Senior Men’s Match Report

A perfect day for footy greeted the throng at PP on Saturday...our first home game and Spud's Game - an important occasion.

The first quarter was a pretty even affair with Old Carey kicking the first major heading south towards the North Road end. But a strong mark and conversion from Durras Seccull levelled the scores. It was an even battle for the next 10 minutes with the backlines holding up. Jimmy Paul was getting plenty of the ball early and Nick Gooda was getting in and under. Loewey got our second from a tight angle and another from Durras meant the Bloods went into the first break with a 14 point lead.

The second stanza began in a similar vein but we gradually gained the ascendancy. Corey Connelly scored his first and another from Sec meant we had clearly gained the upper hand. The backline led by Bitters and Ollie Sharp were remained miserly and Jack Bell was getting on top in the ruck and around the ground. The visitors could manage only the one major and our lead had been extended to 35 points.

A glorious afternoon tea was enjoyed contentedly. Good to be back!

Old Carey had come down from A Grade so there was ability there and they would come out fighting. But the confident Bloods withstood the increased pressure and indeed went on to extend the lead. AKS started getting some handy possessions and new boy Dino Karamoshos was picking up the pace. The visitors failed to kick a major and the lead was now 10 goals at the final change.

While the coach asked for another goalless quarter for the visitors, this was snuffed in the first 30 seconds of the last stanza. But normality was soon restored with Sec, Loewey (party time!) and the Cas getting more six pointers. Bitters took a couple of hangers across half back which brought the crowd to its collective feet.

While Old Carey battled hard all day, we demonstrated that The Bloods are going to be more than competitive in Season 2021. Saturday’s was a real collective effort – a strong performance.

Song sheets were handed out to the new boys and the club song sung with gusto. A good solid win further reinforced by young Castan Racunica being nominated for the VAFA Rising Star of the week

Round 2 was an important day down at the Haileybury football club, especially for the hearts. It signified the Spuds game “Time 2 Talk” and the legacy he left behind. To us, this was more than just a game.

Spud was the biggest heart of the old Haileyburian women’s and from the start always encouraged us to have that conversation with a mate. He said to us once that the friendships we make down at the footy club will be friendships you have for a lifetime, and he was not wrong. This was seen on Saturday when we all showed up for each other and for Spud. With every girl in their blue socks and scrunchies as well as Spuds game merchandise, this really set the tone for what the day meant. Not only would Spud be so proud of his 4 girls, but let’s be honest, he would be pretty chuffed to see the whole club, and his hearts, wearing this in honour of him.

We started the game arm in arm with Old Mentonians to represent mateship. This was carried out by Chelsea and Danielle, as a tribute to their dad, to take this initiate to a local level, which for us, is where the magic and love for footy all started.

The hearts started off slow, but the intensity lifted in the second quarter, led by Chelsea Frawley our ruck. Once we got into our rhythm, there was absolutely nothing that was going to stop us. With great run and carry from our backs and mids, we allowed for many scoring opportunities, with 2nd gamer Serene Vudiniabola stamping her authority on the competition with 4 great goals.

The whole team played a great defensive game, keeping the ball in our F50 for most of the match. Once two mid fielders dropped back and 2 went in, this was a game changer, creating extra space for Carly Dillion and Anna Stewart to both again play amazing games and score some great team goals.

Communication on the field was again excellent and even improved on from last week, which was great to see as this was a key focus throughout our preseason and last week’s training. This was led by Lauren Oliver who scored an opportunity to play a quarter in the half forward to reward her efforts, and again, her defence was not lacking. Danielle Frawley really pushed the ball forward in the 2nd half with her constant run and 2nd and 3rd efforts.

Big shout out to Matilda Heming, for some great shepherds, this showed that she is ready and willing to put her body on the line for her team. Not one person played a selfish game on Saturday and this did not go unnoticed. What we saw was every heart getting around their teammates, as soon as someone went down, we picked each other back up. We picked the old Mentonians up as well. This was a huge credit to our hearts as this showed true sportsmanship and mateship.

All I can say is girls, we did our Spuddy boy proud.

This week against Carey was a much better result from a developmental perspective for the reserves boys. They would have learned a lot from leading deep into the third quarter and from only being 6 pts behind at the 20-minute mark of the last quarter.

The game started with Carey kicking the first two goals from a couple of mistakes but the boys fought back and kicked the next two goals to go into the break trailing by 13 points both but with a definite foothold in the game, Rayner and Bainy were terrific and HK, Oakesy drove us forward in the second and Ben Hood was getting the ball to Sam Algeri and Matt Charlesworth really regularly. Unlike last week the boys were really switched on for the second quarter and competed hard to cut the margin at half time. The boys as a collective really dug in and chose to compete rather than switch off and have a mental break like the previous week and you could see belief growing. Jordy Johnson and Gora started to come into the game and Jordy Hurley was working back behind the footy to help the defence.

The third quarter was full of opportunity as we got in front and had opportunity to go further in front but to Carey’s credit they did not allow us and again, on the back of a couple of wasted opportunities and errors where we did not quite recognise the moment as we should of. We lost both Gora and Alex Gibson with injury which made it tough and Hoody copped a nasty knock as well.

The final quarter started with us trailing by 7 points and they kicked the first goal very quickly but we never gave up and hung in there with them, we competed and went head to head until the 20 minute mark when Carey got some late goals when we ran out of fitness to keep with them and they got home by 26pts. The level of performance between round one to round two was night and day, the boys discovered they actually are capable of not only competing but being able to have an opportunity to beat good sides that in the past they have suffered heavy losses against in the past.

For this week against St Bede’s we will again look to improve, work on our areas for development and make sure we play for 100 minutes of our style of footy instead of 95 minutes of it like the weekend. I understand everyone wants to win but we need to keep working on the right things and the wins will come, we have a plan and we will stick to it. Bring on St Bedes this week, we will be up for the fight!

Round 2 saw the 19’s playing in our first home game of the year, we wore blue socks to commemorate late legend Danny Frawley who was a pivotal figure at the club. Despite the early start the boys were pumped to get going and continue our strong start to the season. We came up against a very fit and well drilled old Xav’s side which brought the heat from the beginning, the bloods were unable to capitalize on some early opportunities, which lead to Xavier getting the better of us throughout the game. Despite bold efforts from Maxwell ‘Steven Johnson’ Sievers, and Flynn ‘BBQ chicken’ Williams in the midfield as well as Jack Hardeman and Angus Bonwick holding down the backline, Xavier proved to be the better team on the day and ended up getting a convincing win over us. Keen to see how the boys bounce back next week against Kew. Go Bloods!!