The Hampton Rovers Under 19s played host to De La Salle last Saturday. Both sides took some time to adjust to the match conditions, but after a couple of early misses, the Rovers led at quarter time by a couple of points.
Both sides continued to attack in the 2nd quarter with De La Salles quick midfield starting to really influence the game. A slender lead to De La at the main break and 2006 coach Cameron McGregor stated to his players about reducing simple footy errors.
The game was a great contest all day. Neither sides went defensive and whilst it wasn?t huge scoring, they both continually attacked. De La led by 4 points at three quarter time and they kicked the first goal in the last.
The Rovers had rotated most their players onto the bench, so Cameron was quietly confident the home side could and would finish strongly.
Unfortunately the Rovers lost a couple of players to injury late in the
3rd quarter and one in the last leaving them with only 19 fit players. They ran hard and presented well and kicked 2 goals in succession, hitting the lead with
about 8 minutes to go.
A 5 minute stalemate was broken when De La Salles on-ballers ran forward and kicked a goal with 2 minutes to go. Another goal straight away stopped any chance of a Rovers victory, going down by 10 points.
The Rovers best players were mainly defenders in centre half back Lachlan Batt and full back Thom (Butch) McCarthy. Rover Kyle (
The 2006 Under 19 leaders were recently announced with Lee Smith captaining the Rovers, supported by vice Captain Rory White and Deputy Vice Captain Jason McCoy.
Next week the Rovers will be looking to get on the winners board when they take on Mazenod away at Central Reserve, Glen Waverley.