Round 5 Match Review, 2022
Senior Men's Match Report
Old Haileybury: 9.13.67
St Bedes / Mentone Tigers: 10.11.71
Round 5 and it was a home game for our Senior Men’s team against St Bedes Mentone.
After a tough win away to Williamstown we sat at 3-0 for the season and in 2nd spot on the ladder.
It was great to see a big crowd of supporters especially some old faces that had not been seen at a Bloods game for a while.
Preparing for the game we spoke about how our opposition was 3rd on the ladder and looking to knock us off and take a scalp.
That is exactly what happened as we were defeated by 4 points.
St Bedes were more clinical with ball in hand and made us pay for our errors.
Not the result we were after at all but plenty of learnings to take away from the game.
We had a lot more Inside 50s and more opportunities to score than our opposition but unfortunately could not get the win.
With some minor adjustments at training, we look to bounce back against another challenging opponent in Beaumaris.
Individually Jack Lonie was our best player on the day but as always, the other 21 players we could not question their efforts.
We look forward to seeing you all at the footy this week.
Go Bloods.
Senior Women's Match Report
Old Haileybury: 8.16.64
Old Camberwell. 0.2.2
Due to player injury and unavailability, the Hearts went into our big top 4 clash against Old Camberwell with a team of 21 players which was a few short of the usual number. We knew that if every single player was prepared to give 100% effort for the full 4 quarters that we could take it right up to them. Everyone was excited to be part of our first big club day of the year with all teams playing at home.
The energy in our rooms pre match and during the warm up clearly indicated that our girls were ready to rumble and wanted to cement our top 2 spot on the ladder. We had a plan for the small ground and it was evident from the very first bounce that our girls were fully switched on and up for anything that Old Camberwell could bring. With some great tap work from Holly in the ruck, our mids were getting first use of the ball and were determined to win the battle of the contested ball. In addition to this, the run we were getting off half back had us well on top in the key inside 50’s area. Our forward line was functioning well after being given many opportunities and we went into half time with a commanding 27 point lead.
Down to only 1 on the bench after 2 players were ruled out with injury at half time, the girls were not swayed and their steely resolve continued to shine through. The group did not want to let Camberwell back into the game and continued the onslaught to set up an unassailable 38 point lead at the last change. The girls were hungry and wanted more goals and went against the instruction to slow the game down to give everyone a breather in the last quarter. 4 more goals were slammed on in the last 20 minutes as the Hearts ran out very impressive 62 point winners.
Against a fair bit of adversity, this was the team’s best win for the year and sent a statement to the rest of the competition. The determination of the whole group to run hard and work together as a team was a delight to watch.
A big highlight of the match was Serene kicking 5 goals which equaled the Hearts club record which had been previously achieved by Pulli. Ellen getting onto the end of a couple of goals and her celebration also delighted the crowd.
We will continue to work hard on the track and focus on 1 week at a time as we start to prepare for Old Mentonians next weekend.
Men's Reserves Match Report
Old Haileybury: 3.6.24
St Bedes / Mentone Tigers: 8.7.55
Finally back at home in Rd 5 v St Bedes.
We started the game with a fair bit of intensity and maintained that over the game which is an area we have improved in. The first quarter saw us all over St Bedes in the general field of play, our ball movement was very good and so was our contest work which gave us our share of the ball, Jesse Laite and Jack Grenda led us well but we failed to capitalise and kicked 4 behinds from what should have been 4 goals. St Bedes capitalised on their opportunities to lead at Quarter time.
The second quarter again saw us dominate the ball, we were first in, got the footy and then continually turned it over as we went forward, it was frustrating for the players and the coach but we were still in it, Jackson Coleman got going around the ground as he moves out of full forward and up the ground and Jordy Hurley got busy, Jesse Laite’s work rate was incredible and Sharpy got involved and worked his heart out, we trailed by 17 at Half time.
The third quarter we had our opportunity to challenge and score but we again failed to hit targets and grasp the moment in the game, that is not about effort but more about awareness about what stage of the game we were in. We worked very hard to compete with St Bedes in the contest but failed to spread out of the contest and react to each other the way good sides do and some poor discipline resulted in some free kicks and some goals for St Bedes which allowed then to extend the margin . Stuart Connolly worked tirelessly in the ruck and Finn Williams was coming into his own at CHB.
The last quarter was again very tight, they got an early goal and that was it, it was an arm wrestle around the ground that neither team could break and we did not take the opportunity or capitalise on our work.. Jack Grenda battled away all day and was fantastic, Jackson and Jesse showed they are probably ready to go up when the opportunity arises. Stuart Connolly played his best game.
I am very confident that we are now becoming consistently competitive and we are no longer the horror show that we once were but that being said, this was a wasted opportunity to beat a side above us and we did not do it and we need to start doing it if our whole club is going to be successful.
Under 19's Match Report
Old Haileybury: 11.8.74
Uni Blacks: 6.8.44
The Under 19s took on Uni Blacks at home on Saturday.
Bolstered by the return of a few players, our boys got off to a great start kicking an early goal and looking up and about from the start. Credit to Unit Blacks who battled hard to come in at quarter time a point down.
The second quarter was much the same with both defences playing well. Josh Schutz and Josh Gillon continued on with their sparkling form repelling the ball back to our midfielders many times.
The second half saw our boys start to dominate the game with our mosquito fleet of Luke Dipietrantonio, Harry Grenda, Noah Higgins and JJ Adams winning the ball in the midfield and giving our forwards plenty of opportunities. A change from the midfield to up forward for big Maxxy Walstab gave Uni Blacks plenty of headaches with him dominating the third quarter with some big marks and accurate goal kicking. Max ended up with 4 for the day in a terrific performance.
A 3 goal lead at ¾ time felt comfortable but we weren’t home yet. The boys worked hard early in the quarter to ensure the Uni Blacks boys didn’t get a sniff winning the ball in the midfield and stoppages all around the ground. Mick Cowell and Ryley Cairns in the ruck were terrific giving us first use all day and especially in the last quarter. The boys worked hard to win by 5 goals in a terrific performance.
Hopefully this gives us some confidence to go on and trouble some sides that we haven’t met yet.
Big thanks to Cindy Bonwick for stepping in as Team Manager, Dan Williams as Runner and Anthony Gown who was a guest Assistant Coach this week.
We take on the strong Mazenod this week at Central Park at 9.20 this Saturday.