VAFA ROUND 21_Col.indd - Victorian Amateur Football Association

PREMIER
DRIVEN DE LA DESTROY BATTERED BLUES
Michael Fitzgerald
It began well enough for the Varsity, but when it
missed some gettable shots, turned the ball over
in defence and key backman Al Austin limped
from the field, the signs were not good. Still,
Blues led at the first change and though their
other key defender Mark McLeod could barely
move, were still well in it at the half, though
seasoned watchers were wondering how that
could have been.
Early in the third team, De La blew it out to
31 points with some quick goals. Game over.
We thought so, anyway, until Blues suddenly
found their mojo. Immediately, their fumbling
and fiddling disappeared and they mustered the
confidence to play the corridor. Before anyone
realised it, the margin was back to six points.
Sensing trouble, De La lifted it another notch,
eliminating its own errors. For a while, the teams
went blow for blow, but then the Blue and Golds
blitzed them. We looked at the scoreboard as the
third quarter siren sounded. It showed a sixteen
goal scorefest, ten of them to the Dees, enough
to see them through. Uni Blues did their utmost
early in the last to disprove that, but the De La
forward line – Matt Moore, Josh Oakley, Sam
Pickett, Mick Duggan, Luke Semmel and best on
ground Nick Roberts (Leigh Harrison optional
extra) – pulled out the party tricks and the Dees
ran away. On the day, they had a staggering
fourteen goal scorers, and with the long kicking
of David Lowe and Michael Collins, everybody
had a chance to get in to the act.
It was a sad way for the Varsity to end its season,
but it was an unsettled line-up that they put on the
park. Blues needed to be at their best to stay with
the hard-running De La, and despite some great
efforts from Mark Paterson, Ben McConnell and
Paul Butko around the ball, they lacked a big gun
around the sticks. Jack Watts, Paddy Smith, Ed
Clark and Andrew Lowcock looked dangerous at
times, but none of them could muster the superhuman
game that would bring home the bacon.
DLS has been fine-tuning for a month now,
worried more about which of their in-form
players would miss selection. It will take a very
good team to beat them next week or in the end
game, but then again, there are two very good
teams standing in their way.
Sunday: Collegians arrive in the second semifinal
after just two losses, neither of which was to
Old Xaverians, whom it beat on Opening Day at
the Trott and again at Toorak Park in R12. The
big question is whether they can pull the hat-trick
and beat them at Sportscover, not quite the home
of the Red ‘n’ Blacks, but for a decade and a half,
their very own holiday resort.
While both teams are highly capable of shutting
down the opposition on a smaller field, the
attacking phase of each is suited to the spaces.
However, the expanse is one thing and the
conditions entirely another. We’ve all witnessed
games played almost entirely on the outer wing,
with the westerly serving as virtual prison walls
and forays into the corridor as rare as successful
jail breaks. In this circumstance, it’s about making
those shots at goal, when they come, count to the
maximum. Both clubs have topped the ton on six
occasions. Fergus Watts can be a big force here.
He rarely misses when in range and that ability
extends beyond the arc. Balancing this, Matthew
Handley and Dan Rush can score from distance
too. Perhaps it comes down to which team’s tall
forwards get more of it. Both defences are solid.
The Lions conceded a hundred just twice, and
over twenty per cent of their season points against
in just two mid-season defeats. Xavs are tighter
still, conceding the ton just once, to, you guessed
it, these Purples in R1, who also held the Xavs to
their season low offense in the return bout.
Xaverians should win in the ruck and their midfielders
should enjoy first use, but then they must
2 THE AMATEUR FOOTBALLER 2010