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Page 6 of 17
Round 3, 2011
Wembley Supers v Kingsway
‘It’s So Much Bigger Than I Thought It Would Be’
Sadly this is not what our lady friends uttered to us at some point during our courtship – no matter what we’d have you believe. I’m referring to the Eastern Hills boys’ decision to match the dimensions of this week’s ground at North Swan Park with those of Subiaco Oval. Yes, that’s right – Subiaco Oval. The biggest ground in the AFL.
Many players were heard to be uttering ‘What were they thinking’? I think the better question is, ‘What were they drinking’?
Ordinarily North Swan Park is divided into two ovals that are, well, um, err.....compact. Yeah, that’s it – compact. With the increase in teams in the Masters competition resulting in split rounds, the Cats only needed to provide one oval for this week’s carnival. And boy, did they revel in their freedom.
The good news was that Centre half forward actually existed for the first time in a North Swan Park carnival. The bad news was that our wingmen often travelled to another suburb when chasing the footy.
This week we were up against the boys from Kingsway. They’re a good natured bunch of blokes and they have shown that they can play footy on the big grounds.
There were some notable differences to the side that lined up this week. Firstly, we had debutantes in Todd ‘V8’ I-don’t-know-his-last-name and Troy ‘Chachi’ Zafer. Now, I know we need to work on Toddy’s nickname, and given his calf injury we have a bit of time to do so. But you have to admit – Chachi is a belter for Troy. Almost as cool as the Fonz and he even looks like Scott Baio!
Perhaps the greatest, and long overdue, difference was the placement of our coaches favourite, Justin ‘Paris’ Boelen into the backline this week after being gifted forward line duties in his first two games at the club. He’s a crafty one though is our Paris and he knows how to work a half time huddle – but more on that later.
School holidays often result in a numbers dip for the Wembley boys and this year is no different. Thankfully a number of the Masters boys – Joey Agnello, Ian ‘Trigger’ Booth, Nick ‘Coxy’ Cox, Peter ‘Joro’ Jorrissen, Shane ‘Muriel’ Wedding, David ‘Apache’ Nancarrow, and Sean ‘Irish’ Delaney doubled up to help us out to ensure we had the numbers required.
After a quick chat to Paris, Chachi whispered a few sweet nothings in the ear of Tony ‘Newboy’ Newnham and found himself stationed at Centre Half Forward. He strutted out like the mini Fonz he is and proceeded to dominate the game for the first half, marking everything that came his way. Unfortunately, his kicks are about as straight as Elton John so he didn’t do too much damage on the scoreboard. It was a sensational debut effort though and we’re glad to have him down at the club.
Poor old V8 found himself on the bench to begin with – and his day just got worse from there. When unleashed onto the ground, V8 lived up to his name and did a few donuts in the backline before deciding to go on a bit of a run to get the footy as it ran down the wing. He unfortunately suffered a blow out to his front right tyre (read calf) and that ended his day prematurely. No doubt he’ll get himself a retread and be back on the track in the coming weeks.
The first quarter was a tightly contested affair with Wembley heading up hill, into the breeze and into the sun. The on-ball brigade of Irish, Brad ‘Benno’ Bennett, and Coxy worked well with Wayne ‘Turls’ Turley in the Centre to provide opportunities for the forward half and after some early wayward kicking a couple of late goals saw things fairly even at quarter time.
The second quarter had us running downhill with the breeze and sun behind us and we had the majority of the running. Ben ‘BP’ Powell was working hard down back when the Kingsway boys did manage to get it forward of centre and worked well with Clint ‘Fev’ Nieuwendaal and Nathan ‘Cogz’ Colgan in clearing the ball and repelling their attacks. The star and villain of the quarter though was Anthony ‘Monty’ Monterosso. Playing across half forward, Monty had the ball on a string for the quarter but his kicking for goal proved to be the George Michael to Chachi’s Elton John and he kicked 0.4 for the quarter. He wasn’t the only misdirected one however with the forwards' radar being well and truly off.
With Wembley having dominated the majority of the play for the quarter, Kingsway snuck in a couple of late goals to again have things much tighter than they should have been at halftime.
Using guile and rat cunning, Paris found himself thrust forward for the second half and somehow, Chachi was sent back. You can say what you like about Paris, but you have to hand it to him – he’s bloody gifted.
Despite the best efforts of Joro, who played a blinder of a half and Fev, who ran far and wide, the second half just never really got going for the Wembley boys. Big Joey got out and about a bit and led to some good spots, but the vast majority of us just couldn’t kick it between the poles that matter.
Kudos to the Kingsway boys who went forward on less occasions, but made it count whenever they did.
Pick of the Bunch: Chachi, Monty, Benno, Coxy, Irish
Rookie
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