Match Report

Round 06

Fitzroy U-14 Blue 13.10 (88) d Doncaster 3.6 (24) at Ramsden St Reserve, May 16, 2010 Before the game the Royboys were given a choice. Play like Collingwood did on Friday night or play like Freo. With self-belief and desire in the team building, the boys decided to rise to the challenge and played like the Pies. By qtr. time, we were 4 goals up, just like Collingwood had been earlier in the weekend. Connor marked and goaled early to get the ball rolling as Wiz and Jesse were "loudly dragged" (to ensure we didn't lose the goal to an on-field count), no thanks to pre-game problems resulting from 4th placed Doncaster surprisingly arriving 3 players short. Centre clearances were accumulating with great teamwork from Josh, Digby and Aleks while Charlie provided the drive from the ruck. Several free-flowing passages of play from the ruck were very impressive and the boys were linking up well, judging the bounce of the ball and running hard to cover heaps of territory. Digby was outstanding in this regard. The HB line was rock solid with Kent, Pat and Luke all reading the play with confidence when it came to intercepting, spoiling or marking. A bit too much praise at qtr-time led to us taking our foot off the pedal but 7 goals by half-time and a big lead was not something you would ever contemplate trading in. As the game continued after a few speeches and a rest outside, Doncaster became frustrated and both Max and Kent copped reckless treatment. Both soldiered on bravely and before our game against St. Mary's we will discuss a few ways to deal with such tactics. Max continued to mark strongly and was close to scoring several goals in the last qtr (on top of the one he did score). Kent showed his versatility and may well be just as dominant at CHF as across the HB line. Mo cleverly marked a miskick in the last qtr to goal in the FP after Mu was earlier cleaned up after taking a strong but disputed mark. Charlie, who again worked hard all day, kicked one too breaking clear near the goals. Special thanks to all the boys who played a qtr for Doncaster, esp . Nix and Kieran in the 1st qtr. As much as we're not keen to lend any players, it means that more of your team-mates get to play on the ground for Fitzroy instead of languishing on a packed I/C bench. Arguably, the highlight of the game was something that was certainly not spectacular at all. It came near the end when Seb H. made not just a 2nd and 3rd but 4th and 5th effort to tap, knock, paddle and control the ball through the centre of the ground as if the scores were level and there was only a minute on the clock. Richard Grummet

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