The reserves dialled up pressure on the senior team with a strong 141 point win against Old Mentonians in a return to the very fashionable all purple jumpers for the Founders Day lunch. After a pump up from fearless leader Spud, it was Dan O’Donoghue who was clunking anything that came his way early after some exceptional service from a very strong midfield line of Wade, Bubsy, Spud and King. Whoever taught the O’Donoghue family to mark should be commended but who ever taught them how to kick for goal needs to review their training methods. Dan, like his brother Mick, had more set shots in the first quarter then total goals slotted by the reserves.

The second quarter was a lot tighter than the scoreboard suggested with Old Mentonians catching the O’Donoghue bug and unable to convert on their attacking movements. Work in the midfield was made a lot easier with twin towers of Bones and Marchbank dominating the ruck contest, delivering the ball on a silver platter. Despite the dominance, Coach Con urged his team that two way running and accountability was still important despite the score as reserves were lucky that Mentone didn’t capitalise on their possession.

The third quarter was an example of why the senior team needs to continue to play well with finals spots up for grabs with players such as Sleep, Browne and Wade dominating play and getting themselves on the scoreboard while also keeping their opponents to a scoreless quarter. The highlight of the third quarter was NOBSPC cult hero Woooooooochacha who harnessed his inner Matt Suckling, to take a strong intercept mark in defence and take off down the wing for a running bounce before a lovely kick resulted in another NOBSPC goal. Not bad for a bloke playing centre half back.

The final quarter cemented Coach Con’s dream of the reserves having a percentage of over 100 for the first time this year. Such was the emotion of the moment that runner Kelvin had to pick the team while Con regathered his composure behind the bench. The midfield was shaken up with Frankie Caldow and Rapa inserted to the midfield rotation and they didn’t miss a beat with countless centre clearances. O’Donoghue had strict instructions for the coaches in the last quarter of 1) Don’t take me off and 2) Play me deep. Spending the last quarter deep in the forward line with Toose (who had a turning circle of a Mack Truck with his bad ankle); Dan took the lead for leading goal kicker in the reserves from Dobbo with 6 goal haul. Spud lead by his actions with another fine display in the midfield while helping himself to 2 goals as well while Browne slotted four with that lovely left foot. Overall it was a complete team performance with 13 different goal kickers. Next week a trip to Toorak Park against second on the ladder Prahran will be a good test and another chance for players to put their hand up for senior selection going into finals.