The U19s had a crucial clash against Ormond at EE Gunn Reserve. After last week’s defeat, the young Rovers had slipped to fifth on the table and needed to defeat their arch-rivals in the Grand Final replay to overtake them and return to the final four.
Daniel Tocher an U17, now playing regularly in the U19s and even has had a game in the seniors this year was criticised in the first quarter for being too unselfish around goal. Well, he remedied this by kicking 4 for the afternoon in his best display in the green and gold this year. His performance, backed up with 3 goals to Joel Ballegi and 2 to Campbell Jones and Christian Carnovale meant that our last year’s grand final opponent, Ormond, were just no match for us and we ran out comfortable 95 point winners. What this means is that we are now a game clear of Ormond in 4th place BUT they play bottom side St Bernards in the last home and away while we play third-placed Old Carey. It’s still a must win game for us if we want to be sure of a place in finals.
With Dave Broadstock out it was left to Jandre to ruck all day. He was ably backed up in the midfield by Harry Hill, Mackie Robertson and Lachy Cairns. Christian Carnovale whether down back or up forward, where he kicked 2 goals, was enjoying the freedom in the U19s! It would be clear to you by now that we had a pretty sharp team in for Saturday. There were 10 who had experienced playing in the seniors this year.
The coach described it as pressure footy from the first bounce and when we’d jumped to a 5 goal lead at the first break the writing was on the wall. With Merlo, Fogarty and Stewart all in good form it was not surprising that we kept up the scoreboard pressure with 4 or 5 goals in each of the next three quarters. The Monders were never in the game. Special mention should be made of our back six led by Luke Morcom and Matty Oswald who kept a side ahead of them on the ladder to 1 goal in three quarters of footy. A great effort.
HAMPTON ROVERS 5.3 9.5 13.7 19.9 (123)
ORMOND 0.0 0.3 1.3 4.4 (28)
Goal Kickers: D. Tocher 4, J. Balleggi 3, C. Carnovale 2, C. Jones 2, O. Sweetapple-Gagiero, L. Cairns, D. Merlo, J. Zaina, P. Olivier, H. Hill, M. Robertson, M. Oswald
Best Players: D. Tocher, C. Jones, J. Balleggi, M. Robertson, H. Hill, C. Carnovale
