Result: Old Melburnians 20-14-134 defeated Old Haileybury 5-6-36
The OM’s under 19’s ventured out to McKinnon to play a very confident looking Old Hailey bury team in round 2. This game was to be played at 9.20 in the morning- a very early start for all concerned. I think everyone knew it was early when the boys had no rooms to change in when they arrived at the ground. Plenty of new inclusions in the side this week meant that there were many players keen to impress.
The game started at a furious pace, with Hailey bury coming out of the blocks hard kicking the first 2 goals in quick succession putting the OMs on the back foot. However things changed from there as the boys started to dominate Hailey bury in all aspects. Timmy Oman was in everything early winning 3 clearances and booting a goal and was again well supported by Cumbrae-Stewart, Marty McCoy and Patty Nestle. This allowed plenty of movement into the forward line allowing Tim Gobbo, Siddons, Oman, Cumbrae-Stewart and Petsinis to all score early goals. The pressure in the forward line from Ferguson, Siddons, Breeney and Hughes was again terrific which meant that Hailey bury struggled to get the ball away from the OMs forward line and were able to go inside 50 only 4 times for the quarter.
In the second quarter the story continued as the boys continued to dominate Haileybury with their superior fitness and skills. Al Armstrong was running a mock creating many opportunities as was Sammy Dunell and Matt Collister. Goals from Cumbrae (2nd goal of the game), petso (2nd goal). Tim Gobbo (2nd goal) and newcomer Zac Seccull virtually meant that the game was over at half time.
OM’s continued to dominate the ruck work at the start of the third quarter thanks to the efforts of Ferguson and Harris. Both worked hard through the ruck all day allowing OM’s to dominate the takeaways and leave Haileybury constantly chasing tail. Some fine work on the wing from Andy Harrod who in a terrific bit of play beat his man to the ball, kicked on his opposite foot while under pressure to Tim Gobbo who then delivered the ball inside 50 for a great team goal. Patty Nestle again showed that he is an asset to the team throwing himself at every contest winning a lot of the hard ball. Al Armstrong and Johno Gooley were again terrific on the wings when they came on taking contested marks and both kicking long range goals. A seven goal quarter with 7 individual goal kickers including first gamer Amato, Breeney, Gooley, Seccul (2nd goal) and Tim gobbo (3rd goal) just showed what a great team effort the day was.
The final quarter saw Hailey bury give it one more crack as the contest turned into a real scrap with some hard tackling from both sides. Hailey bury came out hard kicking early goals in this quarter but to the OM’s boys credit they responded with some good wok from Amato and Carter in the forward line and some classy work from Tim Mclardy around the packs allowing the OMs to score a few quick goals to make sure they won the quarter and the game by 98 points. The backline was again extremely solid all day led by Yox, Levy and Lugg. However Hailey bury went inside OM’s 50 only 21 times for the game meaning that a few changes were made to give some boys an opportunity to kick a goal. This worked with immediate effect as Yox was given the opportunity to go forward and delivered with a goal from outside 50 which was followed by a big celebration reminiscent of the great soccer player Ronaldo.
A great second win and the boys now must make sure that they win the danger game against the bottom placed Mazend.
The Analyst
