The Rovers suffered a disappointing loss at the hands of Parkdale Vultures on Saturday at Gerry Green Reserve.
The boys got off to a slow start, jumped in the first quarter and ended up playing catch up footy all day. While two points up at three-quarter time, the wind had strengthened and the opposition used it to bang on 4 goals to 1 to record a comfortable 3 goal win.
Great to see Liam O’Driscoll in the ruck and being the major big man on the day. He was strong all over the ground, took some good marks and he had it all over his opponent with his clever tap work. Christian Carnovale kicked the Rovers first goal of the game a couple of minutes in. It was a typical Carny goal, grabs the ball from the long handball, turns on the pace, settles and kicks truly from just on 50m. Parkdale then took over and kicked three goals all on turnovers in the midfield. Oscar Roberts was busy down back and I lost track of the contested possessions he had in the first quarter as he dominated his opponent. Good to see VDS back in the key back post. A little rusty after weeks out but his judgement improved as the game wore on.
In the second quarter, the Rovers appeared to settle when Joel Melnjak grabbed the mark from the errant Ryan Fogarty kick and kicked the goal. Still, Parkdale were moving the ball with greater fluidity than us and any error made resulted in the ball moving to their forward line at great speed. Pross was effective in the middle in this quarter but up forward, our boys just couldn’t convert. Perko was running his wing as usual and covered in excess of 18km on the day.
The boys came out after the break and probably played their best quarter of football for a few weeks. Pross goaled early in the quarter from a quick snap. Liam O’Driscoll continued his dominance in the ruck but you could see that having to do it all on his own was becoming a heavy burden. Crispy was showing dash on the backline, Ryan Leslie and Oscar Donald were flashing in and out of the play and we had control. Carny kicked his second goal half way through the quarter and we hit the lead for the first time for the day. When Pross took the free for an OOB on the full his centring kick was sharked by Lachie Cairns to increase our lead. The quarter was spoiled when Parkdale in one of their rare sorties inside 50 kicked an easy response.
The Rovers were down to one on the bench at the final change which was always going to make it tough going in the last. The 19 left showed all of the things the coach asked for at 3QT but it wasn’t enough to get us over the line. Parkdale came out strong and kicked two goals with the increasing wind to level the scores before VDS showed the effort when he spoiled a Parkdale pass, followed up the loose ball and passed it beautifully to Matty Rieniets on the lead. We were back in it. Perko was working hard on the far wing and Dillon Melnjak was doing his best to get us on the scoreboard. Ned Gray again put in a fine performance on the backline and was using his pace and elusiveness to confound the Parkdale forwards. Jimmy Keys was trying hard but really needs to be given the opportunity to settle in one position. The boys were tiring without the rotations and as time on approached, they banged on a couple of quick goals which we were unable to stop or answer.
On a tough day I generally agreed with the coaches best player nominations with Liam O’Driscoll being best closely followed by Carne or maybe Oscar Roberts. Tough to pick the best when many had good quarters but few were four quarter performances.
A second consecutive loss, but the Rovers remain locked in second position on the ladder, with two rounds remaining before a likely second semi-final against Monash Blues. Next up, we face second-bottom UHS-VU in the second-last round of the home & away season. With their usual home ground at Royal Park being renovated, the game will be played at JJ Holland Park in Kensington.
Parkdale Vultures 3.1-19 5.7-37 6.8-44 10.12-72
Hampton Rovers 1.4-10 3.8-26 6.10-46 7.11-53
Goal Kickers: C. Carnovale 2, L. Cairns, J. Melnjak, J. Prosser, M. Rieniets, R. Fogarty
Best Players: L. O’Driscoll, C. Carnovale, N. Gray, O. Roberts, J. Prosser, C. Perkins
RESSIES
Huge number of changes from last week and certainly the fluidity and desperation of last week against Monash was not evident. Very hard when you’re playing catch up footy from the outset and with a little bit more luck could have snuck in for another unexpected win. Good to see Corey Jones continue to kick goals and is currently third in the Ressies goalkicking with 44 goals. Will he get to 50?
Parkdale Vultures 2.2-14 5.7-37 10.10-70 12.12-84
Hampton Rovers 0.1-1 4.2-26 6.3-39 10.5-65
Goal Kickers: C. Jones 3, H. Twigg, J. Manning, T. Stephens, T. Galloway, B. Corrigan, A. Hug, W. Tuffley
Best Players: T. Goldsmith, W. Tuffley, J. Manning, J. Lloyd, B. Corrigan
UNDER 19s
The Rovers first season up in division 1 has come to an unlucky end, but the boys have been far from disgraced. With 3 games to go, the Rovers were in 4th placed and two games clear of Old Xavs, who went on to win the next three, while we lose 2 and win 1 to miss out on finals action by a few percent, after stream rolling University Blacks by 167 points! Some great performances in the thumping win. Great work by Will Crawford on kicking a bag of 10 goals.
Hampton Rovers 4.7-31 8.13-61 16.16-112 25.21-171
University Blacks 0.0 0.0 0.3-3 0.4-4
Goal Kickers: W. Crawford 10, L. Sharp 3, O. Brown 2, C. Kilburn 2, H. Lay 2, K. Hikima, P. Somogyi, L. Coughlin, D. Hall, J. Bull, H. Garrow
Best Players: W. Crawford, H. Garrow, K. Hikima, H. Lay, O. Brown, L. Sharp
