Women's DP2 - Saturday April 20, 2002
Vs Commercial
Score: 2-1
An interesting match and one with two distinct flavours to each half. In the first period we were dominant and achieved our goal of having a halftime lead, a task that had eluded us in previous weeks after looking dangerous early. Inept marking by their left half and fullbacks enabled Becca to utilise acres of space at right wing. Our corner options worked well (their runners being quite slow), and it was pleasing to see set plays at the top of the circle attempted. Courtesy of goals from Tonya and Kate (what the hell's your last name?!), we took a comfortable 2-0 lead into the interval. We expected to run away with the match against a Commercial team consisting of older players, who we assumed would suffer from fatigue.
But when you assume you often make an ass of u and me (as uttered by one S.Dale). Also an aging (a little less of this 'aging' stuff please (ed)) hockey player usually equates to a skilled and experienced hockey player and we were guilty of not respecting the abilities of our opponents. The Commercial players were rarely beaten in one-on-one contests and even less frequently missed traps, especially defending our 16s. When we did beat players with skill Tonya and Jodie were the doing well and struck up good combinations. As the gaps we enjoyed in the first half disappeared, we had much difficulty in advancing upfield from our 16 yard hits. Our forwards were not coming back to help enough, and when they did run upfield in possession we sometimes hit the ball long. Commercial however, showed their experience by respecting the ball, making inroads via their centre forward and centre half in particular. A request to work the ball upfield with short passes and earning penalties was ignored as we panicked and continued to try to bash the ball through.
As with our match against Kedron-Wavell, constant turnovers of possession from our 16 yard hits kept the opposition in the game. In the end we were quite lucky to win given the amount of possession we turned over. Only desperate defense in the circle and a stellar performance by our new goalkeeper Bridgit saved us from a disappointing result. Fullback Bronwyn had a great game and was rarely beaten, whilst Nadine kept a cool head and organised well at halfback. Also, kudos to our players, particularly Kate and Danielle, for keeping level heads despite being the targets of some illegal play. One can not understand, however, how the Commercial player who whacked Danielle so blatantly was not sent off. I guess I, like our players, will have to learn to play the whistle (or often lack thereof).
Goals: Tonya Collins
Kate Lias
Lee Oliver
copyright 2002 Lee Oliver