The Rovers U19s kept on their winning ways, with a 37-point victory over Marcellin at Boss James Reserve.
Q1 – The Rovers were kicking into a slight northerly wind to start the match. It was bitterly cold and the players seemed to start this way with Marcellin dominating most of the quarter. The defence was under pressure from the get go.
A couple of good passages of play with Will Kervin and Max Leaver combining well and Lucas Sharp winning a contest on the far wing. Flyn Lohan spun out of a tackle but a few moments later Marcellin was able to gather the ball and kick the first goal of the match. Of note during this quarter was Benny Maz clearing as usual out of the centre and Ben Allan winning his fair share of ruck taps.
Garbo was moving up to the wing and marking and Hamish Adam’s in defence was tackling and kicking lace out to a team mate. Cam Carmemi was making multiple efforts at full back to stop Marcellin from scoring. When the Rovers got the ball into attack it was Jacob and Ben Doolan who scored, both just off line. Marcellin ran hard and made life difficult for the Rovers, but Patrick Starcevich and Lachie Costello worked equally hard and Hugo Lay gathered plenty of the ball.
Luis Coughlin was impressive, moving up from the U17’s on debut but Marcellin made sure that if the Rovers were to get past them it was going to be hard work. Even though the Rovers were kicking into the wind, they were only a couple of goals behind at the first break.
Rovers 0.3 – Marcellin 2.3
Q2 – The wind picked up slightly this quarter and Marcellin moved it quickly into their forward line, scoring a point. Then the Rovers started to look like they were stringing things together.
B. Allan put the ball on Hugo’s chest, Sam Marshall also up from U17’s on debut kicked into attack and Rocco put the ball inside out on his right boot and kicked the first goal for the Rovers and his first goal for the U19’s in this his 2nd game for the team. The Rovers were starting to switch the ball and Lucas got the ball to Max who then passed to Benny Maz. Zach and Pat were backing each other up and Ben Crothers was driving the ball through the centre of the ground.
Lucas kicked to Lachie who took a fantastic mark (his dad even said ‘Great mark – who was that?’). Then Lachie calmly slotted it through for a goal. Seb DeWolf’s game was also improving and kicking long to the forward line. With a few minutes remaining in the half Lachie kicked a beautiful ‘stab pass’ to Will Crawford on to his chest. Will kicked the Rovers’ 3rd goal for the quarter and the boys kept Marcellin goalless.
Rovers 3.5 – Marcellin 2.6
Q3 – The wind had dropped for the 3rd quarter and while cold, the conditions remained calm for the rest of the match. Dools was in the thick of the action straight away, tackling his opponent and earning a free kick. Alec McKenzie (Plugger or Bird) then grabbed the ball, gave it to Crawf who kicked his second goal. Seb applied a great shepherd in defence to allow Cam to clear the ball, Lucas took a good mark, kicked to Benny Maz who put the ball through the middle.
From the centre ball up, B. Crothers kicked the ball forward and Sam Marshall kicked his first goal for the Rovers U19’s. What a great effort from the young fella.
Hugo was standing out for the Rovers with his raking left foot kicking and from one long boot, Crawf kicked his 3rd goal. James Bull was also starting to have a presence in defence as was Garbo but the ball was slippery for the Rovers and the ump was calling plenty of frees for dropping the ball.
Kervs (Sauce) was running hard on the wing and through the centre of the ground, and Seb crumbed well, kicking the ball off the ground for a goal. Zach was picking up everything that came his way at full back and his defensive twin, Cam was just as effective. At the end of the quarter, Flyn hand-balled to B. Allan, who kicked to Seb, who got himself his second goal.
Rovers 9.3 – Marcellin 3.9
Q4 – Marcellin needed to start quickly if they were to have a chance of winning and they did just that, scoring the first goal of the last quarter. Out of the centre the Rovers got a quick reply with Seb kicking to Crawf resulting in his 4th goal. Then Lucas and Seb both snapped for a point but it was one way traffic with the Rovers attacking and keeping it in their forward 50. A few minutes later Plugger/Bird took the ball inside the 10 yard square and dribbled it through. Young Sam took the ball on the wing and Per Bellarts who was continuing on from his great game last week, marked, sent the ball to Plugger/Bird who passed to Benny Maz, who was just offline with a point resulting.
Hugo was very where and was intercepting all Marcellin moves forward and kicking long back into attack. Lucas took 2 marks but missed both set shots, and Marcellin were able to get the ball down the other end and goaled. But the Rovers were too strong and whilst kicking a few more points (9 for the quarter) they showed class as a team, working together to extend their lead until the final siren went.
Hampton Rovers 0.3-3 3.5-23 9.6-60 11.12-78
Marcellin 2.3-15 2.6-18 3.9-27 5.11-41
Goal Kickers: W. Crawford 4, S. de Wolf 2, A. McKenzie, R. Lagana, S. Marshall, L. Costello, B. Marron
Best Players: H. Lay, M. Garbelotto, W. Crawford, Z. Mackay, L. Sharp, P. Be
Another great win at home sees us undefeated on the Boss this season so far. Now we head into a bye weekend where everyone can have a well deserved rest. Next up, we take on Old Scotch at the Camberwell Sports Ground on Saturday 17th July at 11:40am.
Thanks again to our Volunteers: Timekeepers/Scoreboard- Jason Cave & Gavin Sharp, Goal Umpire – Greg Lay, Boundary Umpire – Phil Crothers, Goal recoding – John Allan, Trainer – Carly Murphy. A big thank you once again to Gavin Sharp for writing this report.
