VAFA Premier B – Old Trinity v Fitzroy: Light a candle Fitzroy against Trinity

I’ve been on a holiday in the States. The US is very much like Australia but they do not have any Hills Hoists, indeed some places ban all clothes lines. They also do not have any footy so I was really looking forward to our clash with the top of the table Trinity Old Boys.
Finished work about 12 o’clock and had a quick dash over to Shoppingtown to buy a bag of nappies for Jimmy O and his new daughter. Now some people might buy him a cigar or a bottle of vintage port to put away for the day she finally moves out of home, oops I mean her 21st birthday, but I am the sort of bloke who sponsors backmen. Give him something useful, something that gets the job done and, getting the job done, up forward, is something that I will return to later. Gave the bag of nappies to Sharon, the team manager to give to Jimmy next week. Team managers do everything.

The oval out at Bulleen has a perfect looking surface but the players had difficulty keeping their feet all day. The ground has a pronounced curve so you have to look over the elevated middle when the ball is on the other side of the ground.
The Seconds had a narrow win. Inaccurate kicking meant we could not put the game away. Late in the last quarter Speckie grabbed the ball and ran forward. The oncoming player, looking at Speckie, thought a bloke with that bulk could not baulk. He was wrong; Speckie shimmied around him and slammed through the goal of the day.

In the seniors we dominated most of the first quarter but; there is always a “but” and with the Redders this year it is the same “but”. Our forward line sucks. It stinks. It does not function. While I was in New York I lit two candles in St Pats Cathedral, one for Mum and one for my gravely ill uncle. I should have lit one for our forward line. Mum died years ago and Uncle John has not long to live but both show more life than our forward line.

We kicked one goal five behinds for the quarter. All the shots were set shots and a team playing well would have got the lot. Roscoe played well up forward but kicked one three with one out on the full. All the misses were gettable. Raca missed a simple shot early. I reckon he does not really think he belongs at this level as do several of our players. The lack of confidence when kicking for goal is palpable all around the ground.

We should have been four goals up at quarter time. Pickers, the coach, remarked at the first break that our pressure had forced Trinity wide. We owned the central corridor but not the centre of the goals. Four up at quarter time? Who knows what might have happened.
A terrible handball error coughed up a goal in the first 30 seconds of the second quarter and for the rest of the quarter Trinity had all the play but our backline did not falter until Dom gave away a cheap twenty five metre penalty after the half time siren. Cost a goal, a cheap goal, and Dom should spend this week thinking about it. We had another goalless quarter but until the last seconds I thought it was our second best goalless quarter for the year.

The third quarter was a replay of the second. We competed well around the ground but we never looked like scoring. Steve Fenton cracked it. He suffered from apoplexy as he declaimed about this season’s unrewarded efforts of our backline and on ballers. He left the Tram Conductors for the centre wing. He had had enough of standing behind the goals.
We got to within ten points in the last quarter but once again simple shots at goal were missed. We could not put Trinity under some scoreboard pressure and eventually our backline cracked and Trinity scored the last few goals to blow the margin out.
We play Haileybury, Werribee, St Kevins and Parkdale in the next four weeks. Two wins will keep us in B Grade. Pickers was a “play it safe” withdrawal. With him up forward we have a forward option.

I’m up in Darwin next week so I will be not be down at McKinnon Reserve. Go the Redders.

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