Canterbury v De La Salle

Match Report

Similar conditions greeted the guns for round 6 as the last couple of weeks. Muddy conditions and a one lane swimming pool along the wing posed a new challenge as we took on Canterbury. Both teams won their first game of the season and were embracing the challenging conditions early.

The ball lived in our forward half with plenty of opportunities for us going forward. Our best opportunity came through some open space and brilliant running play, resulting in a terrific handball from Stevie ‘Wrecking Ball’ Hatzis to Jess ‘B2’ Carson who was calm under pressure and able to finish the goal to give us the early lead. We had other opportunities in the back half of the opening quarter but with big packs of players, slippery and muddy conditions, we weren’t able to make the most of our forward half dominance.

Despite the close score on the scoreboard, the Guns were energetic and positive at quarter time, after another great opening quarter. The second quarter was much the same as the first quarter, but we weren’t able to take any chances, things continued to breakdown as we went inside forward 50 and we continued to overcrowd the forward line making scoring hard to come by.

Only one goal was on the scoreboard at half time but we had seen 75%+ of the game being played in our forward end, with plenty of midfield dominance through debutant Ellie ‘Frenchie’ Poon, Julia ‘The Sluth’ Luth and Grace ‘Doc’ Martin who played brilliant games, breaking the lines when few other players were able to. Inside our forward half, Rach ‘Scrubs’ Whitelaw was using her running ability to good use and looking incredibly dangerous in front of the ball.

In recent weeks, the Guns have been working hard on their shape around the ball and their ability to get run into our game, this was on display through a couple of our leaders, with Jen ‘The Jenerator’ Males and Grace ‘BigSchnapp’ McDonell who used their running ability on the outside to get speed into our game. Watching our leaders do this so effectively, our young players were able to join in and continue to give us opportunities which we just couldn’t take, putting through another 3 minor scores in the third quarter without the reward of a major.

The final quarter was tense, whilst we had dominated so much of the game, we only had a 14 point lead going into the last quarter, as the cobras kicked the first goal, there were some nervous times on the bench, but the dominance of the Guns through the day would ultimately prevail, persistence in the forward half with 3 consecutive behinds again, was frustrating but we were eventually rewarded with a goal through Stevie Hatzis, who was rewarded personally for her hard work forward of the ball.

Despite a challenging and somewhat frustrating day without getting ultimate reward for effort on the scoreboard and dealing with some difficult conditions, the Guns persisted throughout the entire game and were able to walk away with another win.

The Guns are building something great, another 3 debutants today, getting us to 14 for the season, all of which are making a great contribution on and off the field. It is great to see the development of all our players and the way that our team are starting to gel together is incredibly encouraging and with another 10 games to go before the end of the season and finals, it is exciting to see where this group can go.

We go again next week at home to start a triple header against Wattle Park!