By Paul O’Connell for the Floreat Pica Society
A much better effort than last week, but still a loss. The pregame withdrawal of Reid together with the suspension of Cox (would he have played if available?) resulted in a very different and much smaller team, particularly when compounded by the loss of Moore in the 2nd quarter with an as yet unidentified hand injury.
An even first quarter was marred by the two serious injuries requiring stretchers and ambulances, one for each team and very sad to watch. Broomhead just can’t seem to stay on the park. At 24 in his 5th season and with only 30 something games under his belt, it will be a hard road back. The highlight of the first quarter for me was Heater running from halfback and kicking directly to a Pie – brought back some good memories!
Goal for goal in the second quarter saw us again five points down at the main break. Grundy was winning easily in the ruck and getting frees rather than giving them away. Phillips was running, Pendles was Pendles and the early poor disposers like Crisp and Adams were starting to impact.
4.4 by us against 4 straight saw us just a point down at three-quarter time. We looked a real chance and our short forward line and somewhat random entries seemed to work to our advantage. The goal to (their) Langdon after brilliant field kicks by Cameron and Whitfield, and then the one from the boundary by Cameron were telling.
The last quarter was a real tussle and one had the sense the game could go either way. We were just four points down with four minutes on the clock, and still a good chance. Unfortunately the trend of goals being scored in runs of two or three or four continued when GWS kicked the last couple to seal a win. In fact they tellingly kicked five of the last six goals of the game. Shiel’s late clearances were telling.
I suspect Treloar and Adams read the Herald Sun article highlighting their disposal inefficiency particularly by foot. Whilst they were both good contributors with 49 disposals between them, only 14 were by foot. The Adams crash pack in the first quarter was kamikaze and really set the tone for the level of effort displayed throughout the game. I have not mentioned the coach or tactics so will leave that to others!
Votes for the Horsburgh Medal
3 to Grundy for his ruckwork and 2 goals
2 to Phillips for his relentless running and unintended goal
1 to Pendles for a very good performance despite the recent knocks on him
Honourable mentions to Howe, Aish, Crisp, Sidey, Langdon.
If we don’t beat the Blues on Friday night week we are a real chance to be 0-6.
Go Pies!
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