A difficult day for the Rovers on Saturday, as the Seniors hosted Williamstown at Boss James, compounded by unavailability and injury across the five teams.
As it stands, some 20 of the senior men’s team are unavailable through injury or travel, with the pressure on all sides with a multitude of players being given an opportunity to play in a higher grade. There were four players from last week’s senior side that were unavailable on Saturday, and then another late change prior to the game, due to a work injury. Still, the club did manage to field all five teams, including the Thirds who played an early game out at West Brunswick, which is a testament to the Rovers spirit.
Senior Men
The scoreboard didn’t really reflect the game, we were soundly beaten, but on closer analysis a 6 goal burst by Williamstown in the second quarter blew the game open and after half time we scored 7.1 to 9.2 in a pretty even performance. A positive was certainly our accuracy in front of goal!
It was another tough match against a side that is finals bound in 2025. While the scoreboard tells one story, the performance of the boys for most of the game showed that with a little bit of luck we could be competitive in Premier B in 2025. While Williamstown broke the game open in the second quarter, after half time we matched them on the scoreboard and in the man or man challenges.
As the President said at the match day function, with so many senior players from our 2024 Grand Final side unavailable and many of the debutantes in 2025 being injured each week, we are between a rock and a hard place.
It was great to see a mixture of experienced players in Perko, Joel and Dermott all playing well, not to exclude others like Liam O’Driscoll with 3 goals and Lachy Costello who continued his great form. Similarly, our 2025 debutantes played well, the Seddon brothers were prominent as was Zac Zeisling and debutantes on the day in Tom Goldsmith, Cohen Friend and Will Rogacki all showing that they weren’t overawed by the competition.
Next up, we have a trip out to Bulleen to face top side Old Trinity, before the two week bye for representative footy.
HR 0.2 2.2 5.3 9.3 57
Will 3.7 9.9 14.11 18.13 121
Best: Chris Perkins, Joel Melnjak, Jake Seddon, Ben Seddon, Zac Ziesling, Jake Dermott
Goals: Liam O’Driscoll 3, Christian Carnovale 1, James Prosser 1, Zac Ziesling 1, Ben Seddon 1, Jake Dermott 1
Men’s Reserves
HR 1.6 2.9 3.10 5.13 43
Will 4.3 9.5 15.7 17.10 112
Best: Ryan Lesley, Darcy Lyon, Will Black, Oscar Donald, Nicolas Assirvaden, Cooper Becker-Valles
Senior Women
The Rovers were off song again this week, going down by just over 4 goals to a switched on Whitefriars unit at Castlefield. Sad to say it’s the last game for skipper Bella Cameron as she flies off to Europe for an extended stay in the warmth of sunny Spain. We look forward to her return. The women are still in the final’s race as they currently sit in 4th place in a hotly contested division. Next week they face the 5th side, away in what will be a critical game with 6 tough games remaining in the season.
HR 2.1 3.1 3.1 4.1 25
White 2.1 3.6 5.8 7.9 51
Best: Isabella Cameron, Tiara Annear, Amber Price, Casey Politarhis, Nadia Stockwell, Mandy Naylor
Goals: Madeline Pearson 2, Tiara Annear 1, Nadia Stockwell 1
Under 19s
With one on the bench and Harvey going down in the warm up it wasn’t to be for the Rovers U19 team. Gak and Cohen were making senior debuts and that left us thin, but the lads were happy to face Kew on their small oval.
The first half was a real arm wrestle with Kew getting the better of the 50/50 ball, coach Caggs challenged the lads to stick tackles and in the third we played some excellent footy, coming into the last we were 40 down but still playing with spirit, the physical nature of the game was first rate, some of the ball movement not so, plenty to work on.
We lost the contest but not the admiration of the opposition.
Kew 5.4 12.7 17.9 22.10 142
HR 2.1 6.2 9.3 11.3 69
Best: Archie Steedman, Harry Ockerby, Jake Taranto, Lucas Rankine, Angus Zufic
Goals: Angus Zufic 4, Harry Ockerby 2, Charlie Steen 2, Stef Somogyi Mason Carrigan 1, Jake Taranto 1,
Thirtds/Development Squad
With unavailability up the chain causing havoc, we thought we had about 14 players on Saturday morning. By the time the first bounce came, we had 1 spare on the bench, with a few opposition players having a kick for us.
At three-quarter time, we were within three goals of the fourth side in the Division. As expected, we just ran out of legs in the last were beaten convincingly in the end. The tackling effort was amazing, and we won most of the 50-50 contests. Prime time at the Boss this week!
W Brun:3.2 5.7 7.9 13.15 93
HR 2.2 2.4 5.4 5.5 35
Best: Noah Velten, Jacob McLean, James Young, Cam Cullis, Jack Cooksley, James Craig
Goals: James Young 3, Noah Velten 1
Next Up
The Senior Men and Reserves are out at Old Trinity on Saturday. The Senior Women are playing Therry Penola at John Pascoe Fawkner Reserve No 2 at 9:20 am. The U19’s are at the Boss at 11am, followed by the Thirds/Development team at 2:00pm. Get along and show your support. Go Rovers!
Next Senior Home Game
After the double-bye on July 26 at the Boss James Reserve. It will be a big day against Old Geelong where if our form holds we should be in with a chance. Bookings are now open for the Home Game Luncheon – book here.
Upcoming Functions
- $2K Day: July 19 at the Boss. $50 Tickets – Buy Now
- 2025 Domino Luncheon: August 22 at the Boss. Guest speaker Tony Jones. Buy Tickets
- Save the Date: Presentation Night: October 3 at Sandy by the Bay.
Have you purchased a 2025 Club Membership? Support the Rovers today…
