Sharks were Berry, Berry good

By Mark Gullick
THE MORNINGTON Peninsula Sharks produced a supreme team effort to defeat the Hampden league by 49 points in the WorkSafe Country Championships match on Saturday.
The match was played at the picturesque Leura Oval in Camperdown in front of a modest, but enthusiastic crowd.
Set at the foot of Mount Leura, the ground was in perfect condition. The Sharks didn’t underestimate their opponents, especially after a long journey to meet them on their home ground.
“Hampden’s a very good league,” Mornington Peninsula assistant coach Michael Holland said. “They’ve had the better of us in the last five years, when we’ve played them a couple of times.”
After special guest Ted Whitten Jnr tossed the coin, the Sharks kicked to the western end and set about systematically demolishing the opposition.
Glenn Michie took a brilliant low one-handed mark and kicked the Sharks’ first goal.
The Sharks kicked the next four goals before Hamdpen responded with two goals, including one after the siren.
Hampden did have its chances in the opening term and had they been more methodical in taking the ball into its forward line, they might have been closer on the scoreboard.
The teams traded goals in the second term before the Sharks kicked five in a row. Patrick Gadd, Justin Berry and Ricky Morris were prominent in this period. Morris sparked the run of goals, after he intercepted an errant kick on the wing from Hampden’s star midfielder Simon O’Keefe. He took several bounces before kicking a long goal.
Hampden scored a goal just before half-time after poor checking by the Sharks, whose lead was reduced to 34 points.
The Sharks had the perfect start to the third term with a quick goal, which was followed by another Michie goal.
Hampden worked itself into the game and were able to score three goals for the quarter, however, they didn’t score goals consecutively.
The Sharks produced an eight-goal third term to inflate its lead to 63 points.
Hampden finished the match strongly and kicked five goals to two in the final term.
Mornington Peninsula coach Paul Kennedy was pleased with the win.
“We just played exceptionally,” he said. “It was pleasing that blokes came from 15 different clubs and bonded pretty well together. They played like they’d played together for a long time.”
As with any interleague match, it’s difficult to gauge the opponent and Kennedy was wary of the Hampden league.
“We didn’t know how good they’d be and they were every bit as good as I’d assumed they’d be,” he said.
“It was important to get a good start. One of the difficult things was travelling down, but we had an extended warm-up and made sure we were ready to go.”
There were winners all over the ground for the victorious Sharks.
Cranbourne’s Justin Berry was superb with seven goals from the midfield.
“I thought he was best on ground,” Kennedy said. “His ability, not only to (convert), but also to force turnovers (was crucial) and he got us started in the first quarter. He started in the middle at the beginning of most quarters and got us going out of the middle. It was just great to watch him.”
Another to impress was Berwick ruckman Dale Robinson. After Beaconsfield ruckman Chris Kelf was injured in round five, he recommended Robinson to Kennedy, who took a punt on him.
“I hadn’t seen Dale play and I thought he was one of the most important players on the ground,” Kennedy said. “His ruck work was fantastic, but he also followed up his good work with some clearances and he dished out some lovely handballs.”
Pakenham duo Dean Blake and Jared Goldsack were superb. Blake collected many possessions around the ground and Goldsack didn’t lose a contest on the last line of defence.
For the Sharks, Chelsea veteran Nigel Carmody and Pearcedale midfielder Ricky Morris also played great games. Morris kicked three goals and was awarded the umpires’ best player.
Glenn Michie and Patrick Cadd each finished with four goals.
The Cardinia Casey league had 10 representatives and each member added a valuable contribution.
“We were pretty happy with the way we were represented by the guys from our league,” two-time interleague representative and Beaconsfield utility Andrew Williams said.
Williams believed it was important for his team to gel because the Hampden team would be familiar with how each other play.
“We knew they were going to be a fairly close group because they play against each other every week and we’re three leagues put together.”
Holland was pleased with the leadership shown by the team’s older players.
“You’ve got to admire blokes like “Riggy” (Daniel Rigg), Andrew Williams, Nigel Carmody, blokes like that who have played at a really high level and at 30 years of age they continue to put their hand up and play at (interleague) level,” he said. “The young kids get a lot out of playing with those guys and it’s a full credit to them. They’re great blokes.”
The victory promotes the Mornington Peninsula into Pool A for next year’s Championships.
Kennedy has formed strong working relationships with his support staff, including Pakenham’s Holland, the experienced Steven Capp and runner Kevin Goodall, and is keen to continue coaching the interleague team next year.