A disappointing day out at Warrior Park for Old Westbourne as the seniors, reserves and under 19s all went down convincingly.
The seniors faced up against a the 3rd placed St John’s team who came off a convincing win against St Mary’s last week. The Warriors had a few new inclusions with Jarryd Newall, Travis Brooker, Steven Laird, Glenn Night and Under 19 Nathan Wallace all picked in the team on Thursday night – as well as Aldi Veliu being promoted to the ones after a half in the twos.
After a close first quarter, St Johns took full advantage of the typical Westbourne gale to lead at half time by 7 goals.The third quarter wasn’t much better for the Warriors as St Johns piled on 8 goals to 3 to lead by 72 points going into the final break. The last quarter was a similar story again with Westbourne only managing 2 goals to 7. Paul Hudson was a stand out again for Westbourne taking out the votes while putting 4 goals away.
On a side note, Westbourne had a special welcome for two of the umpires today. Paul “CK” Chalmers, a former Seniors B&F winner, had field umpire duties while VAFA A-Grade goal umpire Charlie Lear (husband of Secretary Val Lear) helped out today with the flags. Thanks guys.
OW: 0.5 2.8 5.11 7.13.55
SJ: 2.1 9.7 17.11 24.15.159
In the earlier match, the Ressies showed glimpses of good footy but inconsistent play and lapses in judgement and concentration meant that St John had control of the game from the first bounce. Strong 2nd and last quarters meant the warriors were never out of the game but the ball spent too much time in the back half in the 1st and 3rd quarters resulting in St John’s continuously putting on scoreboard pressure.
Good defensive ball skills restricted St Johns (as well as some inaccurate St John’s kicking) which kept the score respectable as the ressies went down by 35 points. Playing coach Simon Christo put through another 3 to add to his 4 from last week, while John Ferguson was the best for the green, gold and blue.
OW: 0.1 3.2 3.3 8.3.51
SJ: 4.6 5.12 10.15 11.20.86
The under 19s were boosted by some of the under 16s players coming up this week as they ran out against Whitefriars OC in a battle of 6th vs 7th. However the Warriors found themselves under manned against a well prepared Whitefriars.
It was a tough day for the boys, and while the players from the 16s worked hard all day it wasn’t meant to be as they went down by 170 points
Next week is the Queen’s Birthday weekend which means all teams have a week off the regroup.
By Mark Aquilina
