Old Essendon:: Reserves Report - By ‘The Red Leg’. At half time in the 2s, a few goals would have been on the top of the list. In pristine conditions, we had managed just one goal. Supporters rolling in for the luncheon at this point would have been forgiven for being turned off their food by sight of the scoreboard.

"I almost choked on my bread roll," said long-time supporter Alex "Father of Funk" Farquharson.

How a team could manage just one goal in perfect conditions would have astonished all, but credit to Old Essendon. They were the better and more fierce side in the first half and thoroughly deserved their lead. They ran in numbers, were first in for the ball and wanted the pill more.

Carts did not tear strips off the boys though he must have had a tremendous urge to. Lovey did. In a nutshell, we weren’t going in hard enough.

The transformation in the second half demanded a stewards inquiry. Instead of playing like beaten favourites, we were storming home like Call Me Archie at Caulfield.

Andy Ray put aside opposition jibes about his red hair to cover more ground than Veandercross did in the 1993 Caulfield Cup, James Ray jumped like Tim Forsyth to put the ball down the throat of Chris Righetti, who played like a man wearing a cape.

Captain Jenks led a miserly defence which was under siege in the first half. He was later seen applying even more pressure on the pot glasses at PAs.

"I was errrr, ahhh, errrr, verrrrrrry. I errrrr," Jenks said of the win on Saturday night.

Best wishes on a speedy recovery to James Dixon and Phil Grundy. We all hope you don’t miss too much football

OLD MELBURNIANS - 10.14 (74)  

Goal Kickers: R. Matthews 4, E. Selby 3, W. Panton 2, A. Ray

Best Players: C. Righetti, A. Wu, C. Jenkins, A. Ray, J. Ray, R. Matthews

Tags: A. Ray, A. Wu, C. Jenkins, C. Righetti, J. Ray, Old Essendon, R. Matthews