By Nick Creely
SOUTH EAST FOOTBALL NETBALL LEAGUE
REVIEW – ROUND 6
Despite a more competitive effort from the under siege Doveton, Officer was always going to bounce back from two horror losses.
The Kangaroos simply needed to steady the ship and take the four points. They did, and slowly brought back that running game that served them so well in the opening month of the season.
It was a tight start and both sides couldn’t be split, with four goals apiece seeing the Kangaroos taking a slender three point quarter time lead.
Both sides had some terrific players standing up, with Mitch Cotter’s hands a real highlight, while James Waldon’s superb year down back for the Roos continued with a strong opening term.
It was then the second quarter that Doug Koop’s side began to flex its muscles and slam on the goals, with one electric passage of play kick-starting a six goal run that saw them enter the main break with a 36-point lead.
Harris Wasslykyo gathered the ball deep in defensive 50, spearing a pass into the running arms of Ben Tivendale, who took three bounces and delivered the ball onto the chest at Tyler Clark, who then handballed instinctively to Daniel Ellett who slotted it from 50 out.
It was Officer at its best, a running game that is exciting to watch when it’s up and about.
That running game continued on for the third quarter, with another three goal quarter stretching the margin out to 42-points.
But the Doves – a young side battling with unexpected departures – battled manfully to enjoy a strong last quarter, with the likes of Matt Stapleton, Matt Jameson and Alex Mastromanno producing some great moments to peg the margin back 23-points at the final margin.
As Doves coach Daniel Charles explains, his young side paid the price for costly mistakes that hurt them on the scoreboard.
“The effort was certainly there, but mistakes just cost us, but we’re starting to play the way we want them to, we’ve got a lot of kids that are starting to getting a hang of it, but we’ve got to stop the mistakes,” he said.
“They got seven goals from turnovers – when our players hesitate, we seem to make a lot of mistakes, and that’ll come from a young group.”
But Charles can hold his head high and remains confident his young group is beginning to click.
“Throughout the year, every game our third quarter’s been our worst, but the good thing about the young kids is that they don’t give up,” he said.
“I can’t question the effort, it’s just disappointing that we haven’t had a win yet, and we’ve been in a position where we should have had a few.
“They deserve a win, but just because you deserve it, doesn’t mean you’re going to get it – we’ve educated these kids on how to play football, they’ve come out of juniors, now we’re trying to get them trying to play to a structure, and they’re getting it slowly.”
Doveton 11.9 (75)
Officer 15.8 (98)
