De La Salle vs Old Geelong

Match Report

Qtr 1: Kicking with the aid of a blustery cross wind, OGG started explosively with its 1st goal coming with 18 seconds on the clock. Goaling again at the 4-minute mark, taking the ball end to end with precision foot passing. Failing to hear the umpires’ play on call, Nathan Scollo was tackled from behind, while attempting to take his free kick in the BP, resulting in OGG’s 3rd at the 8 minute mark!
The ensuing 10 minutes of highly skilful footy saw DLS in attack consistently but were unable to breach the high marking OGG defence. Good play by Seb Filipovic, passing to Trent Shannon in the HFF, who in turn found Christian Algeri, whose shot missed. A fine contested mark by Hamish Curtis, deep in the FP again resulted in a behind. 3 more behinds were scored before Liam Wood got DLS’s 1st from a fine snap from CHF at the 18-minute mark.
OGG replied immediately with centre clearance goal, followed soon after by goals at the 21- & 22-minute marks. At the 35-minute mark, OGG added another, after an OOF free, to establish a commanding 37 point lead at quarter time!
DLS 1.5=11 Old Geelong 7.6=48

Qtr 2: DLS, now kicking to the end aided by the wind, hoped to start positively to eat into the strong OGG margin! Such plans / hopes were dashed emphatically, when OGG added 5 unanswered goals within 14 minutes of the quarter beginning!
It was not until the 19-minute mark, that an Adrian Indovino kick off the ground from a goal square scrum, registered DLS’s 2nd match goal: the 1st being at the 18 minute mark of quarter 1. Alarmingly, OGG replied immediately via a centre square free. DLS could not establish any flow. OGG’s capacity to stop ball movement to the outside runners was the reason.
Although DLS had managed to stop the rampage, it could not register any scoreboard improvement, until Indovino snapped truly from a pack at the 28-minute mark. He was again prominent when goaling after a free on the HFF at the 33-minute mark. He featured again when his long shot was touched on the goal line. Tom Lyngberg, who had been competing strongly in marking contests against much bigger opponents, was freed in one such contest & aided by a 50-meter penalty, scored DLS’s 5th goal at the 35 minute mark, to reduce the half time deficit to 46 points from a game high of 67 points mid-way through Q2.
DLS 5.8=38 Old Geelong 13.6=84

Qtr 3: Any thoughts of a DLS revival were soon extinguished when OGG added goals at the 2, 3, 4-minute marks. Each of these were directly due to DLS players’ poor decisions & execution while deep in defence. An exceptionally good piece of play involving Josh Stewart & Lachie Gawel landed the ball with Algeri, who missed what he would normally kicked. Taking advantage of the situation, OGG went the length of the ground to kick their 16th goal at the 14-minute mark & establish a 70-point margin.
Despite the scoreboard situation DLS found some run & with Curtis Day & Campbell Bedford (back in his old # 10) prominent, the forwards were presented with many opportunities & the defence some much needed rest. When Hamish Curtis goaled at the 16-minute mark & fine play by Seb Filipovic & Trent Shannon saw the shot on goal just fall short, DLS has established some semblance of control for the 1st time in this match. Filipovic was again instrumental in getting the ball to Algeri whose long kick from beyond CHF went through at the 21-minute mark.
Goals came at the 27-minute mark (Lyngberg, snap from ruck), 29, (Indovino kick along ground for 20 meters), 31 (Indovino crashes pack & is freed) & the margin is back to 40 points. Lyngberg, in a one on one contest at CHF, beat his opponent pointless & could have run into the unattended goal, but electing to kick from about 20 meters, his kick skidded into the bottom of the post!. A fine quarter of quality footy, but DLS had only reduced the margin to 39 points.
DLS 10.11=71 Old Geelong 17.8=110

Qtr4: Full Back Luke Healy was moved to the opposite position with immediate effect. He took a strong contested mark close to goal, following a great kick from Day deep on the HFF. His goal & another from the ever-dangerous Indovino at the 8-minute mark, got supporters hopes up.
At the 11-minute mark, Day again burst through a centre scrum to kick to FF where Healy again took a contested mark, showing superior judgement behind the pack. At the 14-minute mark, Filipovic intercepted & passed to Wood whose centring kick was marked by Healy for his 3rd gaol.
A series of behinds by OGG rounded out the match with DLS going down by 23 points.
DLS 14.12=96 Old Geelong 18.11=119

Summary: The 13-goal blitz by OGG in the 1st half was outstanding. Kicking 5 goals straight at the start of Q2, snuffed out any chance of DLS mounting a recovery from a 6:1 goal 1st quarter.
OGG are going to be a formidable opponent should we meet them in the forthcoming final series.

Goals: Indovino 5, Healy 3, Lyngberg 2, Liam Wood, Hamish Curtis, Campbell Bedford, Christian Algeri.