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Men’s 1st XI Report OXHC 1st XI – 2 defeated Powerhouse – 1 After last week’s “home” clash at Elgar Park, SL returned to our Koonung home for the visit of Power House. Power House had joined us in being promoted to SL2 and had commenced their campaign with on face value – better results than us. They had managed a win and on the scoreboard been competitive in two of their three losses. We gave a SL debut to Gabriel Tocco but Liam O’Bryan joined Will Richards, Damien Mueller, Andy Denton and Charlton Hemingway (having a full game in the seconds) as guys unavailable for selection. We started brightly and but for some sloppy work in our attacking 25 should have taken a comfortable early lead. Power House’s tactics of flooding back in defence seemed puzzling but proved effective when they took the lead through a well-taken penalty corner. Chances continued to be wasted in our attack before Simon Lumb decided to show the forwards what to do when he tapped home a corner rebound to make it level. At half-time a frustrated coach used a few words more fitting with his Northern Suburban history which came back to haunt him when reminded of them by his young daughters over dinner that night. The message may have got through though as our forwards played a little smarter and were more effective in the second half. Tom Tehan crashed home an impressive backstick strike to give us a deserved lead soon after the break. Power House now finding themselves behind decided to press forward which left gaps at the back. Despite our best efforts we failed to make them pay as we launched attack after attack. In the dying minutes Power House almost stole a point but fortunately some good keeping from Alasdair McDonald-Moss kept us in front. The 2-1 win was a deserved result following some good efforts against quality opposition in recent weeks. While we didn’t play as well as we potentially can, we’ll take our first points in State League 2 and head off to undefeated Melbourne Uni next Saturday. Women’s 1st XI Report OXHC 2nd XI – 14 defeated Frankston - 1 Round 5 had the women’s team excited at the prospect of playing bottom of the ladder Frankston, as we saw it as a bit of an opportunity to get our goal difference up and hopefully take back top spot on the ladder. For those of you unaware, Frankston were 0 and 4 with a goal difference of -41! Frankston were a very young team and their inexperience showed when we scored a goal through Shelly within the first minute. With an extra field player (and no keeper) we continued to put pressure on in the circle and earned short corner after short corner. Unfortunately, with our corner battery unavailable this week, our corners were a bit shambolic but a very reluctant Sim Garner stepped up to the plate and took control from the spot of the hitter. We tried a number of variations, most of them made up on the spot, and our persistence eventually paid off. By half time we were 6-nil up, the ball hadn’t entered our defensive 25 and Jenny Bowtell had finally scored a goal. The half time message (from ourselves) was to keep it simple and score more goals. We went back on the field a player down, Laura had to retire due to illness after the gallant first half she played while looking rather green. We earned our first stroke of the game which Jess put past the keeper and we continued to press the Franga girls. We had a slight lapse of concentration in the second half which actually allowed Frankston to get into the circle. After an initial clearance, they managed to work the ball back in and slotted it past our makeshift goalie. Although it was quite frustrating that we had facilitated their first goal of the season, they were so excited that you couldn’t help being just a little bit happy for them. With hat tricks to Steph, Michelle and Jenny (or are you two still fighting over that last one?), 2 each to the Collins’ sisters, and 1 to Caz for her first goal ever, the final score was 14-1. A great win girls, hopefully Sporting Pulse will get their act together soon and show that we are back to first on the ladder! Men’s 2nd XI Report OXHC 2nd XI Carrot Award – Round 5 This week’s Carrot Award goes to Chris Ingle. Hard to deny his mid air trap that wound back the clock and had onlookers saying “Oooh! He’s still got it”. OXHC 2nd XI – 3 defeated Mornington – 2 The 2nd XI boys welcomed back a pile of talent in the form of Pete Cahill, Andrew Rizio and Big Tom Koojiman to bolster a side that sat on the bottom of the ladder. And some bloke named Hemingway earned his promotion from the 1st XI into the 2nds too. In fact, the 2nds lineup was reminiscent of the OXHC Team of the Century, circa 2005/2006. We started off well, controlling the play and it wasn’t long before Hemingway put one away with a nicely judged back-stick shot. Whilst we controlled the play, our 4th and 5th touches were being cut off in the midfield, which caused the defenders quite a bit of grief. At times our forward line was “heaving” - we should have been up by more at half time, but went into the break only up 1-0. We took control of the 2nd half and Big Tom Koojiman was able to slot an unbelievable goal early on to put the boys up 2-0. A foray up forward from Ingle led to another Hemingway goal and things were looking good for the 2012 Premiers. However the last 20 minutes turned into somewhat of a slog, with lax midfield/defence giving Mornington a sniff. The 2nds held on to win 3-2 against typically tough opposition. The juggernaut rolls on. Men’s 3rd XI Report OXHC 3rd XI – 3 defeated La Trobe University – 0 The 3rds played La Trobe on Sunday and were eager to continue the unbeaten start to the year. It was made easier by the La Trobe turnout of only 9 players. We got off to a measured start with good build up and switching between Lachie, Mike Sweeny and the halves and they managed to create good entries into the 25, however this wasn’t particularly hard as the other side played understandably defensive. We had trouble in converting on our chances and were repeatedly repulsed. Thankfully, due to the opposition’s lack of manpower, our backline was never really stretched too much. The first goal game from a well placed stroke taken by Downey and the second didn’t take too much longer to come from the stick of Scarff off a severe angle. Going into the second half, we were looking to increase our lead in order to make some of the goal difference on Hawthorn. Unfortunately, La Trobe had no intent in sending more than one lone striker much further passed their own 23, which made things extremely congested. The work on our positional play was a little better than prior weeks but started to fall down from the back with about 20 minutes to go. We were lucky not to have La Trobe strip us in our own defence and counter on numerous occasions. The final of our goals came through another cracking strike from Omygodbro! There were good performances all around the pitch, however, we started to fall back into old habits in the dying stages (carrying the ball, getting sucked out of position) which was probably the result of over confidence in number superiority and frustration. Next week we face Camberwell which should be another tough match. Men’s 4th XI Report OXHC 4th XI – 1 drew with Knox – 1 The clouds were threatening on Sunday as the Fourths hosted Knox at Koonung. The team warned up without Pucius, who arrived just in time. He really needs to watch his alcohol intake at bucks parties in the future. After a minute silence for the WA player who tragically died this week, the game began with a high intensity. Knox were well drilled, applying a full team press which put a lot of pressure on our defence. After a couple of great saves by Patto (the ex pres Patto), Knox managed to sneak one in via a tomahawk reminiscent of an Al Hogg special. Towards the end of the first half we started switching it around the back to overcome the press tactics, which began to have an impact. In the second half, silky skills displayed by Will Mueller and Lionel Young got us back into the game and it wasn't long before Hoggy got onto a cracker of a shot to get us level. Sam Ralton earned the second premium slab of the season, and while the umpire was being unreasonable, being a man down while the scores are level is a situation we should try to avoid in future. In the end, the game ended in a draw, but full credit to everyone for being adaptive and resilient against a team who is likely to up in the top half of the tables this season. It was a solid team effort. We now have a week off so see you all in a fortnight |
