WSL2 Report by Darren Steere
A 7pm start at Melbourne High, saw us facing the up and coming Richmond Cubs. With nearly a full team of 12, we got away to a slowish start. The Cubs put two into our goal before we could draw breathe.
The Cubs play a kind of high speed chaos game, and we were getting caught up in it. This did lead to our first goal via a penalty, taken by Alex and then some good play rewarded us with Alex evening the score at 2-2. The second quarter was similar, but Richmond attacked with purpose and slotted 4 goals for the quarter. We steadied the ship a little, with goals to Sarah and Alex. While we weren’t getting goals for our hard work, we were getting the Cubs excluded on a very regular basis. The halftime score was 4-6, but the major fouls were at 5-9. The third quarter saw Katie pull off a number of great saves, while all players settled and slowly pulled the game back onto our terms. Goals to Lisa & Phoebe saw us draw it back to just a goal the difference at the last break, down 6-7. By the final quarter their major fouls tally had continued to grow and this lead to their girls being fouled out. This then led to a goal avalanche, Claudia and Lisa added singles, Mietta got in on the act with 2 and Alex got hot to add three.
This was a great game for our girls to take the heat, fall behind, slowly gain the upper hand then finish off with ball control and composure.
Essendon defeated the Richmond Cubs : 13 – 8
Goals : Alex 6, Mietta 3, LisaAndo 2, Phoebe 1, Claudia 1
WSL3 Report by Lisa Murray-Segal
Sitting 5th on the ladder, with the top 4 teams playing finals, it was still possible for us to make 4th place, but we'd need to win both our last 2 games (against 1st and 4th) - hard but doable - and we'd need the 4th placed team to lose one game and fofeit the other - a highly unlikely scenario. So we went into the game against ladder leaders Old Ivanhoe knowing the outcome of this game wasn't really going to matter, and expecting them to pump us, as they've done twice previously in this comp. So with the pressure off and a bench of 3, we made a solid start thwarting their attacks and creating some opportunities in front of goal without being able to capitalise. They scored first, before Isi came through for us. Things were pretty evenly balanced before they scored their second as we went into the quarter time break at 1-2. Feeling pretty bouyed with the scoreboard, we pushed hard in the second, and Sally scored a nice angled shot before Susan followed up with a scoop shot. Whilst their attacks continued, their accurracy and Sandra's arms in the cage keep them to just the one for the quarter, and we headed into the halftime break at 3-3. We were starting to tire despite the bench (it was popular!) but we kept up a strong defence creating turnovers again but failing to put shots away down the other end as they doubled up on CF and pushed our players further out. Old Ivanhoe eventually scored, which meant it was 3-4 at the start of the final quarter. Clare stepped up with her solid shooting arm to even things up before Old Ivanhoe hit back with one of their own, 4-5. Then with around a minute to go, Clare shot her second to make it 5-5 and all we needed to do was apply some pressure and play down the clock to secure the draw. Wow. We did not expect that... and I don't think they did either. Not bad for a 9.45pm game time, when most of us struggled to stay awake long enough to get to the pool. Nice work ladies! And a big thankyou to Libby for table duties again... could she become our regular gal?!
Essendon drew with Old Ivanhoe : 5 - 5 Goals : Clare 2, Isabelle1, Sally 1, Susan 1
MSL3-4 Report by Marcus Jones
Our combined Ess/Monash team were fired up for the clash against Monash. A chance for some of the team to prove a point over fellow club members. But the fire fizzled out come game time, when the opposition didn't have enough numbers, and were forced to hand over a walkover win. Rumour has it, a number of their players were suspended last week. Having ventured all the way out to Caulfield at 9.15pm we decided on a scratch match to ensure we all went home looking like we'd done some work in the pool. It was a solid 14-4 win for the Ess/Mon boys with goals to Kai (5), Mark (3), Vince (3), Lee (2), Lucas (1) and David (1).
Essendon/Monash defeated the Monash Uni Seals : 8 – 0 (official W/O score)
MSL6 Report by Sam Brown
To say the game was a battle of attrition would be an understatement, with no subs on either side, the game against the top team on the ladder resulted in a 5-all draw and 7 exhausted Essendon players (you should see the other guys). After both teams wasted the ref's time just long enough to annoy him, the whistle was blown! Essendon put the pressure on hard, both in attack & defence, straight away and to drive the message home - Essendon scored the first goal! We got plenty of steals and took the advantage when it arose, rewarding us with 5 goals smashed in: 1 from Andrew, 1 spectacular long distance from Nick, 1 from Liam, and a ferocious 2 from Ben who was in beast mode the whole way. Special mentions to our opponents Old Haileybury, whom also scored goals, but with the goalkeeping skills of Andrew (1st half) & Haydo (2nd half) they managed to stop the others that slipped through the defence with incredible goalie skill that I thoroughly lack. All in all the game was well fought, we gave as good as they got and made Old Haileybury earn their goals! Amazing job team!
Essendon drew with Old Haileybury : 5 – 5
Goals : Ben 2, Andrew 1, Liam 1, Nick 1
