Round 13 Match Reports (2024)

The Senior Men were well rested and refreshed after a couple of weeks break and welcomed back senior players as they travelled down to Whitehorse Reserve to take on the Eley Park Sharks, a team they had defeated by 133 points in Round 3 on Tony Sheehan Oval. Unfortunately, the weather gods delivered conditions less than conducive to Trobers’ brand of footy. The smaller, sodden ground, rain and slippery conditions made for a great leveler as the match became a dour affair with repeated stoppages and some perplexing decisions had everyone scratching their heads.

The going was tough from the opening ball-up with both sides struggling to move the pill with precision and plenty of stoppages. Tate Spiteri kicked the Trobers first major and coach Andy Castles, returning to the field after an extended injury break, added a second as we regained the lead. Our lads had the ball inside our forward 50 for much of the second half of the quarter but struggled to find the big sticks as we added 4 behinds to finish the quarter leading by the narrowest of margins – 2.4 to 2.5.

Our rucks Hugo O’Callaghan and Adam Zimmermann were providing great service to our key midfielders Archie Conboy, Lachlan Webb, Jonty Randall and Sam Benetti-Baker with plenty of inside 50s for our forwards. Liam Walsh and Bryce Dowler added goals during the term to extend our lead but after again dominating the play for much of the quarter, inaccuracy restricted our lead at the main break to just 10 points – 4.9 to 3.5.

The Sharks came out after the main break and had added 2 critical goals in the opening minutes to hit the lead before Tate Spiteri kicked his second for the day and another couple of behinds extended our lead to 6 behinds at the final break. A disappointing term had the home team still in the game!

Zimma won the opening ball-up of the final quarter with Andy Cas clearing the square and delivering to Hugo O’Callaghan who kicked truly – the perfect start! The Sharks hit back with back-to-back majors and the game was tied before the scoring dried up with much of the play between the arcs – not that you could see them with the ground conditions as they were. Another behind saw us take the lead before BB kicked a goal to put us up by 7 points approaching red-time. Eley Park scrambled a point, added a third goal to tie the scores once again, before adding their final major to put them up by 6 points. It came down to a desperate final 5 minutes to save the game with the ball inside our forward 50, but repelled by The Sharks backs who had sent players down back to defend. Devastation as the siren sounded and the home lads celebrated a well-deserved victory.

Archie Conboy, Liam ‘Cocksy’ Walsh, Connor McCredden, Sam Benetti-Baker, Lachlan Webb and Jonty Randall were named as our best players.

It’s back to work this week as we prepare to take on Swinburne University at St James Park and yet another heavy track this coming Saturday! I’m guessing plenty of wet-weather training drills this week – perhaps down on the back soccer fields!