in the balance, despite the Wellers being 21 points in arrears at half time. However, a 6 goal to 2 third quarter by our opposition smashed the game wide open. A winning final quarter to the Wellers was small consolation from a contest that we wanted 4 points for our efforts. Better players for the Wellers were Phil Bennett, Roh Kapoor, Jack Le Cerf, Ben Hart, Mitch Hough & Jack Duke. Round 3 sees us drawn to meet Mazenod at Central Reserve. We all look forward to a strong, vocal supporter turn out to assist the boys get the first points for the season.

Reserves
In a much better performance, Old Camberwell reserves posted their first win of the season with a hard fought 26 point victory over Beaumaris. Celebrating his 150th game with the club Daniel Schmidt was outstanding in the ruck and with Jon Derry providing great support Old Camberwell dominated the centre clearances and stoppages around the ground. Up forward Cam Wilson played a classic centre half forward role and was a clear “best on ground” for the match. Supporting Cam’s endeavours in a welcome return to the side were Dan Morley, Brett Cotteral and Will Robinson. In particular Dan Morley’s attacking run from the half backline and long kicking set up many forward thrusts. In defense, the combination of Warr, Hansen, Middleton, Morley, Collins, Mulligan and occasionally Matt Cottrell provided a strong reliable force that repelled many Baumaris attacks and then set up a number of opportunities for our centre line players and mid fielders. The greatest improvement from the previous game was the intensity of the players around the ball and we look forward to this level being maintained against Mazenod this week.
 
Under 19
A fantastic start to the game and scintillating 15 to 17 minutes in the second got us to a position up by 34 points 7 minutes before half time and to concede 3 quick goals turned out to be very, very costly. Up by 16 points at the main break the mood in the rooms whilst buoyant, we knew the game had just lifted another level and we had to lift with it. In the 3rd qtr we had the aid of the wind that was consistently getting stronger throughout the afternoon however we didn’t make the most of this only winning the quarter by 3 points. At 3rd qtr time, up by just 19 points we knew the game was in the balance as our opposition had again lifted and their biggest weapon was just starting to fire. By now the wind was a worth about 3 to 4 goals. As you can see from the score line the last quarter was both intense and heartbreaking. The opposition’s midfield got well on top as our injury toll raised and lack of rotations stopped our key movers to a walk. This ensured that the opposition’s key forwards got enough opportunity to kick a winning score. This obviously turned out to be the case with them taking the lead in the match for the first time in the dying minutes. To our credit we never gave up, many of the guys playing under some difficult circumstances. In Premier Division we must be at our peak 100% of the time unfortunately 7 minutes in the 2nd quarter and 4th quarter running out of gas let us down this week. The up side is our best football in this game was outstanding! We need to pick ourselves up of the deck and hit back this week Vs Beaumaris. I’m sure we will! Best Players: S. Needham, D. Mitchell, A. Lattuada, N. Tenace, N. Ross, T. Hudson, O. Scheiber

Under 18
Our first 9:30am game meant an 8:30am arrival at an unfamiliar and somewhat distant destination against a new team in the U18 competition – a situation that made the coach somewhat nervous when we only had 18 players. It was very pleasing to see the reinforcement of team rules last week saw the commitment and communication of players arriving on time and the few running late providing text notifications. We put the challenge of the day’s game into perspective by spending 15 minutes watching a tribute to Anzac Day and the Battle of Long Tan, where ordinary Australian boys became extraordinary men. Honoring the debt we all owed to the sacrifices of the ANZACs was respectfully received by all of our team and the message of putting in against the odds seemed to galvanize the playing group. The task at hand for our 18 players was to take on an unfamiliar opposition of 22 on a large ground with a strong wind blowing down one end. We lost the toss and needed to start the game with purpose and effort. Our boys were switched on from the beginning and a solid team performance kept St John’s to 1.1 while we kicked 1.3 against the wind. The second quarter set up the game for us with smart use of backward handballing and switching to score 6.5 to 1.2. In the third quarter we relax and allowed St Johns back in the game. To the credit of all players, they lifted as a good team should and kept a resolute St Johns scoreless while finishing the game with 2.3. Despite the lack of rotations and some poor conversions from set shots, our U18 team put in a much improved team performance with ever play contributing and Harry Levvey, Jacko Crothers and Matt Klashovski in his first game showing the way all game. It was particularly pleasing to see our injured players help support their team-mates by taking on game day tasks. We will continue to develop and improve as a team by all sticking together and helping one another.

Photos from the weekend
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