SENIORS

We are starting to get into the business end of the season, the run home. Today we were facing our old friends in Monash Gryphons, who were coming off an absolute belting at the hands of St Mary’s Salesian. Although with sore shoulders and propping up the ladder, this was no certainty for the House. These games have traditionally been tight encounters, and generally sea-sawing between 1 win each for the year against each other. They may have been wounded, but that makes them dangerous.

A few more changes this week as per usual. Kyney succumbed to another tight string, Rhino back into the Reserves, Maloney was off to Europe in his Helicopter, and Moresi was down and out with an Achilles injury. However, some big guns back in the side with Old Mate Boland back to terrorize the full forward, Foz back into the fold after the Flu hit him, Wes “Wizard” Old back from doing his knee chopping wood, and Darren “Knuckles” Baker back after suspension. An extremely important game for Powerhouse here, and no room for complacency.

The first term was an arm wrestle. Powerhouse could not get any cohesion in their play, and Monash were fierce at the contest. The back 6 were under pressure, not from constant supply, but from Monash pushing the ball forward around the boundary line, causing stoppages to frustrate the Powerhouse players. A couple of easy goals were their reward, whilst restricting Powerhouse to only 2 majors, with what was thought to be a fairly strong wind advantage. Edo was well held by a determined Lee Wells, and our midfield could not get any good supply to our tall forwards.

The boys were clearly disappointed with their effort thus far, and really needed a spark to get back into the game. However, it was Monash who started the better and constantly picked us off around their half back line. With the aid of the breeze, they were able to get us on the overlap, and supply plenty of ball to their forwards. The House just could not gather any momentum. Jake, Warde and Bull were trying hard in the middle, with Coops and Richie presenting hard across half forward. However, we did not give Edo, Wes and ACE a chance to get on the end of any clean possession. Marty Leahy was dangerous around goals, and it hurt the side when he went down with an ankle injury after trying to take them on. It was obvious that Powerhouse were playing into the hands of Monash, and a goal after the siren was a reward for all their hard work. Going into the break, Monash had a handy 29point lead.

There was lots of talk in the rooms, and certainly motivation to put in a better effort after the half. But it was Monash who come out all guns blazing. They piled on 4 goals 6 behinds into the breeze, much due to their team play and lack of discipline from the House. Spider, Reece and Sos were valiantly trying to repel their attacks, but to no avail. Powerhouse could only manage one major for the term, and could see this one slip through their hands. Monash were up by 50 points and the House had nothing but pride to play for.

It was a much better effort in the last by Powerhouse. Bull continued to dominate around the ground, and Old Mate was leading very hard out of full forward. Benny White, Reece, Sos and spider continued to run the ball out of defence, providing ball to good leads from Billy Baxter. The highlight of the term was a hanger by Spider over their big ruckmen. If you did not see it, I am sure Spider will tell you all about it. Bahry, Wardey, Jake and Bakes worked tirelessly, and so did Storma on the wing. But the Monash defence held firm, and although Powerhouse had multiple forward 50 entries, they just could not put the ball through the big sticks. In the end, Powerhouse could only manage 2 majors for the term, which was little reward for a much better effort.

It is now Crunch time. We MUST re-group and put in 2 solid nights on the track, and carry in some much needed touch into next weeks clash with West Brunswick. All is not lost, but the boys need to focus on enjoying 4 Quarters of committed, team orientated football. Let’s work hard and ENJOY our footy

RESERVES

It was a short trip out the road for this round 11 clash against Monash Gryphons.  Unfortunately not everybody made the 10:30am center square meeting but this is easily explained by the answer to the following question.....how long does it take to print a teamsheet and pick up some gear from the ross gregory? Factor in this sequence of events

1. Fitzys printer broke down as the teamsheets were being printed
2. The most reliable internet cafe in South Melbourne is closed on Saturday mornings
3. Benson Saulo has no yellow ink in his printer
4. Road works on Cantebury road
5. Under 18s side playing at ross gregory needed their footys pumped
6. I think ill stop there!

Anyway everybody made it in time as the side lined out with four debutants.  Its music to any coaches ears when a couple of guys show up the week before registrations close and ask if they can sign on the dotted line, the music is even sweeter when you see them train and realise they can play!  Numbers have been pretty tight to date but there is no doubt now that the house have have plenty of strength in depth to challenge for a finals spot in both grades. 

Down to business and captain Luigi got his charges fired up in the warm up and without the mouth spray this week had the team focused for the first ball up.  Ryan was back in the ruck after impressing for the seniors for the previous few weeks.  He continued his good form as he got a tap on every contest and with Russ and Moz sweeping up the scraps it was the forwards who were busiest early in the game.  Drew was proving a great target up front and saw plenty of the pill early on.  Jaye Kurts was also enjoying himself and it didnt take him long to register his first few majors of the day.  These majors were evenly balanced by a couple of minors and at the end of the quarter the house had registered 4.4.  The home side could only manage half this total and went into their quarter time huddle with a tally of 2.2.

Chris Plazzer was doing a great job in his 101 game for the club keeping the oppositions danger man quite all day.  The debutants were also settling in nicely with Matt Treeby and Choco showing some class.  Jaye continued his sniper activity in front of the posts another couple of 6 pointers for the quarter.  It was a quite game down the back in this quarter and this was due to some fine work from Fergal and Peter Henshaw in the half back line. The run out of the half back line has been immense for the past few weeks as Fergal has adapted to the game well and Pete is enjoying his move from full forward to Centre back. At the conclusion of the first half the scorboard was probably a fair reflection on the game reading Powerhouse 9.11 Monash 3.4

The third quarter saw some more accurate kicking from the powerhouse boys with Jaye Kurts bringing his tally for the day up to a magneficient 7.  Benson had also left his mark on the scorboard at the end of this quarter with two on the board. The midfield dynamo had managed to maintain their dominance all day and were first to every breaking ball.  Matt was continuing to find the footy and Jimmy, Pav and Choco would have delighted the coach with their attack on the footy.  Fergal continued to sweep off the half back line and will be sorely missed as he is off to Fitzys villa in Thailand for the next two weeks. The house brought their tally to 13.13 by the third siren with the homeside lagging behind on 6.7

The coach sprung into to action at the final break of the day and made some adventerous changes.  Benson was deployed in the back pocket which gave Paddy a rare chance out the field.  Jaye had done enough damage up front and decided to sit out the final term as he didnt want to surpass Rockets preseason haul of 7 goals.  Rocket in turn was released to the forward line where he managed to bag himself his second goal in as many weeks.  Drew was making a nuisance of himself in the forward line but unfortunaly his two goals of the day were accompanied by five behinds!  Patty Arnold was behind the goals though so perhaps he was giving some advice to Drew?  Jimmy was showing his toughness in this quarter coming back against the trainers orders to take some couragous marks towards the end of the game.  At the final siren the house had an acomplished victory and the look of bemusement on the new lads faces as the team sung the song is what makes winning so worthwhile.  Final score Powerhouse 17-21-123 Monash 7.9-51