It has been rare in recent years to have a Saturday when all teams win. It has even been rarer for all teams to lose. Well, on Saturday that was then case.
Not a great day, but when all teams were promoted to play in higher grades than in 2024 (as was announced at the VAFA Season Launch on Wednesday, the club came 4th in the 2024 VAFA Club Championship ladder), there is likely to be a re-establishment period. I should mention that the Development Squad who had 25 available on Saturday morning were promoted two grades to Div 2 for the grading period!
Apart from on field, off field we kicked a few goals this week, moving into the new Wright-Scarlett Pavilion at Boss James Reserve (thanks to those who’ve volunteered their time so far to make everything happen!). Thursday night was first team selection/dinner of 2025. The new rooms were choc a block, over 120 meals were served by the great team of Kate Robb, Ian & Sandy Celantano and Jane & Paul O’Driscoll. Friday, we followed up with the 2025 Rovers Business Luncheon – the first official function at the new rooms, featuring guest speaker Dyson Heppell. Over 100 attended lunch and we were then joined by parents from the juniors for pizzas at 6pm. A great day out at the club. A special thank-you to all those who assisted in the service and all who assisted in the clean up. After round 1, players descended on the Club for the season kick-off event.
SENIOR MEN
A tough first up clash for the seniors in Premier B. Williamstown is never an easy place to play and Saturday was no exception and we really weren’t in the game from the first bounce, in fact, by chance our 4 straight goals kept us in the game. 8 more scoring shots were a portent of things to come as by game end they had 39 scoring shots to our 16. We fought hard in the second quarter but the Willy boys just seemed a little more steady, hitting their targets more often and having that extra man around the packs to whip the ball away and place our backs under enormous pressure with the quick ball movement.
3.11 down at half time but when you consider they kicked 3 goals in the first 5 minutes of the quarter we did well. We just were losing the ground ball battles, our strength last year, were missing tackles (another of our strengths) and were playing down the line footy- trying to be risk free. At half time the coach addressed those issues and said he wanted us to break the lines, take chances and play Rovers footy. Unfortunately, it didn’t get any easier and with Willy taking advantage of a freshening breeze they extended their lead in the third but their scoring was curtailed, the problem was they we could make little impression on the scoreboard ourselves.
The last started with our first goal within 30 seconds to Crawf and the large contingent of Rovers supporters present spirits lifted but it was short lived. The opposition moved the ball quickly, nullified our forward moves and again managed to outscore us.
There were many positives. Great to see our tall forwards in Crawf and Liam O’D hitting the scoreboard, Pross, while not appearing in the best players was elusive as ever and set up a number of our goals, both Joel and Dylan Melnjak were steady all day, the skipper was at his battering ram best and his goal on the run in the second quarter from a centre clearance was a classic, Lachy Costello was grease lightening on his wing. Add to the mix the calmness of Laser and Keysie in their roles there was much to be happy about.
| Williamstown CYMS Senior Men’s | 3.10 28 | 9.16 70 | 13.18 96 | 17.22 124 |
| Hampton Rovers Senior Men’s | 4.1 25 | 416.5 | 8.5 53 | 11.5 71 |
Best: Joel Melnjak, William Crawford, James Keys, Hugo Lay, Christian Carnovale, Lachlan Costello
Goals: Will Crawford 4, Liam O’Driscoll 3, Jamie Delany 1, Christian Carnovale1, Lachy Costello 1, Corey Jones 1
SENIOR WOMEN
When the team was announced on Thursday night, there were 10 debutantes named. So many changes from one season to the next I thought it would take a while for them to gel as a team as they hadn’t had a practice match leading up to round 1. Great to see new players in Hollie Brodribb and Tiara Annear featuring in the best in what was a hard slog against what I heard was a tough, experienced Monash outfit. I say that as in a strange fixture decision Monash played in Women’s Premier last year and have dropped to Div 1 in 2025. It was a case of the youth of the Rovers against the experienced Monash women who just had the better of us.
The women were in force at the Wright Scarlett pavilion on late Saturday and they all seemed to be in a very confident state of mind. While suffering a loss a number expressed the view that the loss actually felt like a win in that we were on top everywhere but the scoreboard. Next week, they take on Power House who, like us, lost on Saturday.
| Hampton Rovers Senior Women’s | 1.1 7 | 4.3 27 | 4.3 27 | 4.4 28 |
| Monash Blues Senior Women’s | 2.5 17 | 3.6 24 | 5.8 38 | 6.11 47 |
Best: Hollie Brodribb, Tayla Jones, Tiara Annear, Millie Smith, Bree-Anna Kavanagh, Maegan Miller
Goals: Maegan Miller 3, Tayla Jones 1
MEN’S RESERVES
| Williamstown CYMS Reserve Men’s | 4.4 28 | 6.5 41 | 8.8 56 | 12.9 81 |
| Hampton Rovers Reserve Men’s | 2.1 13 | 4.3 27 | 5.5 35 | 6.7 43 |
Best: Samme Raghdo, Joel Bowditch, Tom Goldsmith, Scott Ebbott, Thomas Folino, Benjamin Crothers
Goals: Ben Crothers, Oliver Horigan, Tom Folino, Joel Bowditch, Jake Dermot, Jack Scanlon
UNDER 19S
The U19s, in their Premier debut, were unlucky to come up against one of the best teams in the competition last year in the opening round, playing the first game at the redeveloped Toorak Park. The boys fought hard but clearly the 10 goal first quarter by Old Xavs no doubt took the wind out of their sales. Still, always next week but our opponent is no walk over in St Kevins.
| Old Xaverians U19 Men’s | 10.0 60 | 16.4 100 | 21.7 133 | 29.10 184 |
| Hampton Rovers U19 Men’s | 0.2 2 | 2.2 14 | 5.2 32 | 5.5 35 |
Best: Harry Ockerby, Jake Seddon, harry block, Willem Rogacki, Blake Jensen-Muir
Goals: Charlie Steen 2, Jack Gibson 1, Josh Haines 1, Stef Smogyi 1
THIRDS/DEVELOPMENT SQUAD
A promotion from Div 4 to Div 2 in a grading game was a bit much for the squad who put up a brave battle against a more experienced opponent. Great to see some old hands back on deck in Jesse Lovig and Richard Atkins and good games from Finbar and Darcy Merlo. Henry Lamb showed a lot of pace out of the middle and was clearly BOG. From the scoreboard it appears that the team suffered a last quarter fade out! Hit the track this week guys.
| Hampton Rovers Thirds Men’s | 1.2 8 | 5.3 33 | 6.3 39 | 6.4 40 |
| Old Camberwell Thirds Men’s | 3.2 20 | 6.3 39 | 10.6 66 | 15.8 98 |
Best: Henry Lamb, Jesse Lovig, Darcy Merlo, Finbar Concaig, Nicholas Anderson, Richard Atkins
Goals: Darcy Merlo 1, Richard Atkins 1, Will Hunter 1 , Ollie Anderson 1, Team Stats 1
Next Saturday
A huge Saturday for the Rovers next week, with all five teams play at home! The Thirds/Development game has been moved to Friday night 7pm start at the Boss, while on Saturday the schedule is:
U19s 9:20am
Ressies 11.40am
Men 2.00pm
Women 4.45pm
First Home Game Luncheon of 2025
This is a first – the first time in the history of the Rovers that all 5 teams are playing at home on the same weekend and the first time we have 4 teams playing at the Boss on the same day. We are having a big lunch to celebrate this event. We hope that supporters and particularly parents of the players involved on the day come to the lunch. The club will be open all day so it’s a perfect opportunity for U19 parents from the early game and Women’s team parents from the twilight game to experience the hospitality of the Rovers for what has become our traditional home game lunch. Of course, we expect many of the senior players parents to be there.
