“The boys are back in Town”
Norwood’s stuttering 2016 campaign finally took a strong turn for the good on Saturday with an excellent, hard-fought 36 point win over fellow finals contenders Blackburn at Mullum Reserve. This was definitely a turning point game in the season, with a loss likely to consign us to a low-end finish on the ladder, while a win would catapult us right into the mix for finals. The game began well, we kicked the first 2 goals via Stewart and “Hawk”(Hudson), but Blackburn responded with the next 2 to even it up. Alex Calder stood under a high ball for a courageous mark and was rewarded with a goal, then Leroy marked strongly and dished to Hawk for his 2nd to open up a handy 2 goal lead. Right on the siren Blackburn marked and let fly with a torpedo which sailed through to the annoyance of all Norwood fans, undoing our good work. At QT we led 4.1 - 3.3.
The 2nd quarter was far from our finest as Blackburn controlled play. We scored just 1.1 for the quarter, and to make matters worse lost Weardon and then Harro, possibly to a very serious knee injury. Down rotations, this was going to be difficult With Blackburn opening up an 8 point lead close to the HT siren, a free to Ambrose and a welcome goal brought us back close enough by the long break - 5.2 - 5.5.
Straight after the big break we got what we needed to give us some confidence, with Jordan Cepppi winning the ball from the middle and finding Leroy for his first goal to wrest back the lead. Both sides then missed a series of very gettable chances in the next 15 minutes with several points scored. Leroy had two good chances in this period, but missed them both as the stress levels of the Norwood faithful went up a few notches. Blackburn took a big grab and converted, but then Bater won a holding the ball decision and banged a vital goal through from 35m. We had our noses in front again at 3/4T leading 7.5 - 6.8.
Coach Denis Knight was animated during the last change, urging the boys to take the game on, giving clear instructions for all other forwards to push up and leave Leroy one-out deep in attack. The boys responded wonderfully in the last quarter, putting together their best 30 minutes of footy for the year. Matt Jessop started the ball rolling with a clever left foot snap, then great forward pressure - a feature of this quarter, allowed Hawk to snap, but only for a point. Leroy, relishing the amount of ball we had begun to win, came to life with a big grab and goal, the lead suddenly out to 17 points at the 7 minute mark. A couple of minutes later Ace executed a deft tap to Leroy for another, was this the floodgates opening? The boys were cracking in harder than they had all year, they could sense a win Brilliant coast to coast play from the last line saw the ball go from Pearso to Ceppi to hawk, back to Papa to Stewie and ended up with, you guessed it, Leroy, for his 3rd of the quarter as the margin blew out. Soon after Gibbo executed a great spoil as Blackburn tried to exit defensive 50, the ball spilling to Hawk who was happy to hand a “Joe the Goose” to Leroy. Late on Blackburn took a lucky free and kicked a belated goal, their only one for the quarter, but this was Norwood’s and Leroy’s quarter, as, with the curtain descending, Goudly intercepted and passed to Leroy for his 5th major for the quarter and 6th for the game, closing out an exhilarating 36 point win for our boys.
Final Score: Norwood 13.9.87 (Leroy 6,Hawk 2, Bate, Stewart, Calder, Ambrose Jessop 1) def Blackburn 7.951
There was a real sense of “team” about this win, the boys working for each other better and harder than they have all year. Its a great sign leading into the 2nd half as we look to repair the early damage done and even the win/loss ledger. Leroy was outstanding in the last quarter with 5 goals and 6 for the match, but without the effort up the field, he would never have had the chance. Many players stood up and contributed to the mid-field dominance late on, but over the course of the day it was Pearso, Stewie and Gouldy who flew the flag the most. Blake “the lumberjack” Charles’ last quarter was decisive, and Jordan Ceppi’s ball-use is a shining beacon for all his teammates to follow. Blair “Hawk’ Hudson played a really eye-catching game while Hilly was his usual dependable self, if the bar wasn’t set so high for him he’d be BOG just about every week for us.
We have jumped up to 8th with a 4-6 win/loss ratio and head to Sth Croydon for a tough game next week. Its always tough to win EFL games away from home, but we seem to be building some confidence at the moment, right when we need it. When you’ve started 1 and 6, they’re all pretty much “must-win” games and with only 1 game plus percentage separating 6 teams between 5th and 10th, there is plenty to play for. In other games, the development team lost narrowly but were not disgraced against the perenially strong Blackburn Reserves, whilst the Colts had a very meritorious win over the equally high-flying Blackburn Colts.
Go Wooders
Last Modified on 20/06/2016 13:39