Match Report

Round 03

Fitzroy U-14 Blue 19.9 (81) d Ashburton B 9.6 (60) at Burwood Reserve , April 25, 2010 Like most of you I've seen a lot of football over the years but Anzac Day's "Battle of Burwood" against Ashburton was one of the most rivetting games I been involved in. Twice the boys came back from very difficult situations in which they found themselves 3 goals down in both the 1st and 3rd quarters. Then, in the last quarter, playing inspired, unrelenting and accomplished football, we motored away after hitting the front early. In that last quarter the team gelled in very promising fashion and it was great to see so many boys running much further than their opponents who often didn't bother to follow them. A classic case in point was Seb. Howard who, although stationed on the HBF picked the right moments to dash down to the forward line. It was no surprise that twice he was in the right spot (the "hole") about 20 metres out from goal to receive the ball and finish off his work. Just as importantly he and most others quickly got back to their allocated positons to fulfil their defensive roles. Jacquan too was in a similar boat and once in possession also ran around bigger opponents with greater surety and maturity. Will Anson was outstanding in the ruck in the last quarter with his willingness to compete both in the air and at ground level and unselfishly freed up big Josh to play more of a roving role around the ground at ball-ups. Wiz too came to life and made the opposition pay with that lethal left foot of his. Charlie really started to stamp his authority on the game with some strong marks and goals at CHF whilst Connor continued to be a potent target and goal-kicker near the goals. Probably one of the best moves in the last quarter was initiated by Chris, Luke's Dad, who suggested we move Ahmed to CHB. At crucial moments, it was like watching old RoyBoy (and former opponent), Paul Roos at his best, as he intercepted , marked, ran off and punched to the boundary. During the game game Lochie probably played his best footy when coming into the centre square from the wing, again at the right moment, to be a damaging part of our forward thrusts. All day players like Digby and Sammy Howard were gr8 contributors. Sam made many well-judged saves with impressive, no-fuss one-grab marks in the BP. (Former Cats' Brownlow medallist, Bernie Smith would have been very proud). As we know, Andre was detetermined to go back on despite a recurrence of his hand injury and played with gr8 courage at the bottom of the packs when not streaking out of defence. Max stuck to his task against a very classy forward b4 a deserved run in the forward line himself whilst Aleks, showed obvious glimpses of elusive skills in the last quarter. Mo (as usual) gave off a quick and clever handball to Ahmed for a goal early in the game and Kieran and Jesse chipped in with important cameo performances. We have certainly improved in 2 weeks and we all need to consider how far we want to go this year both on and off the field. With enough hard work, discipline, levity and persistence it will be an interesting 4 months.

All Match Reports

Round 01    Round 02    Round 03    Round 04    Round 05    Round 06    Round 07    Round 08    Round 09    Round 10    Round 11    Round 12    Round 13    Round 14    Round 15    Round 16    Semi final    The grand final