SENIORS

It was a perfect day for football, about 18degrees, sunny, and just a breath of wind favouring the Lakeside Drive end. Powerhouse were keen to make a good account of themselves against a top 4 team, one that game us a bit of a lesson when we first met in Rnd2. Powerhouse went in a little unsettled with “Old Mate” Boland a late withdrawal, “Fozie” bed-ridden, and “Ed Woods” on one leg and no certainty to play.

Jados and “Steve’s Paint” Batten had also made way to get 4QTRS under their belts. Into the side this week was Marty Leahy who has been in stellar form in the Reserves, kicking multiple goals, Shane (Neville Bahros) Bahr back from a few weeks Overseas, and Dave Maloney who has also been in good form. With the late omission of our skipper Fozie, “Lovey” come up as well in his first game. Congrats Lovey for your 1st Senior game for Powerhouse, and to Marty and Dave for returns to the Senior line up.

 

Powerhouse were quietly confident going into the match after turning around our season against the Hawks. It was a bit concerning with Edo hobbling around like the old man he is pre match, but after a solid warm up, he was moving around well, and you could tell he was ready to rip the game apart. The House started extremely well, slotting home 5 majors to 3, in which was a solid start, giving our much fancied opponents something to think about. Lynchy had a big job on their No.15 and was doing quite well, Benny White was sweeping with ease across half back with good support from “X-Treme” Wilson. Richie led hard, Marty got on to the end of a nice pass and kicked truly, and with Edo on fire, the House were looking the goods.

 

The second term was a bit of an arm wrestle with the House gaining the ascendancy, making St Francis work hard defensively. Jake and Warde were doing all the grunt work through the centre, and Reecey was running hard on the wing, and put through a great running goal. However, when Sos got the shakes from 35 out and missed what would be his first goal for some time, St Francis went the other way and piled on some quick goals, and gained a 1 goal advantage at the major break. That miss was pretty much a 2 goal turnaround, and I do not think the coach was too happy. But that’s football.

 

Although behind on the scoreboard, Powerhouse went in to the break quite happy with their performance against a side that was very well drilled, but thought with their effort, should have been in front. It was now time to stand up and put in a ferocious 3rd term, and break the game open.

 

St Francis came out in the 3rd term with all guns blazing. They worked the ball out of defence with ease to the wing, then picked us off through the corridor. It was fantastic play and certainly had the House rattled. Their hard work was rewarded with 7 goals, and Powerhouse could only manage the 2. Our job was not aided with Moresi going down, who has been one of our better performers and defenders this season. The ball was coming down pretty quick and Maloney, Billy Baxter and Lovey had their work cut out against some tall timber. Wardey and Bull were working hard in tandem to get the House back into the contest, and Bahry kicked a clever rovers goal, but it was not enough. After such a promising 1st half, we had dropped our guard, and St Francis took full advantage, and were rewarded with a 39 point lead.

 

Coops asked for some respect at the break, and certainly let us know that he was not happy. Although well behind, the boys looked very committed, and wanted to redeem themselves. The last term saw some really good football by both teams. Powerhouse gave Edo every opportunity to kick goals, and that he did from all angles. Ace and Reecey chimed in with a couple, along with Coops. The boys actually started to run and put St Francis under pressure when we did not have the ball. Kyney worked hard on the wing along with Jake in the middle, and Sos was running and creating, providing Bahry and the other midfielders plenty of the ball. Billy Baxter, Benny White and Spider were solid across half back. But, with all the good play from Powerhouse, it seemed that whenever St Francis went forward they kicked a goal. It was not so much a case of sloppy defending, but it was more that Powerhouse decided to attack and attack, which left us slightly vulnerable at the back. A nice piece of play at the end by St Francis saw them kick a goal on the siren and extend their winning margin to 6 straight goals. The winning margin did not truly indicate the effort by an undermanned Powerhouse, certainly in the 1st half and last QTR, but we just cannot go missing for a QTR like we did in the 3rd.

 

Bad luck to the lads, but continue the commitment to the cause, and through hard work, get ready for an exciting last half of the season. Results have gone our way, and a committed and accountable Powerhouse will look to grab that 4th spot with both hands. This week we play Monash at Monash. There is a great history between the 2 clubs, and they are certainly no easy beats.

 

RESERVES

Round 10 meant it was the first return fixture of the 2009 season.  St Francis Xaviers had an early start and would have had to load up on fuel and make the long journey to the "big smoke" as they were hosted by The House at the Ross Gregory Oval. The harshness of the Aussie winter was in evidence on Saturday with temperatures topping 15 degrees, clear blue skies and not a puff of wind even from the lake, yes, conditions couldn't be better for footy.

There were several changes to the side that defeated Hawthorn the previous week with Jade "Luigi" Fiorini returning from senior duties to resume captaincy of the team, Steve Batten was also given the opportunity to get a full game of footy under his belt in the reserves.  Chad Goette and Jaye Kurts made a welcome return from injury while Doc, Kris Stevens and 2007 Brownlow favourite Louis Louis steped up to the plate to help out a depleted squad.  Other inclusions were Richo and Russ who were unavailable in round 9.

Chris Plazzer led the team onto oval to mark his 100th game in the powerhouse colors. There was no denying that the team wanted to mark this occasion with a victory especially since Plazzer had gone to the trouble of organising oranges for everybody before the game.  Once the formalities of the warmup were complete Jados fired the boys up (lucky he doesnt have swine flu with the amount of saliva that was sprayed on those closest to the captain) the ball was tossed in the air by the umpire for the first time.  The powerhouse onballers set the tone right away and set up the first of numerous attacks.  It wasn't long before one of the most vertically challenged men on the field was taking a huge mark and lining up for a kick at the posts.  Aaoran made no mistakes and set himself up for a BOG performance with the first major of the game.  The powerhouse midfield was ruthless in the first quarter providing plenty of the pill to the forward line.  Doc was having a huge impact at center forward and wasn't shy when the going got a little tough at times.   Big Stevo was towering above his opponents in the full forward berth and marked anything that came his way the whole day.  Unfortunately Stevo must have borrowed his boots from Patty Arnold cause as his kicking was a bit wayward and this was a big let off for the home side.  He did manage to bag a few goals in the quarter however and wasn't the only guilty of wayward shooting as the 4-7 quarter time total suggests.  During this period the Xavier boys could only manage 0-2 thanks to some stellar interceptions from Brendan Love and Fergal Croassan.  In fact things were so quite in the fullback line the quarter time siren rudely woke Rocket from his sleep and his first exertion of the the day was the jog to the quarter time huddle.

The 2nd quarter started with a similar trend although Xavier did get an early goal from a free kick right on the goal square.  Louis, Russ, Luigi and Moz were continuing to dominate the middle of the park with Fegal and Lovey sweeping up anything that came near the half back line.  The house tacked on a few more goals as Stevo continued to show what a useful target he is in full forward.  Mid way through the second period though the visitors seemed to ambush the homeside and started to pick off some goals.  The intensity seemed to have dropped off at midfield and the backline was a little shell-shocked at the sight of the sherrin in their vicinity of the ground.  After a few soft goals the house responded by moving Doc to full back, Pete Henshaw to center back and moving Rocket up the ground.  This allowed more even matchups at the back and settled the team down.  Rocket took full advantage of his time in the forwards by bagging a six pointer for himself.  At half time the house retired a little rattled by the comeback of the visitors but still led 7-10 to 4-6

A few stern word from Warde seemed to rejuvenate the team and they started well in the second half.  Eoin English was proving his worth on the wing taking some very strong marks and distributing it cleverly to the forward line.  Brendan Love was playing so well that he was promoted to the senior side after a late drop out and had to retire early from the game.  His absence wasn't felt in this quarter though as the defense was watertight and limited the visitors to a single minor score for the whole 20 mins.  Jaye Kurts was showing his class at the other end scoring goals out of nothing and making it look very easy.  At the end of this term the scoreboard showed a comfortable lead for the home side 10-12 to 4-7.

The Xavier boys had no intention of throwing in the towel though and came out strong in the final quarter.  Their hard work was rewarded with 3 unanswered goals midway through the quarter which woke up the homesides defence and got them working again.  Fergal saw plenty of the footy in this quarter and used his riverdance experience by skipping around numerous players and delivering to the forward line with kicks off both the left and right boot.  Aaoran was battling hard with anything that came his way and got his hands on plenty of the pill as he relished his move to the wing.  Up front Richo was showing his worth and the ever industrious Jaye capped off his day with a fine tally of four goals.  This tally was matched by Steveo with Moz and Russ the other goal scorers not already mentioned for the day.

Final score Powerhouse 12.16-88 St Francis Xavier 9.10-64

In the end the house made hard work of it but will have to up their game for the short trip to Caufield next week where they can further cement that top four spot

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