Another beautiful day for footy, and with the fresh mornings and rains coming in, Melburnians know just how precious few warm days we have left. A bit of a mix up from usual this week with a Sunday game; the Renegades were coming in with the best of the weekend already under their belt. Arguable whether this is an advantage or not with this lot.

The prems came out with guns blazing, Sash Dougherty leading with two early goals letting Mazenod know what they were up for. It isn’t easy managing assistant coaching along with playing, but Sash is taking in her very long stride and setting a great example on the field.

The Renos looked very strong in the first quarter, with some players paying particular attention to presentation. Best dressed this week goes to August, who stepped up to play their first game with the prems sporting a very fashionable headband and representing Brunswick proudly in the campaign for best mullet. Coaches are excited about what is install as August finds their feet out on the field. Lloydy, Maddie and Buzz continue to put everyone else’s step count for the day to shame, smashing out another two games per round.

Mazenod were not giving up without a fight this round staying hot on the heels in the second half. Renos seemed to be working extra hard to get the ball into our fifty, with big efforts from Shelley and Bella moving the ball down the field. We saw some great synergy between Palombi, Tags (Emma McTaggart) and Em Molnar with some beautiful link-ups. Someone must have thrown a few extra logs on the GK’s (Grace Kendall) fire this week because she was absolutely blazing, burning through her opponents, leaving them singed around the edges. Fire up, you good thing!

By the fourth quarter, the spectators could barely stay in their seats. Mazenod managed to creep their way up to be on par with the Renegades, making the last ten minutes of the game extremely anxiety-producing. When the going gets tough, the acting Captain and Vice-Captain Snowy and Mon know how to get things going, giving us some heroic tackles and impenetrable defence.

In the last three minutes, the ball was nested inside Mazenod’s 50 as they pushed and pushed to get ahead. It was desperation meets determination with neither able to get a hand up ending on a 22 all draw and probably for the best as the crowd were dangerously close to heart failures.