Old Geelong vs De La Salle

Match Report

Qtr 1: Warned that OGG were fast starters, DLS contested strongly. Both teams came to play but OGG’s opened the scoring with a fine mark/goal from the boundary at the 2 minute mark. Fraser Cameron marked strongly near the centre & aided by a 50 meter penalty, goaled at the 7 minute mark. Several badly executed switches went unpunished until another at the 23 minute mark saw OGG’s get their 2^nd at the 23 minute mark!

3 missed opportunities from gettable situations would prove costly as DLS field dominance went unrewarded.

Sean Fisher was involved in an incident on OGG’s HFF resulted in a fiery exchange of pleasantries. This was followed by an angry exchange due to Adrian Indovino’s late bump at CHF. The subsequent 50 meter penalty gave OGG’s their 3^rd.

Nathan Scollo was marking at both ends while Seb Filipovic, Luke Healy & Liam Wood were solid contributors.

DLS 1.3= 9 OGG 3.2=20

Qtr 2: OGG on top early, with ability to find targets our wide then centre for good scoring opportunities, only to be denied by fine defensive marking by Tom Lyngberg, Fisher & Healy. OGG’s extended the margin to 17 points, goaling at the 3 minute mark. 4 minutes later Hugh Nicholson snapped truly from the HFF to reduce the margin to 11 points. Good running & receiving by Lachie Gawel, followed by a perfect pass to the leading Ryan O’Meara resulted only in a behind as OGG’s again successfully forced DLS wide for shots on goal!

Players of both teams performed impressively, under quite intense close quarter pressure / tackling.

At the 18 minute mark, OGG extended their lead back to 17 points again benefiting from shots directly in front of goal! Curtis Day was involved in several good defensive plays. DLS missed several opportunities, again being forced wide to take these shots . A superb piece of play by Christian Algeri, appeared to be rewarded by a goal late in the quarter, but after 4 minutes of discussion between field, goal & boundary umpires, it was ruled a behind!

Scollo, O’Meara, Day, & Fisher were all prominent for DLS.

The return of 1.5 for the quarter compared with OGG’s 2.2 showed the benefit of centre forward entries!

DLS 2.8=20 OGG 5.4=34

Qtr3: OGG’s for the 3^rd time started the quarters scoring early goaling at the 3 minute mark, thereby extending the margin to 20 points. Seb Filipovic was in everything & goaled from a free for a heavy high tackle at the 8 minute mark. Minutes later he was freed again,  but missed from a little further out. DLS were dominating general play, but were not able to hit the scoreboard. Fraser Cameron stormed through the centre & a pack of players to goal from 50 meters out at the 11 minute mark, reducing the margin to 7 points!

DLS then missed 3 times before, against the run of play, OGG’s goaled, from a long run into wide open forward zone, at the 14 minute mark!

The scoreboard return of 2.7 following that of 1.5 from quarter 2, was inadequate reward for the good field performance. In contrast OGG’s scored 4.3 in that period!

DLS 4.15=39 OGG 7.5=47

Qtr 4: Seemed like “ground hog day” with OGG opening the goaling at the 5 minute mark! This was from a mark on the behind line, where it appeared that DLS backs did not contest, thinking a behind had been registered! When a similar situation resulted in OGG’s goaling at the 10 minute mark, DLS trailed by 21 points. The situation was dire. Particularly as Indovino was out of the game with a shoulder injury. Having a reduced bench, on the enormous Como oval was a severe disadvantage!

However, DLS were desperate in every contest & Gawel goaled from a free in at pack marking contest at the 12 minute mark, a DLS recovery was in motion!

Gawel was in everything, and he again marked in the FP. His goal reduced the margin 9 points at the 17 minute mark. Plenty of time left for DLS to steal the game!

OGG’s then controlled the game, not making any attempt to score. They just maintained possession for the remainder of the game. Theirs was a very professional performance.

DLS 6.15=51 OGG 9.7=61

Since quarter time, DLS scored 5.12 compared with OGG 6.5. A telling factor in the loss!