Above: It was a line ball in this contest between young Beaconsfield defender Daniel Battaglin and ROC’s Sean Stanton on Saturday and the match finished in the same vein with the first draw of the season.By Brad Kingsbury
A SENSATIONAL third round of Casey Cardinia League football was highlighted by a draw between neighbouring rivals Beaconsfield and ROC at the Perc Allison Reserve on Saturday.
After a desperate final term in which both sides took the lead and looked destined for victory, the siren went with the ball in the hands of Eagle David Williams 60 metres out from goal and the scores locked on 78 points apiece.
The distance proved too great for Williams and an eerie silence fell over the ground as players, officials and the large crowd came to terms with the fact that there was no winner or loser.
As would be expected in such a situation, both coaches lamented lost opportunities throughout the afternoon, but again this year football was the winner and the Casey Cardinia League continues to enthral and excite its followers.
The Perc Allison Reserve was slippery after recent rain and the skills of both sides were affected with much of the play being confined to ground level in the first half.
ROC ruckman David Main took on key Eagle big man Chris Kelf in a great battle that lasted the whole game, while Beaconsfield’s talented midfield led by Robbie Taylor, Justin Duffy and Kris Fletcher, fought it out with Kangaroo markers including Dean Blake, Mick Moylan and Clint Williams.
The first half was a goalforgoal affair with the highlight being a magnificent high mark by flying Kangaroo Michael Barker in the opening quarter.
There was one point the difference at quartertime and three points in the game at the main break with both sides having their share of the ball, but squandering opportunities to score.
ROC won the centre clearances in the first half and coach Hayden Stanton was disappointed that his side did not make better use of the advantage.
“We should have been better going forward. Until halftime we led in clearances and the guys who were carrying the ball forward did not make the right choices,” he said.
Despite Beaconsfield getting on top in the clearances, the Kangaroos gained the ascendancy in the third quarter, kicked four goals to two and went into the final change with a 16point lead.
Stanton warned his side that despite their relative inexperience, the Beaconsfield youngsters would come at them in the last quarter, but his message did not hit home and the Eagles did just that and hit the front when Ash Drake booted a goal at the 18minute mark of the term.
Kangaroo leader Mick Moylan replied two minutes later when a snap out of the pack put his side four points up and then Beaconsfield attacked for the rest of the quarter, but could not score a major.
Consecutive behinds from the boots of Drake, Daniel Clarke, Daniel Charles and Duffy saw the scores tied Williams unable to break the deadlock with his afterthesiren shot.
Stanton was disappointed not to win the game after looking to be in control at the final change, but Beaconsfield’s intensity did not surprise him and he repeated the message that his side needed to be at its best every week in this competition.
“If you don’t win the game you have to be disappointed,” he said.
“We’re still a young group and a lot of the players are still learning to deal with the pressure at this level.
“To Beaconsfield’s credit, their young blokes ran hard backwards and caught us on the overlap at times.
“We’re not a side that can afford to have four or five of our better players off their games. We’re workmanlike and we have to keep our heads down or we’ll get beaten. We’ll just take our two points and move on.”
His Beaconsfield counterpart Haydn Robins was happy with his team’s endeavour, but very disappointed that his young charges, 10 of whom have played less than 20 senior games, could not get their first senior win.
“We’re going to wear some pain, but there was 10 young players in the side today and you get the feeling that they just need a win,” he said.
Star Beaconsfield onballer Charles played at centre halfforward in the second half and had a good battle with ROC’s Brad Jones, finishing with four valuable goals.
Robins praised the efforts of youngsters Robert Palazzolo, Dean Van Lambaart and promising defender Daniel Battaglin, but added that the Eagles newly developed game plan would take time to work.
“The positives are we went a way towards turning the corner and the kids showed some character today,” he said.
“We cost ourselves so heavily with skill errors and decision making errors and the worst part of that is it’s fundamental.”
“We’ve had to restructure our game plan around our current personnel and that’s part of the challenge.
“The effort was fine. Even when we got beaten by Keysborough and Doveton, I never thought that we weren’t trying. Dumb football – yes, but our determination has not been questioned.”
