Bogan With A Passport

#Hungover vs Westeners

Team: S.Slater, A. Purcell, S. Zeppel, H.Hastings, C. Ricketts & S.Talbot

With #Hungover sitting second on the ladder and with only three weeks till finals, we had to make sure we continued our good form to get a running start into the finals especially as we have been challenged by two out of the top three teams in our division. Our chances took an early blow with recent recruits T. Elson and S. Carter pulling out due to illness leaving us with only one male on the bench.

From the opening tip off it was obvious this was going to be a fast paced game as the boys from the Westerners are div 1 footballers and have proved they were fit last time the two teams met, where as we rely more on our slow ball movement with accurate passing and quick breaks to the basket to get us over the line. The start was very tight with the ball going down both end with both teams unable to score leaving the score 0 to 0 for several minutes.

This closeness continued until about the half way mark of the first half where we were able to get a bit of a run on thanks to some good passing finding Preds on the fast break, who was then able to convert and Heidi proving to be an ever reliable source of points. Thanks to this and S. Zeppel hitting two 3 pointers in the dying minutes we found our self up by about 10 points at half time.

In our social league, percentage really isn’t important so all we were concentrating on getting was the win, however you wouldn’t have known this by our form in the second half. We started scoring regularly and with relative ease, especially S.Slater who was able to get full court fast breaks happening with his burst speed and finishing skills. Our defense also held firm all night with very few fouls being given away, while also being able to come up with steals and the defensive rebound all night.

We ended up winning by over 22 points. Considering this isn’t our normal game style and the amount of clangers we made either with our passes or just general mistakes we cold have easily won by more. I know I say it every week but was a really good game by all and hopefully we can continue this form into the finals.

Glenunga vs Athelstone

B Grade:
After matching it with the top team for 3 quarter’s last time we met and even with the big gap in ladder positions we went into this game thinking we were a chance for an upset victory. We have proved all season that we have been able to match it with the best teams for quarters, half’s and in a lot of games even 3 quarters, so today’s game was going to be a good challenge once again especially since for the first time in a while we only had 1 A grade player in the squad.

We started slowly even before the game, we didn’t run out as a team, nobody could agree where to warm up and just before the game we weren’t in close for the coach’s final address and this showed with Athelstone getting two quick goals. However to the teams credit we rallied to probably have the best quarter of the year, managing to only be down by 4 points after both teams kicked 4 majors. This quarter was good to watch as we managed to keep the ball in our forward 50 a lot due to pressure placed on their defenders.

However in the second quarter, Athelstone showed why they are the top team, they used the wide open spaces better, they ran off as a team better and they had one forward who was on fire, even with our best defender (Matt M) on him. The player (fish) who hurt us most last time we met was also starting to find the ball and being influential being the third man up in the ruck. Unfortunately for the B grade we found our-self down by several (7 - 8) goals at the major break.

After half time we returned to the team that played that first quarter. Great pressure and run from the back lines creating opportunities for our forwards and holding back attack after attack from Athelstone, with only those two players proving to be damaging. It was the same for the last quarter as well, while we were able to score regularly, they were able to go goal for goal with us which meant we weren’t able to claw the deficit back, in the end we went down by just under 10 goals

After some discussions with some of the other players, we came to the conclusion we are really only missing 3 key things which would be the difference between winning 2 games and winning 7 - 8, however even without these 3 things, it seems to be popular belief that next season is going to be a very good year for the B grade, which is good as it would seem most of the boys are keen to hand around next season as well as being good for the club.

The three things are -

A key forward - The boys know I mean no offense to our current forwards, but looking at the scores all seasons, while we are normally an accurate goal kicking team, we just don’t get enough scoring shots, using this game as an example, we had 12 scoring shots to Athelstone’s 31. So missing 1 or even 2 key forwards

A big classy midfielder - As we have constantly won the ruck this year, all we need is someone to compliment Wingers & Stoj in the midfield. These boys have the speed, the hardness for the ball and the ability to get a lot of possessions, the only thing missing from the middle is a bigger bodied, slower, someone that can finesse the ball, someone that can hit the key forwards on the lead from 40 - 50 out, but no so good that the A grade borrow him :p A

Tagger - We have tried several people in this position this year, Jordan, Matt M, Young Macca and Stoj for the running players and Levi, Dylan, Boonie and Tux for the bigger guys. Probably about time to pick one (if they are willing) and use him in that role as every team has a stand out player that could be shut down by one of these boys.

A Grade:
For the first time in several weeks I was able to watch some of the A grade game (granted only half) and with the boys sitting a game clear on top it was up to them to continue the good form as nobody could take top spot from them if they did, but they could lose it if they didn’t keep up the same intensity and effort. Glenunga got off to a great start with Robbo looking in fine form with several goals in the first quarter thanks to some great delivery from the midfield. However the other forwards also looked dangerous with Getgood & Cooper getting the ball across centre half forward and small forwards Keggs & Harvey looking dangerous.

The second quarter was a lot closer and not as free flowing as the first, with Athelstone out of the finals race due to being on the wrong side of some close games (losing 5 games by under 2 goals), they showed why they have been able to take it to the top teams this season. They fought back with some good goals as their reward. At half time they were only down by 5 -6 goals. Unfortunately this is where I had to leave the boys, however was good to hear they were able to walk away with the win.

However after reading the boys coping some flack about not being able to play on the bigger ovals, I would have to disagree. I believe the bigger ovals makes the A grade a more dangerous side compared to playing on the smaller ovals. On the smaller ovals, with super boots Chad, Apos & Getgood, they can almost kick a goal from the centre (such as Webb oval), on the bigger ovals it really brings the centre half forwards like Coops, Getgood & Mitchells into the games giving the midfield & forwards more options, making Glenunga A grade a hell of a lot more dangerous.

Bec’s Home Made Parmy

For anyone that doesn’t know me, a chicken parmy is my default meal, it’s what I always order even when in a pasta restaurant. Due to this a few people have said I should create a blog with all the parmys that I devour, so that’s exactly what I’m going to do until I get bored with it. My first parmy review is one cooked by my housemate Rebecca L. All the parts were picked up from our local shopping centre and cooked in a home kitchen.

The parmy was extremely tasty for a home cooked parmy, the only thing that could have made the parmy better would have been a bigger chicken schnitzel. The topping contained ham, cheese & tomato pasta sauce and just enough of all mixed together. The chips were well cooked through, some of them had burnt edges but were tasty. I would rather have chips with some burnt edges compared to raw chips.

Had this been a pub parmy it would have only got about 5.5 - 6 / 10, however as this was a home cooked meal I’m going to give it a 7