State League
Round 3 vs. Chadstone
With a number of players injured and unavailable the team had its first home game of the season on a sunny and warm Saturday afternoon at the Town Hall.
After welcoming back Nick LeGuen for his first State League game of the season the team got off to an anxious start. Chadstone won the first face off and had the first shot of the game off a fast break within about 10 seconds of the starting whistle. Fortunately Dave Gal came up with the save and Malvern rebounded to quickly score the first goal of the game.
James Garrett dominated play scoring 4 goals in the first quarter which ended with Malvern leading 7 – 0.
Unfortunately Malvern lost its rhythm and structures at various stages throughout the second and third quarters allowing Chadstone to “hang in” the game. The scores during this period were an unconvincing 8 – 4.
Malvern finished the game with a much better last quarter outscoring Chadstone 5 – 2 and getting some very good team oriented goals. Whilst there were some really well constructed goals scored during the game, unfortunately our shot selection overall was poor. Whilst the teams shooting average was well over 50% for shots low and across the Chaddy goalies body we continued to shoot high to his strength.
Goal scorers were Gaz 6, Trav 5, Pat 3, Gooey 2 and singles to Josh, Rowan, Browny and Callum and it was great to see such a spread of goal scorers.
With Cam and Dan both unavailable Shermo and Boppa came up to fill the void and combined with DC and Barnesy did a good job in D. The D did a great job when they played good body position and stayed low on their checking resulting in a number of turnovers but unfortunately during concentration lapses we gave away too many penalties and allowed Chaddy some easy shots.
The highlights of the Defence unit for the day was a “bone jarring” body laid by Barnesy on an unsuspecting Andy Decker and some great goal keeping by Dave Gal who finished the match with a 73% save ratio.
Unfortunately for Dave he undid all his good work with a shot on goal from a “coast to coast effort” which went straight to the goalies stick!, you would think he would know where to shoot!!!!!
Final Scores – Malvern 20 defeated Chadstone 6
Under 14’s
In the 2nd week of the combined teams from Malvern,Surrey Park and MCC we travelled out to Moreland.
Arriving there to find that Moreland had only 7 players compared to our 14 odd strong.
We donate a player per quarter for them to make it at least ‘honest’.
It was pleasing to hear the coach ( Dan ) say on numerous times ‘he’s changed onto his left!’ in surprise when he was looking
at a player from Malvern. Credit to the junior training instilled at Malvern from Under 12’s.
Everyone played in the spirit of the game and the ‘Reds’ ‘East’ whatever they decide on being called, will prove to be a very competitive team.
They ran away winners 20-7
Watch this space….
Womens B grade vs. Surrey Park
Once again we travelled to Williamstown, this time with the knowledge it would be a tough assignment against a very experienced opposition and knowing we only had 11 available players.
Our warm up was far from encouraging and we started the game a little flat but there were plenty of encouraging signs.
We created a number of scoring opportunities but unfortunately poor shot selection did not allow us to capitalise whereas Surrey made the most of their possession and were able to score through cutting and creating space.
The half time score was Surrey 4 to Malvern 1 but the team remained positive which was an encouraging sign.
In the second half we were more aggressive in our attack on ground balls and out hustled Surrey in nearly every contest. We were first to the ball and ran hard causing many turnovers from Surrey. We played tight in defence and in attack we created space and made some great cuts to provide a number of scoring opportunities.
In defence “Bruiser” was having another great game making some telling saves, Rochelle was playing the game of her life and Bridget was providing plenty of hustle on ground balls as well as run and carry.
Maddy, Katy and Sarah were using their pace to advantage whilst Kate and Georgia in only their second games were dynamite on ground balls and hard running. Nina was creating opportunities in attack and was unlucky not to score on a number of occasions.
Seasoned veterans Romy and Tara controlled the centre and gave great drive around the ground and were a constant threat to the opposition.
It was obvious to see Surrey were struggling under the pressure and Malvern scored with 2 minutes to go to level the game at 7 each. At this stage we had outscored Surrey 6 to 3 in the second half. Most of our goals had been really well constructed from either aggressive dodging or some great cuts. We won the next face off and had a shot on goal to take the lead but unfortunately it was saved by the goalie and Surrey converted on the turnover.
Overall it was a great effort from the team, their desire to win the contested ball and run hard was really pleasing and they never gave up. We will continue to work on our skills, particularly shot selection but if the attitude and endeavour shown during the game is taken into every game going forward we will be a very hard team to beat.
We have now set a reasonably high standard which we must maintain.
Final scores – Malvern 7 defeated by Surrey 9
