Glenunga vs Mawson Lakes @ Theberton Oval
This was a big game for us, coming off our second win for the season and with the summer break quickly approaching we wanted to try and knock off a team that is higher than us on the ladder.
With a few late changes we started well on the big oval, unlike the previous weeks we had a few of our runners back which really came in handy on such a big oval, it also helped that the oval was in tip top shape compared to the mud pit we call a home ground.
Before the game, I spoke to the boys and set us the goal to be at least two goals up at quarter time, while this never eventuated we were extremely competitive and probably could have been in front had a few things gone our way (the bounce of the ball, we used our voice etc). However compared to some of our slow starts this season, we were at least still in with a good chance as we were only 2 or so goals down.
The second quarter was much like our first, we were competitive and had plenty of the ball however we just weren’t able to convert that to scoring pressure, we were also lucky that Mawsons had missed a few shots in front of goal. At half time we were only down by approximately 20 points.
After a rest at the main break, we came out and the third quarter was our best quarter for the day, not only did we continue with our tackling and overall pressure but our defence held up against the never ending attack by the ML boys. We managed to drag their lead back to about 2 goals going into the last quarter with no wind to speak of.
While we got off to a good start clawing the lead back to 7 or 8 points which forced Mawsons to go defensive, such as kicking backwards and even having spare guys in their defense, the 8 point deficit was as close as we were going to get for the rest of the game. The first 10 minutes of this quarter was exactly the same as the first three quarters, however in the last 10 minutes ML punished us for some small mistakes in judgment and skill,. In the end we went down by 36 points which wasn’t a true reflection of the game.
In my opinion Matty C & Lachlan played their best game for the season, picking up a lot of possession and Lachie keeping his opponent quiet for most of the day, Sammy A was everywhere with some very important pack marks as well as kicking our first goal of the game & as usual M. Stoj, Wingers & Matt M were as good as always.
Once again I believe we took steps towards being a better team next year, not only are we miles in front of where we were this time last season, we have been improving all year as a team. I believe with another decent pre-season under out belt we will be a better and more successful team next season.
