By Brad Kingsbury
BEACONSFIELD held on to defeat ROC by three points after treating the big crowd at Starling Road to a top-class game of tough and uncompromising football on Saturday.
Less than a kick separated the neighbouring rivals at the final siren, and all players together with most spectators were completely spent as the post-mortems began over a few cool drinks in the Kangaroos social rooms.
The match always had a little extra spice attached to it after the defection of senior Eagles Kym Jones and Ash Comer who followed new coach and midfielder Kris Fletcher to Starling Road in the off season.
Both coaches acknowledged that after the game, saying that the build-up had been a little more intense than usual during the week.
The game started at break-neck speed with both sides keen to gain an early advantage.
After some great attacking moves producing four goals to both teams in the first 15 minutes, Beaconsfield star Andrew Williams put his stamp on the contest to score three goals and see his side out to a 22-point lead at quarter time.
The challenge was thrown down to ROC and the home side responded in the second quarter by reducing the margin to 13 points at the main break – courtesy of two sensational goals to former Tiger Greg Tivendale.
However the second quarter proved costly for ROC with key players Callum White, Jye Healey and Brendan Graham all going down with injuries that kept them off the ground for most of the game.
On the positive side, Fletcher swung Andrew Logan onto Williams and the pair settled down to have a ding-dong battle for the rest of the day.
The third term became an arm wrestle with first ROC and then Beaconsfield gaining control of play around the tight Starling Road ground, and kicking important goals.
The difference at the final change was nine points and there was an air of expectancy among supporters of both clubs.
That proved justified as the two groups of players rose for one more crack at the prize in a desperate 25 minutes of football.
Both sides had their chances to win it and with the scores level at 102 points apiece with seven minutes left on the clock, the momentum looked to be with ROC.
The Kangaroos hit the lead soon after when dynamic teenager Steve Hawkins scrambled a behind, but Eagle full-forward Luke McConnell levelled the scores with a poster a minute later.
Beaconsfield then had several chances to seal the game in the final three minutes, but could only manage three behinds, however that proved enough for the visitors to cling to a thrilling, season-defining win.
Beaconsfield defender Nick Smith celebrated his 21st birthday with a best-on-ground effort, while Kane Airdrie, Josh Dodsworth and coach Robbie Taylor were among the Eagle ball magnets.
David White was the only real casualty of the day for the visitors after he was crunched and knocked out just after half-time.
Taylor was relieved afterwards and said that he was not surprised by the vastly improved Kangaroos’ effort.
“It was always going to be a hard contest and coming out here to ROC has never been easy,” he said.
“We knew it would be a tough and physical contest after ‘Fletch’ and a few of the Beacy boys went across (to ROC) last year, but there was nothing untoward and it was just a tough game of footy.
“We knew we had to be focussed and disciplined to win and we did that.
“It was probably our younger players that stood up and led the way in the end and that made it a more pleasing effort because we can’t always rely on a handful of senior players to win games every week.”
Shaun Jones was outstanding all day for the Kangaroos, while Greg Tivendale (five goals), Logan and big-hearted ruckman Paul Phillips also had tremendous games.
Fletcher was stunned at getting so close and then falling short, but refused to knock any of his players, saying that their effort was among the Kangaroos’ best for 2009.
“I’m not in to honourable losses, but with what we had after half-time, I couldn’t knock the boys,” he said.
“We had no interchange and we didn’t drop our bundle and we didn’t drop our heads, so that was really pleasing.
“I was proud of the effort. It was a high-pressure game and well done to Beaconsfield for hanging on and winning.”
There were some terrific players throughout the day on both sides, but most of the excitement at ROC surrounded the development of its younger brigade and Fletcher acknowledged that afterwards.
“I was so happy with how our young players like Reddaway, Hawkins and Van Den Acker take the game on. It’s all about development this year and the scoreboard and results will take care of themselves if we continue to progress,” he said.
“I believe that we’re improving, but we’ve still got a long way to go just the same.”
Beaconsfield retained the Shanikas Cup that was presented to captain Daniel Mislicki after the game.
