By Brad Kingsbury
NARRE Warren came and tried, but was mercilessly pushed aside by the ‘big boys’ of the 2009 Casey Cardinia League at the Robinson Reserve on Saturday.
Doveton’s 44-point victory signalled the start of an eight-week campaign to win this year’s premiership pennant and it’s now a matter of deciding who will challenge the undefeated top dogs of this terrific competition.
The Magpies were being widely tipped to be the ones, but the way they were physically and mentally intimidated by Doveton has cast doubts on the legitimacy of that thought.
Narre Warren is very much a young side and powerful-bodied opponents like Russell Gabriel, Danny Casset, Ricky Hayes, Justin Hill and Daniel Charles found them wanting as the weekend’s game went on.
There is no suggestion that anyone squibbed the issue, it was just that the Doves’ more mature and football-conditioned bodies proved overwhelming in a game that never reached great heights as a spectacle, largely due to a fluky breeze favouring the highway end of the ground.
Doveton started well against the wind and applied the pressure with star ruckman Russell Gabriel giving midfielders Daniel Charles, Aaron and Shannon Henwood first use of the ball.
Narre Warren scored two goals late in the term and took some momentum into the second quarter, despite trailing by a goal at the first change.
When the Magpies booted two quick goals at the start of the second term before the Doves settled, it was game-on for the big crowd, but there was no panic in the home-town camp.
A strong 15-minute push up to half-time saw Doveton pile on four goals against the wind.
It led by 17 points at half-time, with the young Magpies suddenly looking vulnerable.
While Gabriel and Hendy were outstanding, the most pleasing thing for assistant coach Clint Wilson was the ability of his side to apply the screws when it was needed.
“We knew that the third quarter was the big one and that’s what we discussed at half-time,” he said.
“If we ran hard and stuck to our systems we knew that we could set up a good win and that’s what we did.”
Magpie playmaker Daniel Borninkhof was tagged after the main break, while pressure was applied to less experienced Magpies Nathan Brewster, Justin Marriott, Joel Broadhurst and Aaron Mills, maintaining intensity at each contest that took its toll on the visitors.
A late flurry of goals saw the Doves’ three-quarter-time margin reduced to eight points, but the writing was on the wall with Narre Warren players looking spent as they joined their final huddle of the afternoon.
Wilson and the Doves coaching hierarchy sent captain Justin Hill into attack in the final term to cover the loss of injured young forward Adam Dean, who was carried from the field with a dislocated kneecap.
He combined with veteran spearhead Danny Casset to produce four of six last-quarter goals that saw Doveton remain the only undefeated side of the competition.
Hill finished the day with four goals, while defenders Ricky Hayes, Peter Greenstreet and Brad Downe were typically solid all day, while Ryan Hendy produced his best game for many weeks in the midfield.
Wilson singled out Hendy for special mention after the game, but acknowledged that it was an even team effort overall that won the game.
“I thought Ryan turned the game when he went into the middle, but the pleasing part is that everyone continues to contribute and that’s something that we’ve done all year,” he said.
“I can’t pick a bad point about the backline and that has also been a major strength.
“Narre Warren have got some good kids and they’re a good side and we said all week that they could be our biggest danger.
“We wanted to pressure them and we knew our bigger bodies would come to the fore. They got tired of hitting the contest in the end and we thought that, if we kept the pressure up, that’s what would happen.”
Narre Warren full-back Colin McNamara kept Casset to three goals to be named among his side’s best along with Marriott and experienced pair Glenn Hamilton and Steven Kidd, but coach Matt Shinners was bitterly disappointed at the overall physical inadequacy of his side on the day.
“They dropped a few numbers back and we just kept kicking the ball to Gabriel. I don’t know how many times we kicked the ball to him but it was a lot,” he lamented.
“Maybe we were intimidated today? One of the things that we’ve prided ourselves on is our body pressure, but they tackled us to hurt and we just didn’t. That was really disappointing. They broke a lot of our tackles far too easily.”
“Maybe I have expected too much of the group as to where they are at. We turned the ball over under pressure and Doveton is good at taking advantage of that.”
Shinners added that there was significant work to do to reach the level that Doveton had set as the standard this year.
In a further blow for the Magpies, clever forward Cole Harvey dislocated his shoulder in the second quarter and could miss up to six weeks.
