The battle of the old foes continued as Eltham ventured to Para Rd, The Roarcon Stadium, for the last home game in 2008 for Montmorency. There was only winning the Ken Hines Shield and pride on the line as ladder positions couldn’t change in what was effectively a “dead rubber”. Never the less Eltham came to play as beating Mont would be as good to them as winning a final.
The day didn’t start well for Mont with the 19’s going down to a very powerful Eltham unit. In a game where we scored only one goal you can only hope that the boys learn from this hardship to make them stronger for 2009.
The reserves turned the tables and absolutely smashed Eltham. In a one sided affair Mont won by 80 points against a disappointing Eltham effort. It’s very hard to have one best on ground player in such a dominant display of football so let’s just say the whole team was best on ground. Good to see the return of Mr Monty back into the team after a few weeks with the trainers, I’m sure they can’t wait for your next injury.
The Senior game according to the weatherman was going to start and finish in rainy conditions. Instead we had a sunny, (but windy), day that was almost perfect for watching football for this time of year. It was still cold and the smallish crowd that ventured out saw a tight game till half time that had the teams separated by only 2 goals.
After the half time break the Eltham coach was predicting the outcome as he walked past the Eltham supporters that had made their way to Mont. “We’ve got them” he claimed loudly, much to the approval of the Panther faithful. Unfortunately there was no clarification as to what “We’ve got them” meant. As it turns out it meant “We’ve got them ready to spank us”.
Eltham had promised much this season and yet again, have delivered nothing, and today was going to be no exception. Mont systematically tore Eltham apart. Even with some of the more questionable umpiring decisions of the year going the way of the Panthers, still they could not capitalise and win the game. Just to make a contest for Mont before the finals would have been better than the second half fade out they had.
Brett Hayes was unstoppable up forward, while Justin Banbury again proved his selection in the senior squad is no fluke. Around the ground the Daniels’ had a dominant game. King, Sage, Santoro & Keenan all put Eltham to the sword while Santoro was the victim of a behind the play snipe that the ‘Skipper” would not have been proud of. The Mont back line again proved a strong unit with Josh Slattery, Ben Finnan and Andy Owen all coming into form after all returning from injury in the past few weeks.
With the return from Beijing of Swindon and Stanley, soon Mont will be at full strength to take on the Heidelberg in the second semi. First we have to play North Heidelberg at the Kennel for the last home and away game of 2008. Neither team can move up or down on the ladder, and neither team can afford to have injuries or reports with the finals beginning the week after. Expect a tough game and a great hit out before the finals which both teams will relish.
Last Modified on 11/08/2008 20:27