The Rovers suffered their second successive defeat on Saturday, going down to Old Camberwell away from home.
The Rovers started well but the basic errors of last week resurfaced as the boys dropped marks, fumbled and kicked poorly. Still, the Rovers did have the first goal of the game when the skipper centred the loose ball to Ant Folino directly in front and he didn’t miss.
That seemed to spur the home side into action and with four goals in even time, they had jumped to a comfortable lead. It was only when Liam O’Driscoll hit Lachy Cairns lace out in time-on did Hampton score their second goal for the quarter. Old Camberwell did have the benefit of the light breeze but it wasn’t worth three goals.
The second quarter started with Hampton on top. Speedy missed a long bomb from 50m but this was rectified by Christian Carnovale after a strong mark and a few minutes later Fogs was the beneficiary of a great pass by James Keys. His kick was accurate and the margin was less than a goal.
Camberwell did come back but three lucky misses for us before they scored a goal kept us in the game. When Harry Crisp, who had been playing well in the first half, swooped on the loose ball and kicked accurately to Speedy for a goal our spirits were lifted but flattened when Camberwell’s giant ruck, in the dying seconds, from the stoppage tapped to the running forward who popped it through and their lead at the main break was out to 13 points.
At the main break the boys were positive and eager to improve on the errors of the first half. While Old Camberwell did have the breeze in the third, Hampton had as much of the ball as they did but couldn’t convert on the scoreboard. Camberwell only kicked two goals from about as many chances, while we fritted away opportunities with either poor decision making or poor kicking. We kicked four behinds for the quarter, two that failed the distance by centimetres and a couple out of bounds.
The less said about the last quarter the better. The home side kicked four straight while we kicked three behinds and a couple out of bounds. It was a comprehensive win by the undefeated Old Camberwell but on reflection, we did have our chances and just didn’t take them.
Christian Carnovale was clearly Rovers’ best on the day and ran himself into the ground in urging the boys forward, Liam O’Driscoll had a big job in the ruck ably assisted by Cam Morris and both worked hard to limit the OC ruckman. He towered over Liam and made Cam look like a rover! Pross started the game slowly and worked his way into it as it progressed, he must be the fastest man in the VAFA running with his hands touching the ground! Harry McIntyre while not 100% tried hard all day as did Speedy McPherson in his first game for the season.
Next up, the Rovers are on the road again, against Parkdale Vultures at Gerry Green Reserve.
Old Camberwell 5.3-33 7.5-47 9.8-62 13.8-86
Hampton Rovers 2.3-15 5.5-35 5.10-40 5.12-42
Goal Kickers: J. McPherson, A. Folino, L. Cairns, R. Fogarty, C. Carnovale
Best Players: C. Carnovale, J. Prosser, L. O’Driscoll, H. McIntyre, L. Cairns, J. McPherson
WOMEN
Beaumaris 3.3-21 4.3-27 10.3-63 11.4-70
Hampton Rovers 0.0-0 0.2-2 0.3-3 1.4-10
Goal Kickers: H. Gould
Best Players: M. Naylor, M. Evans, C. Politarhis, M. Behnke, E. Dingeldei, J. Andros
UNDER 19s
What a win for the Unders! 16 points down at the final change and we storm home to knock off the Premiership favourite at their home ground at Kew.
Old Xaverians 6.4-40 9.4-58 11.6-72 12.7-79
Hampton Rovers 2.5-17 5.6-36 8.8-56 13.10-88
Goal Kickers: W. Crawford 5, L. Coughlin 2, C. Kilburn 2, J. Hudghton 2, H. Garrow, O. Horigan
Best Players: H. Garrow, L. Coughlin, K. Carrigan, W. Crawford, O. Horigan
RESERVES
I must admit – as the Rovers ran out I couldn’t believe the size of the HR team – an abundance of talls versus and abundance of wides for OC. How would this play out in near perfect conditions.
Well, this was a match of twists and turns. From the opening bounce the Rovers were on and it looked like they were going to run away with it from the opening bounce like last week. 3 goals in a row in the first 15 minutes resulting from good teamwork, nice centre bounce tap outs, marking – you name it. How far we thought! Then someone flicked a switch and away Old C went – a shot at goal fell short by OC but not enough Rovers in the goal square and a easy mark by OC and goal. Centre clearance – good lead, mark and goal to OC….a 3rd goal and suddenly at Quarter time it was pretty much even. OC up by a point. Not sure there was a pattern but pretty much an even quarter with both teams dominating half each.
The 2nd quarter was a tussle for a while with perhaps OC running a little harder and hence organising to outnumber the Rovers at the contests. But the Rovers backs were holding firm and finally getting it past the centre and with the forwards providing good teamwork a nice goal resulted to regain the lead. OC regained the lead with 15 minutes on the clock and then seemed to have a very forward pressure attack ala St Kilda style. This really began to stymy the Rovers open play and it became a tight very contested game – OC smothering plenty of Rover forward thrusts. A few fumbles resulted from real and perceived pressure and OC prevented the ball getting past the centre. Shear pressure resulted in them taking control of the game and hitting the scoreboard with 3 consecutive goals, before a late goal by HR put some respect back on the scoreboard. At this stage it seemed OC just were running that little bit harder and bigger bodies suited their congested style of game. But HR didn’t help themselves as they also caused a few self-inflicted turnovers as they couldn’t hit their targets like last week.
The 3rd quarter also began in very congested play with little fluency for either team however HR having the better of it with more inside 50’s. Unfortunately inaccuracy prevented them taking full advantage early on. But goal score we did – especially with one great end (from fullback goal square) to end goal (to full forward goalsquare) to retake the lead. With 10 scoring shots to 3 it really looked like the Rovers had regained the ascendancy and despite only being 5 points up at the last break, it felt maybe the harder running of OC was beginning to wane and could they keep it up for another quarter – after all, tall blokes don’t get shorter as the game goes on as they say!
The last quarter started with OC have the benefit of a slight breeze. Both sides providing good pressure and tackles were sticking for both. Neither side could get the teamwork happening convincingly but OC seemed to just get it forward more often until scoring became inevitable for them. They then combined well in the final minutes to notch up 2 goals to close out the game.
A pretty close match – OC seemed to have a bit better leg speed overall over the 100 minutes to create better numbers at the contests, while unfortunately the Rovers were unable to take enough marks by the tall timber to take advantage of their height. The teamwork also a notch below last weeks excellent standard didn’t help.
Old Camberwell 3.2-20 6.3-39 8.4-52 10.9-69
Hampton Rovers 3.1-19 5.2-32 8.9-57 8.10-58
Goal Kickers: N. Jackson 4, T. Stephens, J. Manning, L. Costello, J. Wilson
Best Players: C. Carmeni, N. Jackson, B. Crothers, J. Wilson, O. Donald, A. Hug
Report by Al & Jennie Jones.
THIRDS/DEVELOPMENT – First win of the season!
Hampton Rovers 2.2-14 6.3-39 7.5-47 8.7-55
Prahran FC 0.1-1 0.2-2 1.5-11 4.9-33
Goal Kickers: J. Campion 4, S. Somogyi 2, M. Ward, P. Cantone
Best Players: J. Campion, D. Merlo, B. Wells, S. Anderson, J. Ilias
