Zebras down big Cats

by AJ BRADY

IN the first day of finals action in the Victorian Football League for season 2006, the Casey Radio headed into inner-city TEAC Oval, Port Melbourne, to see Sandringham defeat Geelong by 21 points on Saturday.

On a beautifully bright, sunny and 24C spring day, an excellent crowd of some 3000 came to see an entertainingly high-scoring contest between second (Sandringham) and third (Geelong) after the home-and-away season.

Going into the game, the Casey Radio were mostly in favour of a Geelong victory, particularly with the Zebras fielding only 11 AFL-listed Melbourne players, compared to the Cats having 18. (All AFL-aligned teams except Geelong can field only a maximum of 12-AFL listed players during tha finals series.).

A slight two-goal breeze favored the Williamstown Road end of the ground, and after winning the toss, Sandringham captain Chad Liddell elected to kick with it.

The game began at a frenetic pace, with the Cats jumping out to an early lead. They were getting a lot of run through their small midfielders in the likes of Matthew Stokes and Tim "Teddy" Sheringham, and long and direct passes to their leading forwards in Kent Kingsley and Matthew McCarthy provided something for the Zebras to think about.

The reigning back-to-back premiers showed they were equal to the task, however, as the likes of Ezra Poyas and Peter Summers worked hard up forward to get their side back into the contest, and even give them a one-goal lead at the quarter-time break.

It wasn't all good news for the Zebras, however, with influential defender Matthew Warnock, given the big task of standing Kingsley to begin the game, being forced from the ground with a serious ankle injury that would not see him return.

At the break, Zebra coach Mark Williams urged his men to keep attacking, make the most of the beautiful spring conditions by going direct, long and through the corridor.

The beautiful spring conditions allowed a free-flowing and high-scoring contest to continue into the second quarter, as star Zebra full-forward Nick Sautner began to become prominent in the forward line, leading hard and taking some strong contested marks.

Geelong withstood the challenge by the Zebras pretty well, with the likes of small man Shannon Byrnes and captain James Byrne providing lots of drive and good work at the contested situations to keep Geelong 13 points down at half-time.

The second quarter was not without controversy, with Byrne physically targeted on more than one occasion by some Zebra players, while off the field two scantily-clad and stunningly attractive women handing out free 'Sports Truth' newspapers were ejected from TEAC Oval. Rumour has it that Casey Radio's Phil Pearce got one of the women's phone number, although that is yet to be confirmed.

At half-time, the Casey Radio team wondered if the high-paced and fluent game of the first half could be continued by both sides, who shared 20 goals between them to that point.

Thankfully, in the third term neither team disappointed. The direct football through the corridor, with long bombs to leading and high-marking forwards continued with both sides. The Zebras class forward of centre in the run of David Gallagher and the forward nous of Sautner and Poyas was proving pivotal. With Phil Read and Daniel Hughes also getting more of the ball, the tide was turning the Zebras way.

Geelong did fight back somewhat, with the dominant ruckwork of Mark Blake and the hard run forward of centre by Adam Cook saw the Cats just manage to stay in touch.

A Hughes long-bomb for a goal right on the three-quarter time siren lifted the Zebra crowd and players alike, however, sending them into the final change 19 points ahead.

In a closely-contested game, this was about as big a margin as had been seen for most of the day, however the Casey Radio team weren't confident this would result in a Zebra win, as not only were the Sandringham side going into the breeze in the final term, they were also down to just one man on the interchange, with Liddell suffering a hamstring injury and Andy "The Axe" Biddlecombe also out with a hamstring for the remainder of the game.

With that in mind, plus the added advantage the Cats had of extra AFL-listed players and the extra strength and fitness those guys bring to the competition, the Casey Radio boys were quite unanimous and feeling the Cats should storm home and into a preliminary final.

This was hammered home to the players at the final change, with Cats coach Leigh Tudor imploring his players to take advantage of the Zebras, who were slowing down, and run them into the ground initially, before driving home their advantage late in the third quarter with some direct play to the forwards, whose job it was to convert.

However, somebody forgot to tell the Zebras, as they came out with all guns blazing, Sautner kicking goals from all angles, Read and Poyas gathering a lot of ball at the centre clearances and around-the-ground stoppages, and Clint Bizzell providing a lot of run off half-back the Zebras charged away to have the game and a preliminary final berth in their keeping.

Some late goals from the Cats, one so late that it was missed by the Casey Radio team and mysteriously added to the scoreboard long after the final siren had gone, saw the Cats put some respectability onto the scoreboard, but in the end they went down by 21 points, the Zebras winning 20.16 (136) to 17.13 (115).

Better players for the Zebras included best man on the ground Read, who staked a claim for a re-birth into the Melbourne AFL side with 35 possessions, hitting targets with most of them and winning a lot of contested possessions at the stoppages; Poyas, who spent a lot of the day as a roaming half-forward and still managed to gather 28 possessions and hold the ball into the Zebras forward line on many occasions, creating lots of scoring opportunities; Gallagher, who broke the lines with his runs down the outer wing at TEAC Oval, providing good drive through the midfield and long and direct passing to the leading and thankful Zebra forwards; Summers, who stood tall around the ground, particularly forward of centre, taking many contested marks and driving the Zebras forward on many occasions, gathering 30 valuable possessions; Sautner, who flew under the radar somewhat, but when the ball was in his vicinity, he always either took a strong mark or created a spillage which caused goals, so not only did he boot seven goals himself, he probably helped create another few; and, Hughes, who came to the ground with a loud hairdo, and backed it up with a terrific game as a utility, being responsible for many Zebra forays forward.

Best players for the Cats included small man Stokes, last time these teams played in round 18 (one-point victory to Geelong), he spent a lot of the day playing full-forward, however with the inclusion of Kingsley, Stokes was able to play more in his customary role as a nuggetty centreman, which he did to aplomb, working hard to win in-and-under ball for the Cats and providing good run through the centre; Byrnes, who did much similar work to that of Stokes, creating many attacking opportunities for the Cats through his run through the centre and ability to win contested balls; Kingsley, who led hard at full-forward all day and managed to kick four goals himself, while his strong body-on-body work and his contested marking attempts created many crumbs for others, including the likes of Travis Varcoe and Jay Cheep, to run onto; Blake, who as mentioned, was the dominant ruckman on the ground, he interchanged a fair bit with youngster Trent West, but when he was on the ground, he did his job terrifically well, giving the Cats first usage of the ball on many occasions; Todd Grima, who gave the Cats a lot of run off the back flank and drove the ball forward directly and accurately on many occasions; and, Cook, who provided a contest any time he was near the ball, using his strong body and fierce running to the Cats advantage on many occasions.

Sandringham now get a week's rest, and those three injured players will be hoping that will be enough time to recover from their injuries, Sandringham players interviewed on Casey Radio after the match were confident they would recover in time. They will play the winner of next weekend's semi-final between the Northern Bullants and Frankston. For the Cats, they go into a knock-out semi final next weekend at TEAC Oval against North Ballarat.

Other results in this weekend's first weekend of VFL finals, and as alluded to above, the Bullants succumbed for just the second time this season in a shock upset at their home ground, Australian Motor Finance Oval, Preston, when Williamstown kicked 10 goals in the final quarter to blow the premiership favorites away by 45 points and open the race right up now for the finals series, Collingwood youngster Dale Thomas was the star, the Seagulls now moving into a preliminary final in two games at TEAC Oval; down at Kars Street Oval in Frankston, the Dolphins won their sixth straight game in stunning style, thrashing Coburg, who'd been in a trough coming into the finals, by 51 points, goalkicking superstar and 'Frosty' Miller Medal winner Aaron Edwards kicking nine goals to go to 97 for the season, though he did sustain an injury of late and was on crutches on Sunday, so the chances of him lining up next weekend to possibly become the first VFL century-goalkicker in nine years is now up in the air; and finally, in Sunday action, another surprise was caused when North Ballarat came to the big smoke and absolutely pummelled Werribee, who had done the same in reverse to the Roosters not three weeks before, the final margin being 76 points in favor of North Ballarat.

Next weekend's finals should be big, with every game now being sudden-death. For all the action live from TEAC Oval both Saturday and Sunday next weekend join the Casey Radio team of myself, Chris Weaver, Nigel Carmody, Kain Pollard, Jim Hines, Simon Petch, Michael Leeds, Cameron Scott and not only the VFL's number one boundary rider, but football's number one boundary rider Phil "Tiger" Pearce, for all the action. Tune into 97.7FM if you live in the Melbourne metropolitan area, or on the web on www.3ser.org.au if you are anywhere else to hear VFL action at its best.

3 September 2006

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