De La Salle vs St Kevins

Another strong opponent today, and another reality check.

At home today where U19 Blues took on ladder leaders SKOBS in drizzly conditions. The Blues headed into the game with some much needed fire power up forward in Russell and Lyngberg, along with first gamer Zane O’Keeffe. The visitors looked strong early, particularly around stoppages and across their backline. At times DeLa were able to win some contests, however couldn’t quite execute consecutive disposals to get the ball to our key forwards. Most forward entries were under pressure and resulted in turnovers due to sustained pressure from their hard running midfielders. By the first break we still had not had a shot on goal, and the visitors had kicked two majors.

The game continued in similar fashion, and a worrying trend developed with SKOBS improving both their clearance count and forward entry count. Having our half forwards working high at stoppages seemed not to have much impact. Most of our kicks out of the middle were long, and to out numbered contests. DeLa did happen to break through eventually with Anthony slotting a nice goal. Positives from this quarter were that DeLa’s backline looked strong with Harper starting to make his presence felt, and first gamer O’Keeffe looking strong and composed.

Second half DeLa were intent on being more competitive and playing more one on one footy. The Blues started strong and were able to string together some consecutive possessions and active ball movement. Goals to both Anthony and Macbeth were much needed and provided some slight relief for DeLa.

During the last quarter Harper was magnificent with his intercept marking and defensive rebounding. From a score perspective, it wasn’t looking good for DeLa, as they were unable to add to their goal tally in the last. The opposition were just simply too good today.

Goals: A. Liakakos 2, E. Macbeth

Best:J. Harper, K. Rossiter, E. Hele, J. Miller, E. Macbeth, A. Liakakos