Congratulations to everyone on a great effort & for a great season.

Special congratulations to our coach, whose hard work and careful match preparation saw the boys get a just reward for a fine season.

Hope to see you all next season.

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MATCH REPORT

 

PRELIMINARY FINAL - FITZROY v. PARK ORCHARDS

Sunday 19 August (Binnak Reserve)

 

All roads led to ‘The Binnak' after last week's magnificent victory saw Fitzroy earn a Preliminary Final berth against Park Orchards. A win means a crack at the Big One next week.

Terry was forced to do his pre-match address ‘al fresco', after a mix-up left us without the use of the rooms before the game. Nevertheless, the coach improvised beautifully and nominated Jesse & Zeb as co-captains. The outdoors warm-up worked like a charm as Fitzroy started the game in the same scintillating fashion as last week. Declan again set the tone with a great mark early and Paddy & Alex M were immediately into their stride. Harry got the first goal from a set shot after marking a great pass from Christian. Murray then atoned for an earlier miss with a thumping goal from 50 metres. After a Park Orchards reply, Harry again goaled after marking near the square. We led by 16 points at the first break, but had a few wasted chances in front of goal.

The Sharks got the first goal of the second quarter and were starting to look dangerous. However, Alex M was dominating, with his fierce tackling a feature of his play. Jonathan was playing well and Christian was getting plenty of hard-fought possessions around the ground. Harry again goaled after a mark, this time from a tricky angle. Alex L was providing plenty of drive, along with some bone-crunching bumps, while Jesse was taking marks all over the ground. Despite this, Park Orchards came back well and kicked three more goals - most of them from kicks that were allowed to bounce through an unattended goal. Thanks to their better kicking, the Sharks had grabbed a one-point lead at half time in a game that had the vocal crowd yelling and screaming with excitement.

Fortunately, the rooms had been vacated by Half Time and Terry was able to re-focus his team on the difficult job ahead.

                                                     

Fitzroy fought back doggedly in the third quarter and after more frustrating misses, Max finally got us back in front with a long, accurate shot for goal. Some great defending, particularly from Alex T, Hamish & Zeb, meant we kept the Sharks to only one scoring shot (a goal) for the quarter, but we were unable to break away. Our lead was only three points with one quarter to go. The crowd was justifiably nervous and tense. Many were seen chewing on their nails as the players chewed nervously on their sugary snakes.

 

          

 

Fitzroy kept running and used every ounce of effort for one last charge in the final quarter. Max marked and kicked truly and we got away to an 8 point lead. However, our kicking continued to let us down and we missed a few golden opportunities to extend our lead. Murray was most unlucky - hitting the post after a terrific solo effort, running and turning. Sam W was winning hard possessions time and time again and Raph was proving to be impassable at Half Back, marking and driving Park Orchards out of attack on several occasions. Sam H & Will L were breaking free out wide and Will K was working tirelessly amongst the packs. Eventually Park Orchards got the goal they needed to get within a kick and then they scored the goal that put them in front with three minutes to go. Despite Fitzroy's best efforts, the Sharks grabbed victory from the ‘jaws' of defeat and denied us by 4 points in a thrilling finish.

An heroic effort from Fitzroy, but alas, we just came up short in the end.

Scores:

Fitzroy       6.13.49

Park Orchards     8.5.53

 

Goals: