Match Reports

Supers v Kingsway Supers

Midland wasn’t a popular destination for the Wembley boys, Friday afternoon and there were only 9 players committed to the journey to Ron Jose reserve. BP used his persuasive man manage management skills to get the numbers up to 16 and rack up his 12th game for the season. The evergreen Dozer and Rowny agreed to back up from masters to get the numbers up to 18, the former laying a chase down tackle during the game that would have made Cyril Rioli proud.

It was the usual suspects doing the heavy lifting for the team, (Danners, Doc, Tails), quite frankly without them out there, the day would be far less enjoyable. Everyone knows how good they are and today was no different. I’m sure Doc will oblige in regaling stories of every one of his kicks, marks and goals at training on Wednesday.

Darren made his Supers debut and was very impressive on the wing. His hard run, taps around the contest were important. Watching him tackle guys twice his size was one of the highlights of the day.

Brock was good all day, I get the feeling he played a big part in convincing Irish to help out in the forward pocket. He looked for him on a numerous occasions going forward (despite the big Irish lad optimistically trying to take on multiple defenders).

The forward line was injury riddled. Sam was using his body well up forward, taking a couple nice contested marks and throwing his body into a miscued kick late in the game. Scotty was there on one knee to support with goals and Dan put his body on the line in bone crushing contests. Marcus looked to be suffering cramp from qrt 2 (after staring in the midfield for the masters side), despite this pushed through and played a part in multiple goal assists.

If there was a Super’s comp best 18, the O’Leary boys would hold down the key defensive spots. Only a ball defying physics saw their opponents luckily bounce through their only goal for the day. Both of them will tell you how good of forwards they are, but I am very grateful they choose to play down back, making my poor decisions and skills look good.

I thought Plonk was structurally very important to the team today and reminds me a lot of Luke Jackson. We aren’t the biggest side and his opponent was significantly taller and bigger than him. When he got on top in the ruck, 9/10 times we would win a damaging clearance.

Finally Baldrey, one of the new Wembley Amo crew. Looks like a talented player and I think has the most upside of any player on the ground today. He will be one of our better players if can string some games together.

As far as the result, Kingsway played the game in good spirits. Some inaccurate kicking kept them in the contest, but eventually we would have won the game by 2-3 goals. As usual there were a few guys looking sore, but most importantly no serious injuries out of the game

– Reporter: Ben “Burgo” Burges

Masters v Kingsway Masters.

I headed east to Midvale on Sunday mid-morning with a strange feeling of emptiness. It wasn’t because of worry about Dozer’s Tesla drivers friends’ fake climate crisis and the emissions from my diesel engine. Wal wasn’t around because of a scheduling error by our under-pressure comms guy Space. Wal was off playing a game he is not very good at with people he doesn’t really like and this driving was costing me big.

Game time was 12.30pm and the boys were arriving in dribs and drabs. Ben O’L showed up with no shorts. Four things to remember Benny but Irish has a spare pair to the rescue. Big shorts to fill indeed. Showing the tenacity of PWC trying to get a government contract, Gav showed up injured and headed straight for the strapping tent. We needed Sarge badly. Joshy and Pistol both arrived hungover. Uni had a head cold and was enforcing Covid like social distancing protocols. No sign of Brocky with two minutes to start time. Then in a first for the year, big Shane rocked up looking like the Man from Snowy River, unshaven with blonde locks flowing. Mick Rowney quipped that he doesn’t look much like a footballer. BP was recruiting and chose big Joey from the Warriors. A man with million dollar looks, perfectly trimmed grey hair and a manicured beard, a Coolbinia boy and former teammate of Brocky and Pistol and a key forward by nature. Dan V had 16 good players to work with and he started big Joey in the backline much to his displeasure.

The game got underway and the mids got to work under guidance from Irish who had a gladiatorial battle with a strong Whitfords man in the ruck. Mick Rowney’s ferocious tackling and strong work rate was again on show as he got around the ground from contest to contest. Unfortunately, Mick’s goal drought continued for another week though. Marcus plays a beautiful game through the middle delivering it forward. Jimmy struggled to follow Irish’s instruction early but he got there in the end and it was a thing of beauty. Uni got plenty of the footy and stuck to the protocols all game and never went near his man. Brocky was playing like a man who hadn’t had a warmup kick, missing targets with the trusty left foot. Gav quickly realised that the spirit may have been willing, but the flesh was weak and headed to the bench to sit it out. Shane was welcomed back to the side by the boys continually kicking it over his head. No Rookie like spray from Shane though. He had a couple of misses, including one audacious shot on the left before eventually slotting a goal, Brock eventually got going and big Sammy slotted a few.

The ball didn’t make it to the backline much but when it did Ben O’L was Barrass like in defence with strong support from Tesla Dozer and BP in the first of his regular three games for the day. Daz is a tough little competitor and tenacious in defence and Pistol seemed happy to have the Coolbinia band back together and was spoiling ruthlessly.

Dan V had enough of the forwards having all the fun and sent the dour defenders forward and the glamour loving forwards back to unfamiliar territory behind the ball and moved big Joey to the wing. This is a great idea if any Seniors team selectors are reading.

Sammy wasn’t happy with his new full back role and I don’t think he made it to the defensive goal square once but the newly minted forwards were loving it. Joshy on one wing and big Joey on the other were launching relentless attacks on the Whitfords’ defence. I couldn’t believe my eyes seeing Ben O’L transforming from Tom Barrass to Matt Taberner. Ben was out the back every opportunity getting easy ones over the top and slotting goals from the goal square. Daz had an opportunity to kick his first goal ever but gave it off. After some advice about being selfish, Daz slotted a goal from a set shot to great celebrations from his team mates. Daz got so excited he took out his hair tie and started playing with his locks flowing for the rest of the game. Rumour has it Daz is booked in for a hair perm in preparation for the next game in the forward line.

It was umpire’s appreciation weekend for everyone except Mick Rowney who took exception to a high fend off from an opposition small tank flying through the middle. Mick held on to the tackle but raised his voice to then umpire which we never see.

Another beautiful day of footy done, memories made and politics forgotten for a few hours.

– Reporter:

Seniors v Quinns Seniors

When I was at teachers college, Ian Chappell was public enemy number one for all right-minded budding PE teachers. Ian bemoaned the fact that there was too much sharing of the cricket bat at primary school lunch time. In his day you batted as long as you could. If you went in on Monday and were still there on Friday, then that was good for Australian cricket.

Bear with me.

Sometimes in football it’s not so much what you do – it’s what you learn. Today we learned that:

• Bass is a very generous man. Forget what I said at half time Bass – keep looking to give off a goal. My poorly chosen words stemmed from my dread of the second half with what I suspected was a cracked rib. But see me for twenty handballs at the end of next training.
• Bom is a polished kick for goal. Three from sharp angles. His goal in the last quarter was possibly the match winner.
• Bryn and Simmo are the “Pillars of Hercules”. Although we knew that already.
• Macca in game number two is going to be an integral part of the team.
• Joffa is a bona fide star.
• Irish is keen to flip the magnets around. This will be discussed in more detail soon. Irish is the link between the opening with Ian Chappell and beach buggies!
• Wattsie is closing in on AJ as the player the team’s forwards get most excited by when they see him with the ball.
• Prindi and Space do not hang their heads when their wonderful leads go unrewarded.
• Johnny P is looking as sleek, composed, and agile as ever.

Now there was a little bit of turbulence at 3/4 time today. Sean was keen to move those magnets – backs become forwards etc. The coaching staff (BP and Mario) had other ideas, quickly reflected on one of my favourite quotes – “many a fool has mistaken the sounds made in a London coffee house for the voice of a nation” – and kept the magnets exactly as they were. It was appropriate that everyone accepted this decision on Umpire Appreciation Day.

A beach buggy is a lot of fun! You can cut off the roof; put the engine in the back; expose the wheels and most importantly take it anywhere. A formula one racing car needs to be finely tuned; aerodynamically tested in a wind tunnel; the centre of gravity needs to be perfected; decisions relating to tyres, suspension, electronics, and driver are critical.

Coach Mike (who would have been oblivious to the 3/4-time discussion as he was playing for the opposition) has a big decision to make – do we aspire to build a formula one racing car or a beach buggy?

Great to see Pete at Ron Jose oval in Midland today watching us take on Quinn’s in a well umpired game played in terrific spirit.

– Reporter: Wayne Coffey