JONTY: Alright boys, another big weekend in the local sporting scene. I know in my competition, the best are starting to separate themselves from the rest. I’ll start with you Marcus, your best action from the weekend.
MARCUS: I’m choosing two pieces of action, one good, one controversial. The first was my man Pat Bruzzese at Wandin, a silky smooth midfielder. One bit of play on Saturday stood out: he was running away from goal, picked up a ground ball, did a blind turn on a defender chasing him, fakes a handball, to shake Bailey Stiles, comes back the other way, hits a inside 45 dart to Cody Hirst on the wing, and as he kicked it, he had James Harrison falling across his leg providing pressure. I visibly gasped when he did it and I’ve watched the footage back a few times. It was an unbelievable piece of skill. The second one came at three quarter time. Connor Smith is a Wandin player who has played VFL this year, he’s having a shot after the siren and kicks more turf than he does ball. Standing the mark was David Sollberger, who’s an 18-year-old kid who has come up from the under-17s and gone well this year. He was giving it to Smith, absolutely getting stuck into him for how bad the kick was. It resulted in a melee at three-quarter-time but I loved the fact an 18-year-old was giving it to a VFL player.
DAVE: I took the long drive down to Inverloch, there were dual reasons for the trip because my wife’s favourite clothes shop is in Inverloch. She came with me, we went to the Inverloch pub for lunch, then she went shopping and I went to the footy. The great thing is that the pub is about 50 metres from the shop and the footy ground isn’t much further. The best piece of action came from Will Hams, a former Essendon player who grabbed the ball at halfback and kicked a long barrel on his left foot down to the forward line where a 6’6 ruckman, Clint McCaughan, picked up the ball, swivelled onto his left and kicked a snap from 40 out….it was outstanding. And I could NOT talk about best moments this weekend without talking about the women’s semi finals. Healesville was undefeated all year and got defeated by Olinda Ferny Creek. Footy history is littered with teams going undefeated and losing a final but it was weird to see it happen. And our girls at Pakenham had a win over Upwey Tecoma, first time we’ve beaten them. We’ve now got a situation where third and fourth is playing off in the grand final so an outstanding day for women’s football.
JONTY: Having seen those two play each other three times this season, what are you expecting that game to look like?
DAVE: Pakenham won the first two and then Olinda Ferny Creek won round 13 by 27 points but Pakenham had four of their most important players out so it is very hard to predict who is going to win.
JONTY: Well summed up. I saw Cranny make a big statement against Port Melbourne Colts who are around the mark to make the top five but couldn’t defend the space. Cranbourne’s system really won out against them. There was one moment in particular in the second quarter which summed up how the game went. Anthony Fischer, coming out of defence had all the space in the world, kicked it up the middle, it went over Zak Roscoe’s head. He had heaps of time to gather it, clean ground-ball to Marc Holt in a one-on-one. Holt got it to ground at the Marc Holt End and Cal Pola was able to finish the goal. It was symbolic of the way that Cranbourne moved it up the field effortlessly. It was clinical and they’re rediscovering form at the right time.
SEPTEMBER PLAYERS FROM NON FINALISTS
JONTY: Next topic, if you could take a player or two from a non-finals team, and put them into a finals team, who would they be and why, and what team would you put them into – Dave?
DAVE: IN West Gippsland, there are six finalists, six non-finalists, so I am going to give you a player from each of the teams that will miss. The first player that any team from finals would want in their team is Taylor Gibson, a big 6’5 centre-half-forward. He’s a Kilcunda Bass player who has kicked multiple bags this year but just doesn’t get the supply. Chase Saunders from Bunyip is their captain. He’s kicked 22 goals for the year in a team that hasn’t won a game. Curtis Murfett from Dalyston. A real classy midfielder, hard-working. Tooradin need a ruck, they were underwhelming in there on the weekend. There’s a young ruck at Garfield, Cooper Reilly who Tooradin would sign up in a heartbeat, Nathan Voss, from Kooweerup, has always been regarded as one of the most talented footballers in the competition on a half forward flank. Paul Fermanis: the coach of Korumburra-Bena, a high level footballer in his day, he would be scary in a good team. He’s just strong, very clever. I think he would be nearly a 70-80 goal kicker in a good team. That’s my six for you mate.
JONTY: An excellent summary. How those key forwards who are denied of supply would go in better teams is always an interesting topic of discussion. Marcus, your bunch?
MARCUS: My first player is Aaron Firrito from Gembrook-Cockatoo. They’ve been smashed with injury all season so he’s played a lone hand in the midfield at times, and been in exceptional touch. He kicked five from the midfield against Upwey Tecoma. An in-and-under player his teammates absolutely love and anyone would want to have him. Two from Mt Evelyn, who may still sneak in because it’s tight for the fifth and final spot. The key defensive pairing of Ash Gibbons, a lockdown full back, and Callum Urquhart. I watched him a couple of weeks ago against Gembrook-Cockatoo, and his timing of went to leave his opponent and go and help as the third man up was exceptional, and he has vice-like hands. Those two come to mind for Wandin, who are very good but their key defensive stocks are a bit vulnerable, particularly if they come against Narre who have Jake Richardson, Will Howe, Riley Siwes and co. And Matthew Scharenberg from Olinda Ferny Creek, he has the AFL experience and plays wherever he is most needed and would be handy to throw into any side.
JONTY: I’ve got three players, there aren’t many players from teams nearby that aren’t going to make finals which is positive for the region. Simon Marchese and Cooper Balic would be really handy for Hampton Park, the Keysborough pair. The Redbacks midfield has been decimated by injury in the second half of the season, there hasn’t been much continuity so those sort of midfielders who spread from stoppage and do the right things from a discipline point-of-view would be handy. They’re both pretty young as well and fit. And Brad Dyer from Skye would slot in nicely at Doveton. The Doves don’t have that one forward that you immediately think of as that scary tall target, they’ve got an even spread up there.
SPORTS MEDIA
JONTY: Last topic, we all work in the industry and I ask this question off the back of the Sam Kerr incident a couple of weeks ago. There was a lot of talk around Sam Kerr – should the ‘Tillies’ have let us know? The other side of the argument is that journalists should have been close enough to the team to pick up on that through contacts or whatever it be. From your point of view, Dave, you’ve been in the industry longer than us, how have you seen the industry evolve. Being multi faceted and building relationships is so important in the modern game, we know.
DAVE: When I first started, probably 13 years ago, I had no knowledge of social media at all. Even now, it’s still limited but back then I relied on contacts with clubs to source stories and it was only eight teams in the old SEFNL competition so it was easier to keep abreast of things. Now with 12 teams, I find it harder to stay in touch with every club. That sort of stuff I’m not across like I used to be. I find myself scouring social media to see who is playing milestone games and things like that so social media I rely on more than I used to. But, I tell you blokes this all the time, building relationships is the biggest part of the job. This weekend I reckon had 10 phone calls from different people and those conversations give you more of an insight into the competition than anything else. It’s the best way to do it.
JONTY: It’s the age-old adage with relationships and certainly they were a couple on my list. Marcus?
MARCUS: The Sam Kerr one is strange. Soccer’s community can fall into the trap of gate-keeping. If we take the Kerr example, most people who were blowing up about it from a media perspective were AFL people but the fact missing there is AFL doesn’t play tournaments where every game is cut-throat, on a knife’s edge. I think that is partly AFL’s fault for not understanding the context, and the soccer community for gate-keeping the sport. On social media, if someone make’s a minor error, they are run out of town which makes it difficult to engage in those sorts of conversations. When you have a women’s soccer world cup juxtaposed against the footy media landscape, it’s a perfect storm of issues in terms of how it is covered, the interest. With regards to the injury itself, the Matildas did an exceptional job keeping it under wraps. Regardless of relationships between people in the camp and media members, it just seemed like it was not going to come out.
DAVE: What exactly was the issue, though?
JONTY: I think because they were being secretive and not revealing something. People saw the injury as being of public information. The other element of it is that if it was the Australian cricket team, there is no way there would be no journalists close enough for that to not be leaked.
MARCUS: Let’s go back to the very first day of The Ashes. Do you remember 30 minutes before play started, what happened?
JONTY: Mitch Marsh confused everyone by marking out his bowling run up.
MARCUS: Yes, and social media went nuts. How is that any different to Sam Kerr’s injury? Australia had decided their team at that stage.
JONTY: Interesting comparison. It would have been the biggest mystery of the century if he was picked. Again, it goes to the importance of relationships.
DAVE: What’s your thoughts, Jonty?
JONTY: The couple of other things I would bring up is the importance of not being click-baity.
DAVE: We have an opposition who is very good at that.
JONTY: In the modern environment, there is so much clickbait. One person says something, it becomes a story, someone else bites back and so the cycle continues. What is said becomes almost as important as the game itself, we saw that with what Kane Cornes said about Tim Taranto not being a top-150 player, with that statement and the dozens of reactions all generating their own stories. The other one is the desire for people to know stories behind players and wanting those off-field narratives to be covered off field more than ever and balancing that, particularly at a local level, with people’s right to privacy and where that line is drawn. It’s a topic I could natter about forever, but good discussion this week, guys.
