De La Salle vs Williamstown CYMS

Match Report

Some difficult selection decisions at training this week, which resulted in a few changes to the side for todays home game against Williamstown. Leading into the game with some good momentum and a healthy list, the players and support crew were confident we could get another win on the board.

Conditions were greasy from the previous nights rainfall, which resulted in lots of ground balls in the first quarter. The oppostion started well with winning numerous contests arround the ground, and winning lots of ground balls. If it wasn’t for some solid defensive marking, De La should have been down by more, but at the first break there was only 1 goal difference.

Second quarter, De La dropped it’s bundle. The opposition ramped up their contested ball count and their forward entries. Our effort was questionable and attitude wasn’t far behind, and as a result we went into the main break down by about 5 goals.

The half time break gave us a chance to reset and change our mindset. With slightly drier conditions entering the third quarter, De La started well by winning contests and displaying much better ball movement. With 2 goals each to Paddy and Mitch, we looked much better. Our mids lifted their work rate and were starting to get on top.

Being only 2 goals down at three quarter time was a good result. De La were going to have to pull something special out of the bag if they were going to snatch a come from behind win. Although the effort was there, and attitrude was much better than the first half, Willy appeared to have our measure with speed and strength. It was a bit of an arm wrestle at times, but unfortunately the visitors kicked away with a few consecutive goals to deny us of victory.

Some would say a valuable lesson learnt about the importance of playing four quarters of consistent footy. I tend to agree, but we were also reminded today of how important it is to win the footy.

Goals: P. Russell 4, M. Wain 3
Best: P. Russell, S. McNidder, S. Filipovic, M. Wain, J. Stewart, E. Macbeth