Hampton Park veteran Mick O’Brien was best afield playing out of defence in Saturday’s massive win over Berwick.By Brad Kingsbury
HAMPTON PARK whacked a battered and broken Berwick combination on Saturday, running away to record a 126point thrashing and replacing ROC in fifth position.
It was not the victory, but they way it was achieved on the wide expanses of the Edwin Flack Reserve that had patrons sitting up and taking notice of the underrated Redback team.
With bullocking forward Kerem Baskaya booting 12 goals, the Redbacks were at their unrelenting best, sparking comparisons to the style that saw the club win backtoback premierships under coach of the halfcentury Mick Hill in 1997 and 1998.
There are many rivals around who still remember the ruthlessness of those Hampton Park sides and Saturday’s effort under Jason Chapple’s guidance brought the nightmares back.
Berwick, which was hit with injury and illness, was powerless to stop the onslaught and submitted to four quarters of the sustained physical pressure led by one of the best exhibitions of tackling displayed in the league this year.
The Redbacks kicked with a strong wind in the first term and from the first bounce, it was obvious that the Berwick players were in for a hard day at the office.
Every possession was hardearned by both sides, but Hampton Park’s forward setup of Baskaya at centre halfforward and Matt Shorey at fullforward looked menacing.
Baskaya’s confidence soared after he booted three early goals.
Hampton Park’s midfield led by Chapple and Shane O’Brien was dominant and standin ruckman Scott Eastwood won the bigman contests.
The Redbacks slammed on nine goals to two in the first quarter and then outscored the Wickers by a goal in the second term to lead by a matchwinning 53 points at halftime.
The writing was on the wall, but Chapple asked his team to show no mercy and they heeded the advice with Michael O’Brien, Daniel Stevenson, Mitchell Whatman and Dean Jamieson leading a relentless drive to victory.
Baskaya had 28 touches, kicked 12 goals and dominated the air in attack, while Berwick fullforward George Gorozidis was on one leg after knee surgery, but still managed three of the Wickers’ eight goals. Fellow Berwick forward Ryan Donaldson withdrew from the side with soreness.
Chapple said the Berwick game had been circled as a mustwin contest for some time and his side’s fate for 2005 was in its own hands.
“We had an early (Saturday) morning meeting and discussed what it meant to every player,” he said. “It was always a target game, but to keep Berwick to only eight goals was very satisfying.”
“I was really happy with our commitment and our tackling. We were first in all day. They came out and had a crack and we bashed them up and it was great to be a part of,” he said.
Chapple did not play the ‘oneweekatatime’ game common to many coaches when asked if he and his team had looked ahead with finals in mind and said a topfive finish was now on the agenda.
“Look we’ve talked about it of course we have,” he admitted. “That’s what you play football for in the end. Every game for us is a final and we all know it. We’ve got four more weeks of this and a place in the finals is the prize.”
Berwick lost fullback Jason Kelly with a shoulder injury, while Hampton Park also suffered a blow with Matt Bell injuring his foot during the game.
