MPNFL Sharks outclassed in tough interleague battle INTERLEAGUE
By Brodie Cowburn WITH regular MPNFL football put on hold for the week, the 2018 AFL Community Championships brought together the best and brightest from the league to take on the Northern Football Netball League at Preston City Oval this Saturday. The men’s interleague competition, being played a little closer to home than the AFL’s match in Shanghai played at the same time, saw the MPNFL and NFNL face off in a third vs. fourth place clash, with the winner set to take on top ranked Eastern Football League in 2019 for the right to be recognised as the number one Victorian competition. The MPNFL Sharks side were led by captain Warwick Miller of the Mornington Football Club, and were coached by former Mornington coach Chris Holcombe. The Sharks were set to face a tough challenge from their NFNL opponents, who had named a strong defensive lineup that could cause MPNFL a lot of problems. The match began in good conditions, with no rain or wind interrupting the game. Within five minutes, it was the MPNFL who had landed the first blow, with Sam Fox kicking his set shot from 50 metres truly to open an early lead within five minutes. The first quarter fight back from NFNL was incredibly sloppy, and although they had the run of play for the majority of the quarter, they could only manage seven straight behinds and no goals up to quarter time. In the meantime, MPNFL looked clinical, with Billy Quigley and Luke Hewitt scoring majors before the first break, the latter being an easy end to end goal that resembled more of a training drill than a competitive interleague match. At the quarter time break, MPNFL held a comfortable 3.3 (21) to 0.7 (7) lead. After the first break, the NFNL finally kicked their first goal through Patrick Fitzgerald, before quickly scoring another to bring the margin down to one point. A much improved and significantly more motivated NFNL side kicked continued to kick on, establishing a ten point
Picture: Andrew Hurst lead before Luke Hewitt again kicked truly to bring his MPNFL side back into it. With the hosts having blitzed the second quarter with six more scoring shots than MPNFL, the Sharks could count themselves lucky to have only been one goal behind at half time. After the main break, things went from bad to worse for the MPNFL men, with NFNL’s Patrick Fitzgerald kicking his second and third goal for the game within the first 15 minutes of play. Despite struggling to keep up with their opponents after quarter time, MPNFL still went into the threequarter time break with a sliver of
hope, only trailing by 13 points, with the score being 5.7 (37) to 6.14 (50) After the final break, the NFNL found another gear and blew the MPNFL Sharks out of the water. A big mark from Patrick Fitzgerald, who was among the best players on the day, and a goal within two minutes set the tone, as NFNL went on to score seven unanswered goal and put MPNFL to the sword. Having only scored two goals since the first quarter, the MPNFL had been toothless. In a moment that summed up the afternoon, NFNL’s Reid Brandt capitalised on a shocking turnover from
a simple MPNFL kick out to make certain that MPNFL would not come back, slotting home coolly from 25 metres out and putting his side comfortably ahead. The MPNFL players were not on the same wavelength, and were outclassed easily by NFNL. The match came alive at the death with NFNL’s Ryan Stone hit by MPNFL’s Michael Debenham behind the play with 10 minutes remaining, sparking a melee between both sides late in the game. As the two sides brawled, play on was called and Jordan Perry hammered home another goal for NFNL.
MPNFL could do little to stem the flow, and the final score reflected an incredibly disappointing performance by the Sharks, with the game finishing 7.7 (49) to 12.17 (89) MPNFL’s Lachie Batten was awarded the best on ground medal for his side, and Chris Holcombe addressed the result with grace. “Northern really put us to the sword in that last quarter, they were really fantastic today, so congratulations. We got run over in the end and lacked skills by foot, but we’ll come back harder,” he said in his post match presentation.
Mornington and Seaford women star in historic representative game WOMEN’S INTERLEAGUE
By Brodie Cowburn AN historic match took place as the curtain raiser match at Preston City Oval on Saturday, as the Women’s Northern Football Netball League and the South Eastern Women’s Football League both played their first ever matches of representative interleague football. The first ever SEWF League side featured representatives from Mornington in Emily Rylance, Riley Cridland, Vicki Sanford, and Georgia Speedy. Jess Johnston, Jess Adams, and Sarah Astone were selected from Seaford. The side, led by Cranbourne’s Emily Wallace, struggled early, conceding within two minutes as NFNL’s Ashleigh Bayes made her mark by scoring the league’s first goal in representative football with a scrappy effort from the goal square. The SEWF League side struggled in the first quarter, with the NFNL women consistently rebounding every time SEWF tried to clear their defensive lines. After a difficult start, Chloe Hunt eventually stood tall to kick SEWF’s first for the game just before quarter time. After the first break Hunt
used strong hands again to take a mark and put away her second of the match. Hunt’s second quarter effort was the only goal for the quarter, and both teams found themselves neck and neck at half time with the scores 2.4 (16) to 1.6 (12). As the second half began, SEWF’s Olivia Aing continued to prove a massive influence on the game through the midfield, driving her side forward and creating dangerous opportunities for the forwards. Early in the second half it was SEWF that had the upper hand, with Sarah Astone taking a spectacular one handed grab and converting easily to put her side 10 points ahead of their NFNL opponents. Despite their positive start, NFNL hit back with two goals through Tara Chetcuti and Cassie Hurst, which put their side in front for the first time since the two minute mark of the first quarter. Hurst’s goal, which gave her side the advantage, just barely scraped through past outreached fingers on the goal line. At three-quarter time, it was set up for a thrilling finish, with nothing separating either side at the final break.
As the final quarter got underway, Chloe Hunt again struck for SEWF, scoring her third to put her side ahead with an easy finish from the goal square. With time ticking away, controversy struck after Seaford’s Jess Adams was caught holding the ball after a heavy tackle, in which she was left groggy after hitting her head into the ground. The resulting free kick saw Cassie Hurst put NFNL level with just eight minutes to play. As time wound down, NFNL were relentless in attack, but SEWF’s lose player in defence consistently intercepted and rebounded to eliminate the danger. Olivia Aing was manic in the dying moments, diving to get the ball off of the ground, but still the two sides remained deadlocked as time ticked down. In the closing seconds, controversy again struck with the last kick of the game. A long ball forward to a one on one contest inside the NFNL forward fifty saw SEWF’s Riley Cridland and NFNL’s Linda Thorp both get hands on the ball, with neither letting go as they appeared to mark simultaneously. The umpire made the call that Cridland had got first hands on the football, and paid the mark to the defender.
WIth that decision, there was no time left for any more action in regulation time, with the final siren sounding with scores equal at 4.6 (30) to 4.6 (30). With the game now set to go to two extra time periods of five minutes, SEWF would have to compete a woman down with Adams ruled out for the remainder of the game. After a frantic, scrappy, and scoreless first half of extra time, it was Chloe Hunt who again stood tall to take a huge mark in the second period of time on. While she could only score a behind, it didn’t matter, as her point was the final score of the game. With SEWF locking down the ball expertly to kill off any chance of an NFNL attack, the siren sounded and finally the South Eastern Women’s Football League side secured the history making win, 4.6 (30) to 4.7 (31). Olivia Aing was named the best on ground for the day, and coach Megan Snart commended her women on a gutsy performance. “Both team fought hard and it was very competitive over four quarters. Both leagues were represented well and it was a great spectacle,” she said in her post match presentation. Frankston Times 21 May 2018
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