With the midterm Uni Break in full flight, no Blacks this weekend, given they needed all players on deck back at Crawford Oval. Although as it turns out they weren’t needed, given the recruiting of Coach Ross continues with another two new players this week, taking the season total to 10, with 21 players taking to the field! Also of interest is that 11 players are ex-Dragons, with another two out with injury.

The odd alignment of the Mentone Ground (north-west-south-east) coupled with the strong north-westerly gale (10 goal) greeted the players, but the deck was firm and the only constraint to deal with was the ubiquitous muddy cricket wicket. The issue was going to be at what time during the game would the weather close in and the storm arrive? The radar said 12.30!

The instructions were to kick to the dead pocket near grandstand to defend and to attack using low kicks and handballs, that is “run the football ball up into the wind” with low trajectory passes and handballs. This was going to be critical if the team wanted to come away with the 4 points!

First quarter

St.Bedes won the toss and elected to kick with the gale, which put the experienced backline of Jasper Paevere, Jack Sabatino, Declan Sparrow, Eric Newgreen and the onballers in the thick of the contest from the get-go. The opposition peppered the goals but the Brunswick boys had “come to play” and resisted the onslaught with aplomb, kicking wide to the dead pocket. The raking kicks into the pocket by Sabatino and Paevere were the order of the day and these two were the only players allowed to kick high and wide. Big Will McKenzie kept pulling down marks from the full back kick-ins to keep possession. Although St. Bedes had a majority of the play, Brunswick were not to be outdone and made a number of forays into the breeze. Play of the day was a “coast to coast” goal, with Jack Ludeman out of defence finding Archi Fulton Gregg who passed to Angus Ross and onto Anthony Roussos and scored a major! And the ball didn’t get above 2.0m metres in height. See what happens when you carry out instructions!

First quarter – Brunswick 1-1-7 – St.Bedes Mentone 2-5-17

Second quarter – The instructions were to not waste and blaze away at goal & still keep the disposals low and direct. The players didn’t disappoint. Will McKenzie out of the ruck handballed to Angus Ross and a pass to Paddy Borehoam Delaney and the first major was scored. Another forward entry and the 190cm Full back Paevere who was shifted to full forward (masterstroke by Coach Ross) was rewarded with a free kick after a holding the ball tackle and scored the next major. Back to the centre and a clearance by St.Bedes was repelled at CHB and with a series of low handballs found Paddy BD, onto Anthony Roussos and a pass to the small forward of Mathias Foley resulted in another goal at the 13min 46sec mark. Next clearance out of the centre and Paddy roving from the wing found Paevere who scored his second goal of the quarter (6min 51sec). Two more forward entries resulted in further goals to Mathias and Alexander Avraam. A very productive quarter!

Score Brunswick 7-2-44 – St Bedes Mentone 2-6-18

Third Quarter – Well the instructions were to repeat the first quarter effort and it was an arm wrestle from the start with the weather closing with rain falling, and the 10 goal gale had not abated. The defenders of Declan Sparrow, Dion Choong, Eric Newgreen and Sabatino carried out their instructions to the letter, finding the dead pocket, while a couple of surprise short passes from full back to the attacking side of the ground caught the opposition flat footed.

It wasn’t until the 15 minute mark of the quarter that the St.Bedes combination found the goal, with the stingy Brunswick defence keeping the opposition to 1 goal 3 for the quarter.

Brunswick again kept counter attacking and another “coast to coast” goal into the gale found our small forward again in Foley who snuck up for his third major at the 10 minute mark.

Score Brunswick 8-2-50 – St.Bedes/Mentone 3-9-25

Final quarter and the gale hadn’t abated while the rain had now set in! A 6 goal quarter wasn’t going to be on the cards, while a 25 point at this stage of the game was going to be handy to retain. Like the third quarter the game was an arm wrestle, conducted between both half backlines, with St.Bedes defending well, while Brunswick was endeavouring to get the ball out of the dead pocket and back into the corridor. This worked and Angus Ross scored a major at the 21 minute mark.

St.Bedes not to be outdone, weren’t going away and persevered and an errant kick from the Brunswick full back line to a “three on one” obviously resulted in a St.Bedes possession, ending a goal to the combination at the 16 minute mark. For the remaining part of the game both sides played hard contested football and it was about this time that last week’s best on ground CHB Alexander Georgopoulos (“Big G”) came alive. The big G starting to dominate across the half back line taking marks and repelling the opposition. Although conditions not conducive to the 188cm backman he had a standout quarter. Finally with 15 seconds to go the Brunswick boys found a way forward and again Mathias Foley bobbed up for this fourth major.

What was pleasing was that the players stuck to the task over the 4 quarters, especially the instruction to keep the ball low into wind. Although execution was not always effective, given the blustery conditions, nonetheless they tried and no doubt many will be perfecting ball drop and improving their kicking technique over the break. The old adage of “I’d rather see you try and fail, than fail to try” was the order of the day.