By Nick Creely
SOUTH EAST FOOTBALL NETBALL LEAGUE
REVIEW – ROUND 4 (SPLIT ROUND)
A blistering start provided the catalyst for Cranbourne’s thumping of Doveton, in a Good Friday blockbuster to kick off the SEFNL season.
The new look Eagles – under coach Steve O’Brien for the very first time – would have sent shivers down the spine of opposition sides, after sending an empathetic statement at AJ Robinson Oval in front of a large crowd.
It didn’t take long for the Eagles’ new and exciting game style to take hold, with slick, fast hands gifting Kirk Dickson the opening goal in under a minute, before Dickson again marked and kicked truly from 40 out to gift the home side a perfect start.
Tackling pressure was at the forefront of the Eagles’ opening burst, with Doveton midfield brigade Mitch Cotter, former Bulldog Matthew Boyd and towering ruckman Russ Gabriel digging in but unable to get the ball moving forward.
The suffocating nature of the Eagles’ pressure brought Luke Bee-Hugo into the game, with the midfielder kicking a classy goal on the run courtesy of a Doves turnover off half back, before some brilliant transition brought recruit Clay McCartney into the contest, with the talented playmaker slotting his first of three for the quarter.
The trend continued for the entirety of the first term, with the Eagles slotting eight, jumping out to a 37-point lead that was unlikely to be headed.
Doves coach Daniel Charles sparked the side into action in the second and third terms – Gabriel lifted, as did Matt Stapleton and key forward Alex Mastromanno, and a Riley D’Arcy major midway through the third quarter slashed the margin back to just 16 points.
But the feeling was that the Eagles were always going to charge again.
And they did.
Kicking 13 of the last 15 goals of the match, the Eagles played free flowing, exciting football, running out 83 point winners to give them the perfect confidence booster to start the season.
O’Brien praised his side for their electric start, and even more for recovering from a flat second and third quarters.
“It was a good start to the season, the boys made a really good statement in the first quarter, and then probably took the foot off the pedal a little bit and allowed Doveton to get back into it, but we responded well and ran the game out well,” he said.
With the Eagles moving the ball at lightning speed, and exerting maximum pressure when the opposition had the football, O’Brien asked his players to adapt after allowing the Doves an opening.
“Everyone wants to offensively move the ball as quick as they can, and it’s something we have definitely been working on, and it falls back to the pressure, if that’s up, it enables you to win the ball back and move it quickly,” he said.
“Our pressure was outstanding early.
“Doveton did a few different things, which probably made it a little bit harder for us to get the ball out from the stoppage, so it was just about getting the boys to be able to identify that.
“We knew what we had to do to get the game out in space again, once we started executing that, we started to do that and impact the scoreboard.”
With legendary sharpshooter Marc Holt still missing through suspension, O’Brien couldn’t have been happier with their unpredictable nature in attack, which featured plenty of youth, an aspect not lost on anyone within the club.
“Our percentages to shots on goal from inside 50’s were off the charts, so it was really pleasing, and we had 11 different goalkickers (six from Kirk Dickson) so we have a lot of avenues to goal, for sure,” he said.
“The things we put in place down forward worked really well.
“He (Kirk Dickson) played an outstanding game, and took a lot of marks inside 50, which is something we monitor – we had five players playing their first game for the club, with Clay (McCartney), Tommy Marks and three 17-year old’s, and I think that got overlooked a little bit.
“There was a lot of talk about Doveton being young, but if people look deeper, you’d see we were a pretty young side too – all those guys contributed which was great.”
Doveton were well served by Mastromanno, who kicked five goals for the Doves in his first game for the club, while former Stingray Mitch Cotter was tough at the coalface all day.
In what is sure to be a ripping clash, Cranbourne will return home to play what is likely to be a youthful Narre Warren in the opening round match on Saturday. The Doves will travel to play Officer.
Doveton 11.5(71)
Cranbourne 24.10(154)
