Coaches Report - R3
A's B's & C's vs PAOC; D's Bye & Losa vs Edwardstown
A Grade Match Report: Round 3 v Prince Alfred Old Collegians
At the outset I need to qualify my report by saying I am bereft of journalist prowess to adequately describe the game that we witnessed, and our A grade played on Saturday. The are so many sub-stories which include but are not limited to the response required from last week, the preparation from as far back as preseason, the physicality the game demands, the willingness to continue to fight and as we say “ Play to the end “, the connection and selflessness of the playing group …all played out in what was an epic encounter.
While these are sub-stories what was obvious to all that were fortunate enough to be there or watch via live stream was the sheer BELIEF in the team.
The contest narrative set in the first quarter was brutal, it set the tone for what was to come. In warm conditions we again pushed for the fast start and knew instantly we had a game on our hands with a well drilled fast moving opponent. With centre bounce ascendency early through the agency of best afield Tranfa and Shute combining with the best ruckman in the competition in Butterworth and an undersized but outstanding back 6 we went goal for goal to finish the first just 2 points ahead.
The second was an arm wrestle early with the game being played between the arcs, our opponents controlling the air in our front half and our hard-working defence holding firm. With fierceness of contest bubbled to the surface on several occasions forcing the intervention of the men in green at times. An unfortunate infringement late in the quarter resulted in a two goal turn around to our opponents. With that the momentum had shifted and we lost some shape defensively giving our opponents some easy movement and opportunities. We went into the main break 16 points behind.
A reset at the break and a belief building beneath the surface we went to work in the third to get back into the contest. Players across every line impacted , Mead began to put the afterburners on and created a headache off half back, combining with the experienced cool head of O’Malley, Wakelin did what Wakelin does in the air , Warton, Shute, Tranfa and Butters continued to bludgeon at stoppage and up forward Kemp, Bradford and Lanzoni willed themselves into every contest. With three minutes remaining in the third we had equalised the score. Our opponents not to be denied then took the momentum back kicking three unanswered goals in quick succession pushing the deficit at the final break out to 18 points.
The final quarter was truly epic. We had lost Best in the third to a serious injury and so we’re down a rotation, we lost Box to an injury part way through the final to another serious injury so had one on the bench forcing us to draw on JT’s preseason conditioning which we did. With the clock set at 14 minutes we were 24 points adrift; it was from this point that the BELIEF kicked in …we went on a run which was ROCK SOLID trademark.
First it was De Matteis off half back after a crunching marking contest on the end of a hand ball receive to kick an outstanding goal, then it was Bradford who with quick lateral movement to snap one, shortly followed by our inspirational captain in Lanzoni who in typical fashion on the end of quick hands kicked a running check side goal. We had well and truly worked our way back from a position some would have and some did doubt. Then Wakelin did what Wakelin does took control in the air and pushed us back deep inside our forward 50. Stoppage contest and a point kicked …! 5 points behind. Then with 2 min to play step up Matty Dnistrainsky who with the presence of mind grabbed a ground ball from stoppage to snap the winning goal. Epic!
I received many messages after the game, and I will leave you with one I received from a legend of our great club.
….“ in my opinion it was season defining, those lads have built belief ..A 1 point loss to a 1 point win after trailing by 4 goals in the last . Can’t buy that belief”….
We enjoy the spoils but need to move on quickly and reset to next week.
Final Score : ROCFC 12.7.79 defeated PACOC 12.6.78
Goal Kickers : X. Tranfa 2, J. Boxer 2 , B. Baldwin, T. Bradford, T. McCormack, F. Wakelin, S. Lanzoni, J. Shute, T. DeMatteis, M. Dnistrainsky
Best Players : X. Tranfa, J. Shute, W. Mead, J. Butterworth, C. Kemp
See you at the footy.
Damian Boots
A Grade & Club Coach
B Grade Match Report: Round 3 v Prince Alfred Old Collegians
We came into this game with our weekly theme this week to “Energy”. We built this around rivalries and what energy that can provide can be a false energy as we need to use every single bit of the same energy, we use in every game we play as the greater goal was to play and win football.
In the first qtr. our pressure acts were through the roof, and we gained the ascendancy early with a 2.3 to 1.1 start with a good breeze at our backs. We did though at qtr. time reiterate that our delivery into the forward line needed to be better as we need to lower our eyes and adjust our kicking as the ball was carrying so far.
In the second qtr. we really held the game up well only allowing PAOC to score one goal where we kicked 2 and our accuracy was rewarding us for the first time this season. Our back 6 really stood up that qtr. and some individual moments of brilliance from Ryan Lymn with that goal from the pocket and El Murada off the bench hitting a contest like the bull he is really lifted the lads during the qtr. Lastly, we started to bring Luca Stepic into the game.
The third qtr. was all ours kicking 5 goals straight to PAOCs 1 goal – that was 7 straight goals we kicked in the game. We looked and gave our forwards the best opportunity the forward entry from Ryan Lymn to Luca Stepic set the tone for the qtr. Once again, some inspiring 1% efforts from Zac Searle, Josh Butterworth and Sam Hearn plus many more were the catalyst to us really putting on some great footy to watch.
The siren blew 2 minutes early to end the third qtr. (this alone is a story to itself) which was a surprise, but we handled with maturity and asked the players to find that little bit of extra energy to finish the game.
After PAOC got the first goal we certainly went into our shells again and dropped off on our style of play. Whilst we didn’t have the ascendancy in the last qtr., which is the first time, we lost the last qtr. all year we had done enough to win the game earlier during the day.
The most significant thing about today’s win and wins were for me is watching how far the football club has come in the last 3 preseasons. We played this club in a trail back then it would have been fair to say we were a bit behind them back then but now on this day we passed them in that moment – So well done to all.
Overall, once again we had 21 excellent contributors on the day and to see the smiles on all the lads after the game is something I am so proud of them for celebrating the moment.
Next week is another challenge against a rival that will now be very wary of this side.
Final Scores: ROCs 9.5.59 defeated PAOC 7.10.52
Best Players: E. Murada, R. Lymn, J. Thomas, L. Stepic, M. Aufderheide
Goal Kickers: L. Stepic 4 , J. Piro. R. Lymn, J. Thomas, P. Vorrasi, Z. Searle
Jamie Thomas
B Grade Coach
C Grade Match Report: Round 3 v Prince Alfred Old Collegians
PACOCFC have been the trend setters in C1 for the last 3 years including C1 premierships in 2022 & 2023, and a Grand final appearance in 2024 and with significant Div 1 A grade premiership experience in their line-up, this was always going to be a strong challenge for our young group.
We actually started well, and the game was played between the 50’s for the first 5 minutes until Josh Massie copped a kick to the sternum whilst trying to smother and after briefly blacking out due to an oxygen restriction was off and did not take part for the rest of the day. We are pleased to confirm that following medical checks he is cleared of any injury. Thank you to Vicki Lines for her prompt and professional medical response on field. We know we are lucky to have Vic, she is by far the most valuable and dedicated trainer in Amateur league footy.
Unfortunately after Mass went off, we seemed to get rattled and with better efficiency and tall marking key forwards they were able to kick 5.1 to 0.0 despite inside 50’s for the quarter being 6-8. Unfortunately and has been our Achilles heel all year; we don’t have a key forwards and we are making the most of what is available to us and to the guys credit they are competing hard.
The second and 3rd quarters were very even, we changed things up and once we moved Tim Lewis to CHF we actually had a better avenue through CHF. Unfortunately we weren’t able to capitalise to really put pressure on the scoreboard and a couple of key goalie defensive errors eased the pressure on them and in the end the scoreboard reflected a 9-goal loss.
The scoreboard certainly doesn’t tell the true reflection of the contest. Our key stats indicated Clearances 12-15, Inside 50s 26-33 and tackles 32-22. Yes, tackle count can align with chasing tail at times but in the second and third quarters it was 21-11 our way and the scores in that time were 4.4 to 5.2 so really was an arm wrestle and it was offensive tackle pressure that saw us back in the game. The challenge for us is to start with this mindset and be consistent with it all day and continue to develop and be more efficient in converting with the player profile available to us.
Special mention to Tim Lewis for his work ethic when swung to CHF. Dion Bria continues to improve all facets of his game with 6 tackles for the day. I also acknowledge our backline for their defensive efforts in the middle stanza’s particularly with team spoiling of high balls and concise overlap on the way out, unfortunately we just broke down on transition into our forward line too often.
We look forward to working on a improvements to take into Broadview this week.
Final Scores: ROCS 5.7.37 defeated by Prince Alfred OC 14.8.92
Goal Scorers: Amer Elhosni 1, Jordan Huppert 1, Timothy Lewis 1, Luca Piantadosi 1, Sam Warren 1.
Best Players: Lachie Hill, Jason Cavuoto, Toby Meeka, Sam Warren, Daniel Leonard.
Peter Pedersen
C Grade Coach
R3 - Loreto OS 08 05 (53) defeated Edwardstown 06 05 (41)
Goal Scorers: Tara Pirone 2, Dellie Brown 1, Kate Donnelly 1, Lucy Franzon 1, Olivia Law 1, Hannah Osborn 1, Scarlett Pearce 1
Best Players: Olivia Law, Abbie Deegan, Poppy Scaife, Scarlett Pearce, Sarah Catterwell
