Official Match Report
Match Report – vs Port Colts 11 May 2014
The Vampires headed to Murphy Reserve Port Melbourne on a sunny Mother’s Day to face a tall looking Port Colts outfit. The Vampires were told early on that they would be playing on the senior sized Aanenson Oval. Given the dimensions of the ground and the new zoning rules, the coaches reminded the players that maintaining position was going to be important with plenty of vacant space to fill-in between zones.
The first quarter was a tight tussle with neither team finding easy possession or opportunities to score. Billy Furphy was a commanding force at centre half back getting plenty of the footy and dashing whenever he had the opportunity. Billy was ably assisted by Ollie who showed plenty of dash off the half back flank. Ben, Korben and Taylor combined very well in the final line of defence with Ben’s desperate spoil sufficient to ensure that Port registered only a solitary point for the quarter. In the middle Lily was relishing the open spaces taking a couple of nice marks. Hughie continued on from his fine game last week, taking a nice grab in the middle and getting the ball into our forward. Sam Litis was getting some early touches, feeding off Jackson’s excellent ruck work. Our forward line of Tom, Billy Maguire, Nick, Sam Fry, Luke and Hamish found it difficult to get their hands on the footy in the first and a miserly Port defence wasn’t allowing them any decent scoring opportunities, keeping the Vampires scoreless.
The second quarter proved that the sun drenched southern end of the ground was the scoring end. Our midfield, who had been rested in the first quarter, came out fired-up in the second. Ty’s uncompromising ruck work saw Sam Heron rack up a number of possessions in the term. Jack Trevena, playing as a rover, applied plenty of tackling pressure to the Port midfielders resulting in a couple of turnovers. Taylor, Sam Fry and Hamish all played their part in the middle. Korben, playing his first game for a couple of weeks cut through the Port midfield with a scintillating run, making full use of his allotted one bounce and maximum distance to kick the ball long into our forward line. Our forwards capitalised on our midfield dominance with Billy Furphy kicking two goals for the quarter. Ben Archibald’s constant pressure and desire to win the footy was rewarded with a fine goal. However, the Vampires didn’t have it all their own way though with Port managing to snag one against the run of play.
After wresting back the lead the coaches praised the efforts of the kids in the first half but reminded them that game was still far from over and that the sheer size of the ground was going to test their endurance. As expected, Port hit back hard in the third quarter. Their deadly accurate forwards kicking 4 straight goals at the Plummer Street end. This was despite the fine efforts of Sam Heron, Jackson, Lily and Sam Litis who all had a number of effective possessions in our defensive half during the term. Billy Maguire’s desperate goal-line mark was only thing stopping Port piling on another major in the quarter. Luke tried hard in the ruck and managed to get some good hit-outs to the advantage of Hughie, Korben, Hamish and Taylor. Our only foray into the forward zone for the quarter saw Jack Fisher, Tom and Nick apply great pressure to the Port defenders. Billy Furphy seized his opportunity to score, drilling a beautiful drop punt on the run from 20 metres to register our only goal of the quarter. The stage was set for a thrilling final quarter.
Ollie started the last quarter well, getting some good hit outs to the advantage of our midfield which consisted of Hughie, Billy Furphy, Sam Litis, Jack Fisher and Taylor. Jack Fisher was busy on the wing tackling hard and getting a couple of handy possessions. Such was our midfield dominance Port only managed one forward entry for the quarter which was ably repelled by Jackson, Sam Heron, Billy Maguire and Ty. Time and time again our midfield pumped the ball into our forward zone where Eddie, Tom, Korben and Fabian and Nick all desperately tried to obtain clean possession of the ball. Luke was unlucky not to register a major with his first shot narrowly missing the goal. Our valiant forwards were consistently met by a wall of Port jumpers during the term, and were denied several scoring opportunities. Despite running all over Port in the last quarter their defence stood tall and restricted the Vampires to a solitary behind for the term. Ultimately the Vampires fell just short of a deserved win by six points, a scoreline which in my view didn’t properly reflect the sustained efforts of the kids.
Port Colts 5.2.32 def East Brighton 4.3.27
Awards
Pancake Voucher – Ben Archibald
Chicken Voucher – Jack Fisher
Footy – Billy Furphy