Written by Dave Golding: Question! What’s better than winning a Grand Final? Answer Winning two of course!! Two-peat Led on-field by our own Dylan Bean who scored a combined four goals in the Preliminary and Grand Final, Murch Men’s A reserve have claimed back to back Premierships. Travis Glass was MVP on Grand final day, fitting reward for a mature 70 minute performance. He was rock solid and dynamic. The hockey gods owed him I reckon. He has earned these rewards after a long commitment and some pretty lean years in Men’s A grade. On yet another warm/hot Grand Final day, our group of geriatrics broke into a hot sweat before the game had even started. When our elderly gentlemen peered over their spectacles at the predominately young Australs opposition, (fielding many players from their unsuccessful A grade team as opposed to our finals playing A Grade team) they then broke into a cold sweat. Fortunately we had many others in the team itching to do battle. Who would have thought just how much Dylan Bean could improve. He has gone from being, how can I put this politely?......................Somewhat terrible………………………to our most important player in the team. To his credit he has worked on all aspects of his game and is getting better and better. Of course he leaves A Reserve to continue in A Grade only. A Grand Final victory and fantastic finals series a sweet memory to take with him. Be reassured we will continue to help him stay grounded and focused in his continuing journey to stardom. Thanks Dylan, congratulations. The game began well for Murch. Our structures and game style were employed and we earned multiple quality chances to score. Did not happen though. It would be fair to say our tactics and man management were superior to our opposition. Running the team and rolling the subs was Peter Redway. He was unable to play after previously injuring a finger nail while snowboarding at Aspen. He did a brilliant job through the finals and was a vital component of victory. Eventually an opportunity arose just before half time to score. A quickly taken free on the 5 metre line from Dave Golding to Dylan Bean saw him bulldoze a classic grand Final goal. Fierce desire to score the major element on show. Half time was appreciated so we could rest. Kevin Ozzie Osborn has a thirst for work. One of our older players, but possessing a great engine, we put him into his usual role of left inner with his usual instruction. Work your but off. Stay with all the opposition young blokes and stop them. all day please. The perennial late to arrive Mark (bull in a china shop) Weston was late as usual but he is irrepressible. He always adds plenty of energy and grunt. He carried injured ligaments in his ankle into the game without making a fuss and gave his all as usual. Tommy Morgan has been a revelation around the club this year and as one of the founding originals would have enjoyed the victory. Take a moment to consider Graeme Fitzgerald’s day. He played in our winning game. Started coaching the Women’s A before the end of our game, coached them to victory. No celebration though. He umpired the Men’s A grade final straight after. Then he went to work later in the night. That is pretty amazing really! Steve Cramer umpired the game with him. It would be fair to say Steve has a lot of pride. He started on the interchange in Prelim and Grandy. That is something he is not accustomed to. To his credit when he was rotated on he performed and lifted the team performance as was required. Another player who has come through the ranks quickly is Travis Fahl. He owned half back for us all season, started playing through inner at times and was almost a “senior” player in the team make-up. Not bad for an U17 player. Ashley Purcher has been a great addition and it was great exposure for him. Should be good fun for him when he plays for us again next year. (Leaving is not an option) Some way through the second half we were forced to start hanging on. Perhaps a better description would be we became more defensively orientated. Our communication went into overdrive though. This was critical to maintain our composure and to organize our tiring players effectively. As was expected in our pre-game thoughts, the input from Tin Tin Hargreaves was going to play a significant role in our chances of winning. We asked him to give us run and to work hard for the team all day. He unselfishly delivered that for us all game. Boy did we need it. Perhaps it was during this period that Travis Glass really became important. He was giving some extra drive and added some surety to our team when some of us were fading. As the game got to the later stages Australs gained a series of Penalty Corners and would feel they blew their chances to break even. No doubt by drawing they would have lifted and felt confident of over-running us. Players from our bench were rotated into the game throughout. We were fortunate to be able to manage them and gain the maximum benefit from them as needed. Goal Keeper John Regan completed a really solid Finals series with a clean sheet. He had steeled himself to perform strongly for the team and must rightly feel he performed his role. The well worn combination of fullbacks Murray Woodhead and Steve Fraser were clearly feeling well worn at the end of the game. They were consistent, played well and along with the rest of the defence absorbed a lot of pressure during the last 15 minutes of the game. Well to finish off, one goal just before half time was the only score. Our players played as a team. Everybody gave the best they had on the day. Our focus and efforts remained on the team needs. In the end that made the difference. That’s deeply pleasing.
Posted on: Sun, 22 Sep 2013 07:51:40 +0000
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