Dan O’Hara, left, squares off with a Garryowen opponent. 77189
By Jarrod Potter
LANG LANG took a 34-30 victory over the Garryowen Gaelic Football Club in an exhibition international rules match on Friday.
With a ferocious gale pushing the ball to the Hotel end all night, the going was tough for Lang Lang heading against the wind, barely registering a score in the first and third quarters.
The wheels started turning for Lang Lang in the last quarter, with a goal and an over in the dying minutes to Clint Fulton, helping them snare the win.
Stand-in captain-coach Dan O’Hara said the match was played hard and fast, the way Lang Lang wants to play this season.
“I loved how fast paced it was, as it really suited our style,” O’Hara said. “That’s what we want to try and do with our footy this year.”
“Our blokes are trying to get to that pace in our field of play, but there were less packs and non-stop running so it didn’t suit big blokes like myself.”
Trailing at three-quarter-time, O’Hara demanded the boys play to their strengths and started executing the on-field zones they want to implement this season.
“I said ‘we’ve got to start playing our style of footy’.” O’Hara said.
“We started doing our zones and a bit of a forward structure that we’re trying to do this year and that obviously paid off because that’s when we controlled the game and started to run over them.”
Aaron Creasey, Troy McPherson and Sam Cole, in his first hit out for Lang Lang, featured in the best according to O’Hara.
Garryowen president-player Brendan Porter said despite the bus running late and the club having to borrow a couple of players from Lang Lang that the match was a great success.
“It was a fair effort from both sides and was played in good spirits,” Porter said.
“The bus was a bit late and a few blokes missed out on it, but it was very good of the other guys to chip in with a few guys and they played hard as well for us, so that was good to see.”
Lang Lang faces Cora Lynn in a catch up round on 24 March to kick off the Ellinbank and District Football League (EDFL) season with practice matches against Fish Creek and Phillip Island on the Labour Day weekend and 17 March respectively.
