In round three of the Southern Football League, the Christies Beach Saints hosted their first home game for the year with the Reynella Wineflies travelling to Bice Oval. The rain forecasted held off for most of the morning & all colt grades played in relatively dry conditions. Not so for the senior grades as the rain began to fall at the back end of the Under 18s and took hold in the B-Grade.

In the A-Grade, Reynella have had the wood on the Saints for the last few years including some blow outs. Today’s match turned out to be an excellent clash between two sides looking for respect: Reynella after last week’s loss to Morphett Vale & Christies Beach as the club’s mantra for 2012.

Reynella got out of the blocks early, as their grades had done all day, getting the all important clearances. In the wet, maintaining control of the ball was difficult and marks were made much harder. The Saints worked their way back in and managed to keep the scores tight by the end of the quarter, Wineflies holding a narrow lead of eight points.

The second half started much the same as the first quarter had ended: a real arm wrestle. Winning stoppages and the hard ball gets was all important and as Christies gathered momentum here, the tide turned. Benn Crate was tackled hard mid way through the quarter and had to leave the game with suspected cracked ribs. This spurred on the rest of the team to rally and the scoreboard pressure on Reynella began to mount. At the end of the half, the Saints were up by thirteen points having piled on four goals to one.

Conditions out on the oval didn’t improve after half time with the rain constantly coming down. After third quarter fade outs in their first two games, Christies was keen to not let this happen again. This time they didn’t with the wet football and surface helping to keep the game close and tough. Both sides had to use the handball to great effect to get into any kind of open space and to get the ball forward. Having looked like they may get away from Reynella after their second quarter performance, the Wineflies managed to outscore the Saints two goals to one. Christies Beach went in to the final change with their lead narrowed to five points.

Scoring shots were hard to come by in the fourth quarter, with very little time given to players when receiving the ball and skills begin to suffer as the hard work in the wet took its toll. Reynella managed to grab a rare goal to give them the lead, but the Saints would not die. Out to earn respect of the football community, Christies kept working hard and managed to get the ball into their forward half. Reynella’s defence worked hard to keep the Saints from scoring a goal, but couldn’t stop them from scoring points to draw the game level. Reynella also had their time in their own forward line but could not get any score due to the Saints dour defence.

Within its dying seconds Christies went forward in to its fifty-zone and the ball was ably marked by Brad Gosling. The siren went and with the scores all tied up even a point would have given the Saints a hard fought victory. It was not to be a fairytale victory however as the kick moved from left to right and pushed further away from the goals by the wind. The out-on-the-full shot sealing this game as an amazing draw and potentially game of the round. The Saints had plenty of opportunities to kick the winning goal prior to Brad’s shot and it was good to see all the Christies players get around him showing the re-newed spirit within the club.

The midfield worked hard all day once again led by Andy Crate and Ryan Richter. Ben Searle assisted these guys in carrying the work load after Benn Crate left the game. Both Justin Baker & Nick Kerkemeyer had a good day in the ruck winning more than his fair share of contests. The forwards had a tough day with supply being rare and not ideal. Bret Andruszkiewicz (BOG) and Pat Jolly were driving forces in defence helping to repel many Reynella forward thrusts. Shaun Tanner played well all over the ground & in an under the packs.

Captain Ryan Richter’s response to the game was:

“I was proud of our players today, it’s a young squad and we are still learning.”

Christies Beach will move in to round four still on top of the SFL A-grade ladder and undefeated on 5 points and will take on Cove next week.

A-Grade Scoreboard:

Saints Goal kickers:

• ·         James Dunn                1
• ·         Hayden Mackin          1
• ·         Josh Haynes               1
• ·         Andy Crate                1
• ·         Brad Gosling              1
• ·         Shaun Tanner             1

Wineflies Goal Kickers:

• ·         Callan Semple             2
• ·         Jack Guy                     1
• ·         Jack Carter                  1
• ·         Paul Munce                 1
• ·         Scott Would                1

To the other grades now and Christies Beach quite simply had a dismal day out. None of the other grades came within a bull’s roar of Reynella. All grades will have a lot of work to do on the training track to get ready for next Saturday.

B-Grade:         Reynella 11.7 (73) d Christies Beach 2.2 (14)

Under 18:        Reynella 13.14 (92) d Christies Beach 5.4 (34)

Under 16:        Reynella 18.17 (125) d Christies Beach 2.0 (12)

Under 14:        Reynella 12.11 (83) d Christies Beach 2.0 (12)

CBFC...On The Move