By RUSSELL BENNETT
DESPITE losing by an extra 52 points on Saturday, Hampton Park was far more competitive at Robert Booth Reserve against Doveton than the Melbourne Football Club was against Essendon at the MCG.
Still, the Redbacks’ season opening result against the Doves was just the latest chapter in a disturbingly long tale of sorrow. They lost by 200 points – 36.18 (234) to 4.10 (34) – Hampton Park’s sixth such defeat since the start of last season.
The Redbacks still had stretches of competitiveness throughout the game.
Admittedly, the final score wasn’t a good look for the Casey Cardinia league: one side, a league struggler, destroyed by an opponent with a fight on its hands to make it into this year’s finals series. Narre Warren beat the Redbacks by a whopping 316 points in Round 12 last season. At this rate, the 2012 premiers could be primed for a repeat when the two sides next face off in Round 6 this year.
But the Redbacks, in favourite son Chris Hussey’s 300th match for the club, started well against the Doves in the baking sunshine on Saturday. The side, which has been decimated by a player exodus over recent seasons, had its share of contested possession in the first quarter and almost drew level in the stoppage count.
It wasn’t the hard ball that brought the side undone. It was the uncontested ball and Doveton’s spread through the middle of the ground – the shear ease in which they transferred play, seemingly effortlessly, from half-back to half-forward time and time again. Simply, Doveton is the far better side and it showed. The Stocco boys – Matt, and Shannon, back at the Doves this season after a stint with Nar Nar Goon in the Ellinbank league, proved a class above throughout the clash. They constantly broke lines, using their core strength and precision ball-use to cut a swath through a Redback midfield that was literally powerless to stop them. Shannon finished with six goals, while Matt booted three majors.
The headaches didn’t stop there for Hampton Park coach John Holden though. Doveton’s talls also did as they pleased, with only a nasty hamstring injury to boom recruit – former Hawthorn and Western Bulldogs tall – Jarrad Boumann (three goals) preventing him from having an absolute field day. Frank D’Agostino, Sean Kelleher, Milan Mandic, and another ex-Gooner Daniel Zajac each imposed their will on the contest whenever they saw fit.
Doveton led by 42 points at quarter time but, in the stats column, the midfield battle wasn’t anywhere near as one sided.
“They’re just winning the loose ball and running with it,” Holden said at the first change.
“We need to persist with our tackle – Lional (Benoit) has two early ones.
“I know it’s hot and you’re spent but you just need to suck it in!
“Everyone needs to be accountable.”
But unfortunately for the Redbacks, their intensity steadily dropped away over the remaining three quarters as the heat died down despite the rising mercury.
By the three-quarter-time huddles, the standing of the two sides had become clear. Doveton had rocketed ahead by 131 points while Hampton Park was struggling to tread water.
While the Redbacks were clearly shell-shocked, new Doves player-coach Shannon Henwood (five goals in a near-best on ground performance) urged his players to kick “at least another eight goals” in the final term.
“We need to keep accountable – man-on-man,” he said.
“I’m going to have the guys on the bench write down who’s not being accountable and they’ll be doing some running on Tuesday.”
The Doves booted another 12 goals in the final term to finish with 36 and make a real statement. They’re nobody’s push-over this season. If only the same could be said for the Redbacks.
