On Saturday at the tiny Mentone Oval in blustery conditions, local sides Hampton Rovers and St.Bedes Mentone Tigers battled out a thrilling 12.12.84 a piece draw.
During 4 intense quarters of football action, players from both sides threw themselves relentlessly at the ball in an attempt to gain the upper hand, resulting in several blood-rules. Kicking into the wind, St.Bedes kicked the first goal of the game. The Rovers responded and lead the home side all day until the dying minutes of the final quarter.
Each team saw the lead gained when kicking with the wind and slowly reduced when defending against it. Rovers held a 27 point lead at quarter time and 8 points at the main break.
The Rovers kept the Tigers goalless for a majority of the term, however the home side eventually kicked the necessary catch up points to even the score with 2 minutes to go. It was at this stage that the Rovers, kicking against the wind, failed in two attempts to regain the lead, one being a failed attempt to score from a mark on the boundary line from 10 metres out and the other from a rushed kick to hit the point post on the full. It was unfortunate poor umpiring also contributed to the result, stopping the run of the Rovers on several occasions.
The Rovers team showed a vast improvement to last weeks poor showing against North Old Boys and hopefully can now regroup to battle out the rest of the season. Although Saturdays result can be put down as a total team effort with all players giving their utmost, one player in particular was completely dominant in
Next weeks home match is against Old Brighton in what can be termed as the traditional grudge match, this event usually attracts a crowd in excess of two thousand and the pre match luncheon is always very popular and will require advance bookings to ensure attendance. To book online, click here. There will also be an Auskick match at the half time break involving the Hampton Rovers Auskick players.
Final Score:
Rovers Best Players: M.Fletcher,
Goals: Power 3,
The Reserves were beaten by 6 goals to give the Tigers their first win for the season and the Under 19’s, who lead by 2 goals at the final break, were shocked by a 10 goal final quarter to give the highly fancied Old Melburnians a big win at Boss James Reserve. See the weekly Under 19s match report mid-week on hamptonrovers.com.au.