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Caulfield  13 - 25 - 93     Defeated    Old Camberwell  9 - 9 - 63

Headaches (Good ones!) at the selection table on Thursday night saw some unlucky guys miss out on an opportunity to take on Old Camberwell in the 11:40 game on Saturday.  Despite a strong squad on paper, the message from the coaching staff before the game was to focus on a 4 quarter performance as this has yet to achieved in season 2016.

Kicking against a 4 to 5 goal breeze in the first quarter saw a determined CGFC midfield group get on top of their opponents working hard through the middle of the ground with run and carry. Effective forward entries on the back of this hard work allowed Damien Simic to kick 2 of his 7 goals and Will Osborn to bob up for his first of the match. It was unfortunate to lose our CHF Hayden Parker early in the quarter to a serious knee injury. The backline was working hard, in particular James Anderson and Drew Dickson, to counteract the ‘wellers’ forward entries and we were able to keep them to 1 goal for the quarter which set the game up nicely.

The message at the quarter time break was not to bomb away kicking with a strong breeze however for the first 15 minutes of the quarter that’s exactly what we did! The ‘wellers’ backs and midfield were setting themselves up well and cutting off our forward entries. To the boys credit we were able to turn it around to kick 4 late goals to go into half time with a 30 point margin. Tommy Stewart had been busy during the quarter and Damien Simic was continuing to capitalise on his opportunities. A hamstring injury to Rob Handel saw us go two down on the bench for the second half.  

The team knew, kicking against the wind in the third term, they had to work extra hard for the full 25 minute quarter given we were two down on the bench and the board was getting an extra work out to keep players fresh for the last quarter. A 4 goal to 1 quarter gave us a 10 point lead at the last change. James Cleeve and Will Osborn were working hard for their team mates and providing clean possessions around the contest.

An encouraging team performance in the last quarter where the backline defended first, the midfield won the contested ball and forwards created space for each other saw us kick 5 goals, the eventual margin for the day. A positive day for the team which sees us now sit second on the ladder, 1 game behind the leader.  

We look forward to another home game at pressure park this weekend against Oakleigh.

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