Hampton Rovers went down to Old Carey in the 2nd Semi Final at Elsternwick Park on Saturday, missing the opportunity to go straight through to the Grand Final, and now face Parkdale Vultures in the Preliminary Final. It was better news for the Reserves who had a dramatic last-minute win.
There were worrying signs 10 minutes into the second quarter a Carey midfielder picked up the ball on the boundary line near the Rovers bench, took a step and bang, splits the middle. They went on to kick five goals straight in the second term to hold a 22 lead at the main break in a dominant display of running football.
In the first half the Rovers struggled to get out of first gear and while the boys did kick 5.2 in the second quarter, the misses were mounting. Good kicking is good footy and to Carey’s credit, 12.3 at half time did make Hampton’s job difficult. A frustrating first half for what was the biggest test of the year. A win would have meant a Grand Final berth and automatic promotion, while a loss puts us into the preliminary final next Saturday.
There were some bright spots, with full forward Will Crawford a late withdrawal, the coach swung Clinton Young into the key forward position and he didn’t disappoint with three goals for the half providing a target and more importantly leadership to a unsettled forward line. With our tall timber in Max Van Der Straaten and Hugo Lay playing well down back and Harry Crisp and Aussie Parker playing close we were still in the game, but as the coach said at half time, we had to stop the opposition’s easy ground ball gets and reduce considerably their uncontested marks – they were controlling the ball with little direct opposition from our guys.
We came out blazing after the break. While Tom Ellinghaus was doing well in the ruck the randomness of the taps were making if difficult for our mids, Tredders had a spell in the midfield and while not winning the taps he did make the direction of the ball more consistent and we started to step up the pace. Corey Jones was on fire and took a number of marks and kicked two goals for the quarter – he had his goal kicking boots on this week. Ant Folino was imposing himself on the contest, our mids were getting more of the ball and the goals started to flow. By the break we had reduced the margin to just seven points and it was game on.
Unfortunately for the big contingent of Rovers supporters at VAFA HQ, Old Carey lifted their game in the last quarter and were frustrating our forward moves. Scoring was difficult for both teams but when Chris Perkins earned a free at the halfway mark of the quarter and goaled to reduce the margin to two points, the supporters were up and about!
At the 25-minute mark, the margin hadn’t changed. Joel Melnjak was demonstrating his marking skills and must have taken four or five strong marks in the last part of the quarter to quell Carey’s forward moves and restrict their scoring. Then in what seemed like a couple of minutes Carey went bang, bang, bang and similar to the start of the game, kicked three goals straight without us worrying the scoreboard and it was game over.
Still, the Rovers remain in the race and will be up against traditional rivals Parkdale Vultures who had a victory over Ajax who for the majority of the season held onto the double chance, until the last round of the home and away season. Match details will be confirmed by the VAFA on Monday.
Old Carey 5.2 10.2 12.3 15.6 96
HR 1.2 6.4 10.8 11.11 77
Best: Clinton Young, Hugo Lay, Harry Crisp, Corey Jones, Max Coughlin, Max Van der Straaten
Goals: Clinton Young 4, Corey Jones 3, Hugo Garrow 1, Christian Carnovale 1, Jamie Delaney 1, Chris Perkins 1
RESERVES
What a game! Edge of the seat after quarter time where the difference on the scoreboard seemed to hover at around a goal. The first major of the game from the boot of Adrian Hug, having dropped an “easy” mark within scoring distance he made up for the miss by his second and third efforts which resulted in a great snap, some called it a leg break, that brought the players and supporters to their feet. We held a couple of goal lead at quarter time but it was a hard, tough contest. A minute after the first Somogy, Huggie and Les worked the ball around and it ended up with Les who goaled. Somogy kicked his second a minute later when he took the uncontested mark and waltzed into the open goal. We seemed to have the ascendancy. Not surprising when we did beat them by 70 points in Round 14!
The second quarter started with goals to OC to hit the lead. We were scoring but 7 behinds for the quarter could have been fatal to our cause. Joel Bowditch was again putting in a blinder and knocking up getting kicks on his wing. With a great leap, speed, strength and good kicking skills he must have come under notice for the seniors during the year?
After the main break the man on man tussle continued, we at one stage increased our lead to over 3 goals only to give it back in time on when OC kicked 2 goals in the last 90 seconds of the quarter.
The pressure had increased. Thirty minutes of footy was all that was left for one team. We lifted, with a great goal to Peter Somogyi and from a free to Scotty Ebbott who kicked accurately. But the icing on the cake came courtesy of the player who kicked the first goal of the game Adrian Hug, who ran onto the loose ball late in time on, got it boot quickly and this time split the middle. In the next exceedingly long 2-3 minutes we defended gallantly to hold on for a fighting 2 point victory.
Old Carey 0.5 2.6 6.8 8.11 59
HR 3.1 3.8 5.12 8.13 61
Best: Daniel Field, Daniel Osborn, Adrian Hug, Scott Ebbott, Joel Bowditch, Nicholas Jewell
Goals: Peter Somogyi 3, Adrian Hug 2, Scott Ebbot 1, Ryan Leslie 1, Andrew Woolston 1
Onto next week. It’ll be a big weekend for the Rovers with three teams in action – the Seniors Preliminary Final v Parkdale Vultures, Reserves Preliminary Final v Ajax, and Under 19’s Grand Final v St Bernard’s. Details to be revealed Monday.
