Two weeks is a long time in footy…

Mitch Dyer

After a week off from VAFA footy, Division 1 Men’s was ready to get back into the swing of things and a swing is just the way to describe it, with the tables being turned in just about every which way… let me explain.

I hope you’re sitting down because this one may knock you off your feet, with Old Camberwell, the coupe de gras of this division being the first team to share a draw with the clearly charging Prahran Assumption.  This game came as a huge surprise, and given assumption didn’t get off a major in the first term, it is incredibly impressive that behind the boot of 5 majors from Matt Clifford were able to climb back and grab 2 points off the highly impressive outfit of Camberwell.  I certainly didn’t see this one coming, even though PEGS were 2-0 into this game, I thought the might of Camberwell may be too much, but a classic at Gordon Barnard prevailed!

The next game on the docket couldn’t have gone more opposite to the previous, but it did manage to get Old Peninsula on the board with a 103 point thumping of Therry Penola AFC.  Having watched Peninsula take on Glen Eira two weeks ago it was clear their defensive structure was where they lacked, but clearly this was worked on over the two week break, allowing the outfit to have 7 multiple goal scorers, including 5 between the Payze father son duo.  For Therry Penola it seems each week I may be writing it’s going to be a long year, really unable to affect the scoreboard to keep games close, or minimise the damage going the other way.

If you’ve continued sitting down from the news of the draw, then this bombshell will also come a little easier to hear, with the might of the Kew FC falling at the hands of a dangerous and in-form PEGS, being the victim of a 31 point demolition by the boys from Essendon.  Out at the notoriously windy PEGS sports grounds, this outfit and their clearly elite backline kept the Kew ensemble goalless through three quarters… goalless! It’s incredible to think given that Kew is such a high scoring offensive team, however they managed to mitigate their major players and goal scorers to run out 31 points the winner.  Even more crazy was that PEGS only had 4 goal scorers, three of them in multiples and two of them with 3 bag hauls… is this now or are they emerging to be the cream of the crop?  Maybe.

Now this result is interesting but it didn’t shock me as much as the two others mentioned, but what the result of Oakleigh FC and Glen Eira shows is that Oakleigh now 3 rounds into the season has redeveloped its backline, coming out 20 point winners against the former division 2 powerhouse.  Each of these teams now has only suffered 1 loss for the season and probably shows that they are pretty comparable in where they may be positioned in the later stages of the year.  Glen Eira is a high midfield usage team and Oakleigh knows how to roost goals on the boot of Cloke who was the leading goal scorer last year – it’s pretty exciting to see this Oakleigh team develop and blossom… even though I didn’t tip them.

The final game of the round was one that desperately needed to happen for our Whitefriars outfit, having been 0-2 through the opening rounds, running St Mary’s Salesian into the ground with a 51 point win at home.  Admittedly this game was close to the half, however in the magic of the third term Whitefriars, and in particular the work rate of Daniel Woods showed the class we’ve been wanting to see all year and put the foot on the accelerator to come out winners.  I know 51 points sounds bad and sounds like a huge loss, but there’s a lot of positives from the first half and the fight in the final quarter to take away for St Mary’s.