Division 1: The midnight hour – Ormond vs Kew IV

By William Balme – @balmey21

There were stages during the Old Geelong-Ormond clash at Waverley Oval where it all seemed to be falling into place for the Oggers. They were creating out of the midfield, using the ball well off the flanks and they were gaining shots at goal from very gettable positions on the field. Unfortunately for the OGs, they missed, and they missed and they missed again. For the Old Geelong faithful, it must’ve been heartbreaking seeing their side fall short of a Premier C berth as Ormond took their opportunities and clung onto a strong win to set up everyone’s favourite Rocky sequel. ORMOND-KEW IV. The one where Drago is quipped saying ‘if he dies, he dies’. In footy, it all appears just as heartless. You have 26 shots on goal, you only convert 9 of them, and the other 17 miss the mark. If you miss, you miss. There’s nothing else to it. The Monders’ youth once again showed their class, as Nick Edwards and Dimitri Fasoulis were a huge part of the equation for pulling Ormond into the ultimate test.

It was a fine day for football on Saturday afternoon at Waverley Oval, and the sun was shining on Old Geelong early as they kicked the first three goals and looked ominous. However, by quarter time it was back to square, with Rob Chisholm in red-hot form on the half forward line. Both sides had a key out, with Colby O’Brien missing for the OGs and Chris Coghlan not coming up for Ormond. The battles across the ground were immense. Martinov went toe-to-toe with Carl Joyce, who was simply outstanding, Wood and Barnes took it up to each other and Rupert Kemp faced off with Chisholm in an engrossing battle. In each of these battles, there was a sense that neutralisation had taken place. The game was won on the outside, where Ormond were cleaner and classier in putting their finishing touches on. For all Nicholas Hardie-Grant’s excellent work across the ground, I’m sure he’d agree with me that he was guilty of butchering the ball on a number of occasions, including in the aftermath of two 25-metre penalties where he missed a relatively easy shot on goal in the third quarter. Nonetheless, he was not the only man in the blue and white hoops that missed gettable chances. On no less than five occasions, Old Geelong missed gettable shots in their dominant ten minutes at the start of the third term. Once Ormond got the ball back into their half, they kicked over the zone and had the players who ran hard into the forward line. The hard-running Fasolulis capitalised on three of these opportunities and set up another couple.

In the final stanza, Old Geelong had to come back from 16 points down. Jack McMeel kicked one, then they missed… and alas, they missed again. After Chisholm kicked a beauty from 50 out, there was toing and froing, however the missed opportunities came back to haunt Old Geelong as they fell by 14 points. The footy was extremely entertaining and free flowing from flank to flank, and it must be said that Old Geelong has a lot of positives to take from the season, with wins over every side in the competition, excepting for the most important one of all, Ormond.

Willie Bee’s votes: 5 Rupert Kemp (OG) 4 Ryan Martin (Ormond) 3 Nick Edwards (Ormond) 2 Sam Blandford (Ormond) 1 Josh Hoevenaars (OG)

WAYNE WEIDEMANN’S GRAND FINAL PREVIEW

We’ve been hit with a bit of a Christmas in September theme here, as the two best sides throughout the Home and Away season face off in the big one. In the red corner, we have the minor premiers Ormond, with a season record of 18-2. Without the influence of that pesky mosquito that is Kew, they would have had the perfect season. Instead, they come into the game reeling from their semi final loss to the brown and gold. Ormond is a club with an exceptional VAFA history, and there is little doubt that they harbor ambitions of moving back into the top flight over before a quarter of this century passes. The last time they hoisted a D-Grade (Divisional) premiership was back in 1933. Since that day, the Monders have lifted a premiership cup 12 times, including nine times in A Grade. Richard Simon, Ashleigh Lever and the Ormond lads would love nothing more than for 2015 to mark the beginning of a new era. With plenty of young talent, including the explosive Nick Edwards, the cool head Matthew Oaten down back and the developing midfield of Sam Mason, Henry and Jeremy Simon. Match that with old heads of Matthew Martinov, Rob Chisholm, Simon Keleher and of course, Mal ‘Big Heist’ Michael, and they are hard to stop when they get on a roll.

However, in the blue corner is the challenger Kew. Kew has a formidable record in the past three seasons, winning two premierships and now playing off in a third consecutive grand final. Alike Ormond, Kew is a district side, and one who was struggling coming into the 2011 season, after narrowly avoiding relegation to Division Four. Enter Ian Aitken and Joe Chessari, and a host of new faces including Andrew Brazzale and Thomas Leeds, and the club’s fortunes have been turned on their head. In 2013 they defeated Elsternwick in the Division 3 grand final and St Mary’s Salesian last year in the Division 2 finale. This year, with key forwards Brazzale and Maibaum tipped to return, they are just as hungry for the three-peat. With improvement from Jack Delbridge and Ned Rohrt in the middle, the old firm down back continually doing their job and the X-factor of Zac Jones and Tim ‘Beacon’ Orchard, Kew is not the side to slack off.

What we have here is a marvelous game of football that will be hard, intense and passionate. Final word from Wayne? ‘Impact players. Dimitri Fasoulis from Ormond. Knows how to find the big sticks. For Kew, Tim Allman. The big white duck/snake is a hard working, big game player. Ormond by a point.’

There you have it. Get down to Coburg City Oval for the 2015 Division 1 Grand Final on Saturday afternoon. It is going to be a cracker.

ORMOND V KEW 2015 FIXTURES

Round 10: Ormond 8 12 60 defeated by Kew 19 9 123

WB votes: 3 D Spencer (K) 2 K Margaritas (K) 1 M Henderson (K)

Round 16: Kew 4 7 31 defeated by Ormond 9 16 70

WB votes: 3 M Oaten (O) 2 D Fasoulis (O) 1 M Henderson (K)

Semi Final 2: Ormond 6 9 45 defeated by Kew 10 12 72

WB votes: 3 J Guerin (K) 2 A Doxey (K) 1 C Coghlan (O)

Ormond v Kew