In a tough contest at Ivanhoe Park, an impressive – and tall – home side had all the answers in inflicting Brunswick’s first loss of the season on Saturday. The short facts are that the NOBs were goalless at halftime due to Ivanhoe’s suffocating defence, and as result never really a winning hope, but we played the game out strongly with late goals reducing the final margin to a respectable 14 points.

In wintry conditions, the game was a stalemate in the early stages of the first term, which suited Brunswick as the Hoers were kicking with the wind, although an early hamstring injury to key midfielder Nick Burgin was less than ideal, especially after the loss of Matthew Palmer with a corked thigh from the week before. As the quarter progressed it became apparent that the home side had some dangerous players, particularly their gun full forward, but a two-goal margin seemed to be manageable.

The second quarter proved to be critical as the NOBs couldn’t make any inroads with the breeze. There were a number of reasons for this, including our weakened midfield, but chiefly it was Ivanhoe’s pressure game which made it difficult for us to move the ball and forced us to go wide, resulting in our (missed) shots on goal being from difficult spots. At the other end of the ground, the home side’s key forwards were simply too tall for our valiant defenders and a couple more goals were scored.

Brunswick broke its duck in the second minute of the third term with a major to Tom Wilson, but the Hoers responded immediately, followed by an unfortunate 50-metre penalty which gifted a further goal. A long bomb to Tyler Bruns brought our second, but that was again answered with two goals to the home side, leaving us with a 34-point deficit at the final change.

In the last term, to Brunswick’s credit they took risks in moving the ball, backing their fitness and knowing that Ivanhoe had expended a lot of energy in the first three quarters. This led to the opening goal to Tom Wilson after an inspirational spoil by Max Naughton on the wing. Unfortunately, the Hoers (again) answered quickly, but we didn’t let up, with another major to Tom Wilson, followed by James Schmidt, Gus Coverdale and goal-of-the-day to Aaron Christensen in the dying seconds.

Naughton was probably our best player over four quarters, while Ben Wilson and Reubin Fulton-Grigg were warriors in the midfield. Unfortunately, Reubin went down with a knee injury late in the game and our fingers are crossed for him. Big Adam Bevanda continued his great start to the year, while Liam Whelan was his usual unflappable self in defence.

Next week we aim to get back on the winners list against Bulleen Templestowe back at Gillon Oval. See you there!