Saturday was a funny old day for NOBS ressies.

Firstly, there were some late changes on the morning of game day with Jim Murfett going up to the seniors, Andrew “Ding Dong” Bell came down for his first run in a while and Con turned up later than Rapa. As we were getting prepared it was announced that in what could possibly be his last game for the club, Sleepo would be captain for the day. Toosey was named on the bench, even though he wasn’t at the ground. But we put all that behind us, donned the zinc and sunscreen and got out on to the rock hard ground to enjoy the glorious sunshine.

Prahran/Assumption had recalled a number of players who had missed recent games and looked fired up to get a win before heading into their finals campaign. They came out with plenty of run and carry, while we were a bit flat footed and unable to create many meaningful forward entries into the slight breeze. This meant that we were goal less in the first quarter, however we kept them to just 2 goals, so we were right in the game!

The second quarter saw a rise in intensity and resulted in a couple of goals to Sleep and Dobson, however their run off the back flank was damaging and they managed a few goals of their own and the hard surface was taking a few casualties, the injuries were mounting. We went into half-time down by 4 goals.

We restricted the Blues to just 2 goals in the third as we controlled the footy around the ground. We were able to win some clearances and created some of our own chances, including when Sleepo turned on the burners in the pocket to take on a pack of young rascals and snag a beauty.

In the end, their class and fitness proved too strong and they snagged a few junk time goals to blow it out a bit on the last quarter, however the midfield continued to slug it out under the hot sun. Sleepo finished with 2, Davidson and Dobbo chimed in with 1 which was unfortunately not enough to topple Melon off the top of the goal kicking table. Best players for the day were Junior (played true to himself), Gabe Williams, Fordy in the back line while the old guard of Dobson, Hunter and Spud battled hard in the midfield.

In the end it was a fairly good year, especially after the first few rounds when we struggled for numbers. Congratulations and thank you to Con, coaching the reserves is one of the hardest jobs in the club!