The Rovers travelled to Bulleen on Saturday to take on one of the competition favourites in Marcellin and returned home 52 point victors following a dominant display.
Marcellin were coming off an eight-goal win over Ormond the previous week and tipped by many to go all the way while the Rovers had recorded a big first-up win over Parkdale to start the season.
From the outset, Hampton were a class above their opponents with the home side unable to penetrate the Rovers back six. It was only mistakes that led to two goals for Marcellin while goals to Devereaux, Burggraaff, McPherson and first-gamer James Gaston gave the Rovers a two goal lead at the first break. Some skill errors meant the Rovers couldn’t fully capitalise on the scoreboard.
In the second term it was all Rovers. Four goals for the quarter, with Marcellin only managing to pop one through after the siren was good news for the visitors. Big Jack Wilson was dominant in the ruck and all around the ground, Fletcher, given a long lead by his opponent, and playing-coach Martyn and Corp were just too good for their opponents. Shem Curry, on and off the bench, took on the opposition and his finishing led to goals from Donald and Gaston. Speedy McPherson kept on taking on the opposition and the travelling supporters were disappointed when his 50m sprint to tackle an opponent wasn’t rewarded. 33 points was the advantage at the half time break.
Marcellin came out firing in the third term and dominated the opening ten minutes, kicking three goals in as many minutes. They had the Rovers under pressure but it didn’t last. Two goals to Turner and a single to McPherson plus a number of close misses had the margin at 38 points at three-quarter time.
Within 10 seconds of the start of the last quarter, Marcellin had a goal on the board. They were buoyed, but then the avalanche commenced – a great goal to Shem Curry a couple of minutes later was followed by a coast-to-coaster with Dillion to Lovig to Fletcher to young James Gaston in the square, who calmly popped it through. Marcellin were still distracted by the earlier altercation and when Josh Pavlou was shown a red card courtesy of the goal umpire, the Rovers supporters were bemused. Not to be distracted, the skipper stepped up and from a contested mark on the 50m arc, calmly slotted through the final goal of the game.
A great fighting win and an accurate indication of where Hampton stands in Premier C section with a full complement. Jack Wilson, following on from a BOG against Marcellin last time we met them in 2012, was great all day as was Schmitz, Pinto, Fletcher and Ting who were in everything. Young James Gaston kicked four on debut, Turner followed up the four last week with another three majors, Corpy was everywhere in the first half but faded, with Burgraaff picking up the BOG award awarded by the opposition after the game.
Next week is a weekend off for Easter and then the Rovers host arch-rivals Ormond at Boss James Reserve in the Anzac Day Buxton Cup.
MARCELLIN 2.1 3.2 6.6 8.8 (56)
HAMPTON ROVERS 4.3 8.5 12.8 16.12 (108)
Goal Kickers: J. Gaston 4, E. Turner 3, G. Martyn 2, S. Burggraaff 2, J. McPherson, J. Donald, S. Curry, L. Fletcher, M. Devereaux.
Best Players: J. Ting, J. Schmitz, S. Burggraaff, K. Pinto, J. Gaston, E. Turner.
VIEW THE FULL MATCH REPLAY ON VAFATV >
The news wasn’t as good for the other three senior sides with the Reserves, Thirds and U19s all going down. All the match results are available here.
