Saturday saw all teams return to action following the double-bye in what was TAC Road Safety Round, with a spirited performance by the seniors, a magic milestone in the women’s and another thirds victory.
It was great to see another good crowd in attendance at the home game luncheon, after numbers were thin a couple of days out. Thanks to everyone who came along and enjoyed the Rovers match day experience inside the Wright-Scarlett Pavilion.
Seniors
Footy is a funny game. We come away from last Saturday’s loss with a smile on our faces. Sure, 30 points is a big margin but the improvement each week has been marked. Take big Zac Ziesing, all year has been a fill the gaps player, this week with both Liam O’Driscoll and Tom Ellinghaus away, he returned to his favoured role of first ruck and didn’t let us down. Now, OG’s ruck is a pretty handy player – a Big V representative player and is a big, quick unit. Zac who was U19 last year relished the challenge and over 4 tough quarters he broke even with the OG star I thought that his work around the ground and on the deck he was clearly superior.
Add to that youngsters Dan Hall, Cohen Friend, the Seddon brothers and Blake Jensen-Muir and Will Rogacki gaining in confidence each week our U19 player loaded team have given us something to look forward to. Not to be outdone Tom Goldsmith in his second game showed coolness in the crisis and first gamer Darcy Lyon confronted the challenges head on.
As has happened a number of times this year, lapses at critical times have cost up greatly. The three goals OG kicked at the end of the first quarter where we had clearly held them for 90% of their time with the wind, the avalanche of scoring shots in the second half of the third quarter where they jumped to a 40 point lead were the cripplers. Still in the last quarter we had all the play for 20 minute, scored 2.4 with a couple of OOBs from 9 scoring shots while OG calmly slotted 2 goals from 2 shots.
Perhaps three highlights for me, two occurred in the second quarter. Firstly, Will Walker spied Dan Hall sprinting at least 80m down the Social rooms side of the ground and with a beautifully weighted kick to him, hit him lace out and he then ran into the open goal. Second, it was veteran Speedy McPherson a few minutes later when he took the handball from Dan Hall who had earned a hard free kick and bounced his way down the outer wing and into the open goal. The third was the relentlessness of backs Jake Dermot, Owen Bater and Joel Melnjak in their attack on the ball and their opponents where clearly outsized but not deterred.
Wasn’t it great to see the skipper back to his bullocking, crashing, winning the hard ball best? Perko, whether down back or up forward is always dangerous and Lachy Costello just keeps on getting the ball wherever he is playing. Will Walker kicked a couple of good goals.
Next up, we’re off to Brunswick Street Oval to face Fitzroy who are one game ahead of us on the ladder in a game where it would be impossible to do worse than we did in the first round!
HR 1.2 5.6 6.9 10.14 74
OG 4.1 8.4 13.7 16.8 104
Best: Christian Carnovale, Zac Ziesing ,Lachy Costello, James Prosser, Ben Seddon, Dan Hall
Goals: Chris Perkins 2, Will Walker 2, Blake Jensen-Muir 1, James Prosser 1, Ben Seddon 1, Josh McPherson 1, Cohen Friend 1,Dan Hall
Senior Women
When Mandy Naylor burst through the banner proclaiming her 100th game I thought that a win was inevitable. I was disappointed when I heard 2 hours later that we’d been rolled by 2 points. Still Mandy was named BOG in a memorable performance with old stagers Maegan Miller, Hayley Gould and Bree-Anna Kavanagh putting in strong performances there was reason for celebration after the game. Of course, this continued on at the Boss where Mandy and her family including some nieces and nephews (from uncle Cracker) joined in the club’s celebrations of the first 100 game player in the Women’s team.
HR 1.2 2.2 4.2 4.4 28
Rich 0.3 1.3 3.4 4.6 30
Best Mandy Naylor, Maegan Miller, Madeline Pearson, Hayley Gould, Bree-Anna Kavanagh, Holly Lance
Goals Maegen Miller 2, Grace Bonanno 1, Chelsea Bowen 1
Men’s Reserves
A tough day for the Ressies where our injury toll really showed the damage it has caused to our performances. With a number up from the Thirds and Under 19s, some who haven’t played for a while (Scotty Ebbott and Adrian Hug) it was always going to be tough against Old Geelong who have always had a strong Ressies team.
HR 0.2 2.5 2.5 2.6 18
OG 4.5 6.6 9.11 15.16 106
Best Darcy Merlo, Bailey White, Peter Somogyi, Ryan Leslie, Oscar Donald, Nic Assirvaden
Goals Peter Somogyi 1, Adrian Hug 1
Development Squad
“Highway robbery. How can a player who kicked 5 goals, 3 off his right and 2 off his left and 4 behinds from his shin, the most for any HR player in 2025 in a game, not get named in the best?” was the question Jack Baxter asked after the game. He was not happy as in an eye catching performance he showed some of his tricks of 10 years ago to bag that score, in what I would have thought was a BOG performance. Great to see the Anderson line continuing to shine with both Ollie and Nick, sons of team manager and Club Chairman, Steve, in the goals as well. But it seems that injury prone veteran topped them all in the coach’s BOG decision. Good to see that Noah Velten regularly in the best and on the weekend was described as “a force of nature racking up possessions out of the centre all day”. Great to see the Development Squad notch their third straight win in a season where, due to injuries in the Club they have been forced to scour high and wide for players. There must be a number of recently retired players out there who wouldn’t mind having a kick on the occasional Saturday – training is strictly optional! Finally, a big shout out to Ando for shouting beers after the game.
HR 4.7 9.13 11.16 17.19 121
MHSOB 2.0 2.1 5.2 7.3 45
Best Jess Lovig, Ollie Anderson, Richard Atkins, Jacob McLean, Noah Velten, Will Hunter
Goals Jack Baxter 5, Nick Anderson 3, Ollie Anderson 2, James Young 2, Noah Velten 1, Richard Atkins 1, James Craig 1, Oscar Beaton 1, Jess Lovig 1,
Under19s
With 11 players in the seniors who are all eligible for Under 19 footy it was a great display from the young Rovers to restrict top of the ladder leader St Kevins to a narrow win. As is usual with a team coached by Caggs they never gave up and fought the game out to the final siren.
St K 3.6 6.6 10.10 11.14 80
HR 3.1 6.1 8.5 11.6 72
Best: Harry Ockerby, Charlie Steen, Harry Block, Ollie Sutherland, Jake Taranto
Goals Harry Ockerby 3, Elliot Jurdkian 1, Mason Carrigan 1, Angus Zufic 2, Lucas Civitarese 1, Harry McConkey 1, Luke Bocari 2
