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Coming off a disappointing albeit close defeat against 2nd placed Oakleigh, we faced an easier but no less important match against Melbourne High. We lost cult hero Phil Zarra to senior selection and also Tom Breen, who just wanted to follow Phil. Englishman Luke Matias survived yet another pre-game mishap as he got his head stuck in the door to the change room after England cheated their way towards a 2nd test victory. In terms of match tactics however, Eddie Kalaja stressed the importance of starting the match well... Memo to Eddie re: Winning The Toss... Again we were to kick against a howling gale in the opening stanza.
A focused Josh McCahon had his ipod in before the match, apparently listening to Alistair Clarkson's new band, the Rolling Zones. Tim Gerrand was also enjoying the attention of some adoring female fans who mistook Gerrand for Jimmy Anderson. Turns out one of the two is rubbish at cricket, the other one is our centre half back. We knew what was required kicking against the squall and limited MHSOB to 2 goals but squandered multiple chances of our own as we failed to make a stamp on the game. Towny again impressed and indeed picked up where he left off from last week, while later reports from the Discos were he left off when he picked up... We trailed by 12 points going in to the first break in what would probably be described as a pass mark, which might have been acceptable to Alexi Guagas in high school, but not to us. The second quarter was much more impressive as we kicked 4.5 with the wind. Aiden Clarke was given a task at the beginning of the day. His Mum wanted him to unstack the dishwasher when he got home. But before that, Bombay gave him the job on a former senior player from MHSOB, which Clarkey performed with the utmost class. A dominant performance from the Italian international as he was able to win contested ball in one on one contests and then launch vicious counter attacks. He was a big part of the reason we carried a 15 point lead in to the half time break. Jordy Stewert controlled the back half of the ground, or the front half depending on which way you were facing. The third quarter was his as he racked up mark after mark as MHSOB tried to surge forward. Fordy also contributed well to help contain the opposition to a solitary goal for the 3rd term and many onlookers would have thought the game over. But with Melbourne kicking the only goal of the game against the wind early in the last quarter to get within a single kick, Caulfield were given a timely wake up call. Rival scribe Johnnie Aitken was again kept goalless, this time by Dom O'Keefe and will be hesitant to put CGFC v MHSOB 2009 in his memoirs. Will Bowes ended a fine game with an "accidental" hit on an opposing player, claiming "he was off balance" but he wasn't fooling anyone. In fact his acting was some of the worst I've seen since a recent episode of Sea Patrol. We eventually managed to steady with a couple of goals to give us a 20 point win on a tough day of footy. The cheers from the victorious club song were only outdone by the cries of "go Phil" on Saturday night, as champion dog Phil's Mate took out the 7th at The Meadows, much to the delight of a number of the lads. Caulfield Grammarians 6.15.51 MHSOB 4.7.31 Goal Kickers: J. Stewart 2, W. Bowes, C. Fagan, A. Townsend, F. McArdle Best: W. Bowes, A. Clarke, D. O'Keefe, L.Spinks, A. Ford, D. King, J. Stewart, J.May, A.Townsend |
