By Frank Seal
An important weekend for the Olinda senior men group saw two well-respected cult heroes of the club each celebrate their 150th career game against Pakenham on a chilly Saturday afternoon at Toomuc Reserve. While Josh Wallis and Callum Beattie had their milestones in mind, it was evident they wanted nothing more than to “get the bloody win” and celebrate the all-important 4-points on such a special occasion.
This match presented the Bloods with a significant challenge: playing on the largest ground in the competition without two-star players in Patrick Rosier and running machine Nick Keegan. Despite these setbacks, Olinda brought the energy from the first bounce and challenged their opposition early. The midfielders set the tone early with their ferocious hunting of the footy and organised ball use, exploding out of contests and cleanly entering the forward 50.
As in the prior match against Upwey, the forward pressure was fierce, forcing numerous stoppages and scrappy exits from the Pakenham defenders and the Bloods looked well on top early. It only took a couple of midfield turnovers, however, for the Lions to respond with their own brand of fast, straight-line footy, resulting in uncontested forward marks and two goals. The score was 27-17 At the first break.
In the second term, the Bloods put their foot down and dominated the territory battle. The midfield output lifted with Tyler Belloni’s defensive pressure, Kelsey Currie’s crucial contested clearances, and Pete Lucas’ clean groundball possessions and strength at the contest. Down forward, Lachy Taylor was getting busy, taking his patented contested marks with multiple defenders, and slotting key goals to extend the margin. Small forwards Matt Rosier, Percy Hyett and Ned Ford were heating it up at ground level, terrorising the Pakenham defenders and forcing costly errors. The back six were playing high up the ground and taking forward half intercept marks to keep the ball locked inside 50; an impressive feat on such a large ground. It was a dominant quarter which saw the Bloods enter half-time leading 58-26.
Olinda was in a great position to begin the third and hoped to put the game out of Pakenham’s reach, but was expecting a strong response from an opponent that had been outplayed so far. Not unexpectedly, the Lions brought the heat in the second half. Their midfielders started to win stoppages and enter the forward 50 in a dangerous fashion. After the momentum shift, it was up to Dale Rohrmann and milestone man Cal Beattie to halt the charge – which they did emphatically. Both defenders refused to get beaten 1 on 1, consistently spoiling the ball out of danger, or taking marks to launch the ball out of the backline. Matt Scharenberg was also enjoying his time down back after trialling a wingman role, as he too was clunking anything that came his way off a Pakenham boot. With the ball ‘ping-ponging’ back and forth for both sides, this aerial dominance down back was crucial. Pakenham, despite gaining the upper hand at stoppages and in the contest, only managed to match Olinda on the scoreboard in this quarter. The Bloods held a 31-point lead at ¾ time.
The final term saw more of the same as the Lions continued to bring the energy and apply significant pressure to the Bloods back six. Despite some ambitious ball use forward of centre leading to frustrating turnovers, the Olinda players remained calm, cool and collected under pressure. Pakenham was dominating territory, but could not hit the scoreboard as required thanks to some smart Daniel Toma rushed behinds and precise Matt Scharenberg ball use out of the defensive 50. After the Lions managed two goals to Olinda’s one for the quarter, the final siren saw the Bloods victorious 12-10-82 to 7-15-57 – a pleasing result for the milestone men (Josh and Callum.)
In other results, the Olinda u/19s (5-4-34) fell to Upwey Tecoma (16-13-109), while the Olinda reserves (8-3-51) defeated Pakenham (6-9-45) in a thriller. The Bloods senior women had a bye.
