Season 2013
Alaimo Day
A little background to Why we play The Alaimo Cup
Ron Alaimo started his lacrosse career as a defender at Malvern at age 16 (1959), and started coaching juniors soon afterwards.
In 1974, Ron, along with his wife & 3 kids, moved to Western Australia where he played for Melville. They returned a year later where he resumed playing & coaching at Malvern.
In 1976 Eddie Toomey convinced him to come and play for Surrey Park because he said that it was crazy for him to drive from Forest Hill to Malvern when Surrey Park was just up the road.
Whilst at Surrey, he not only played, but also coached, became secretary and was a general committee member. He also made friends for life.
But Malvern was always where his heart lay, so in 1979, Ron went back to Malvern where he remained.
He retired for the final time in 1984 (after about 3 retirements and come backs) at age 40.
Throughout his time at Malvern he was secretary, treasurer, on the social committee and a general committee member.
One of his high lights was coaching both under 12’s and D-grade the year Malvern won every premiership.
In October 1993 he was elected President, but very sadly died 3 days later from a sudden heart attack.
Many of Malvern and Surrey Parks senior players and passed players would have fond memories of Ron coaching them. He had a huge passion for the game & a jovial approach to life.
As a result of Ron’s time at both Clubs, and due to the high regard in which he was held, Malvern and Surrey Park play off for the Ron Alaimo cup each year.
Match Reports
State League
Malvern 12 defeated Surrey Park 6 Won 4 lost 0 for season After such a build up to the Ron Alaimo cup having not won it for 10 years it was extremely disappointing to be down 3 goals to nothing at quarter time and could have been worse, but the sign of a quality side is to never give up and after a “small spray” from the coach to the players about playing our brand of lacrosse saw Malvern go on a 9 to 1 goal spree over the next 2 quarters to effectively end the contest at the last break. When we stay focused and play controlled aggressive lacrosse we are a terrific lacrosse team and hopefully we will never start that slowly again this season. Patty Mac again got the 3 votes for dominating the face off and David Gal was at his miserly best in the net, in the last 3 weeks he has given up less than 5 goals a game and with Shane Koppens 19 goals so far this year at the other end we building into a Malvern team that now believes we can win from anywhere. A week of this Saturday but it will be a hard week of practice with fitness and gut running the focus before tapering off for Saturday weeks game against MCC at home on the 25th May
Division 1
Division 1 Defeated MCC 17-2
With the experienced Brad Currie sacrificing his game in Div 1 to help out his Div 3 club mates in Bendigo, a last minute withdrawal from Hamish, and what can only be described as a ‘mix-up’ with the umpires that had playing Coach Squeek, donning the refs stripes and whistle so a game could be played, it was safe to say it wasn’t the pre game prep the Div 1 boys were looking for. With a last minute recruitment of Darcy Campbell from the sidelines to boost the numbers to 12 the game, finally, got underway.
Cam Mac took control of the centre and the game early, showing his experience and maturity with direction and a level headedness that quickly spread around the team. Barnsey reminded us why he used to play with a short stick scoring first and ending up with 5 for the game. The fire power and speed of AJ is exactly what Div 1 needs and he didn’t disappoint. When Callum realised he needed to hold onto his stick to actually score and got his eye in he was unstoppable, also ending the game with 5 goals. Toby Exton played his second game in months and looked like he had never put his stick down, when he turns on the jets he cant be caught and is a handy addition.
Defensively our boys were solid as the scoreline shows. The long poles are hard to beat and starting work well together with Jay giving direction from the cage in possibly the best form of his Lax career.
Darcy ran hard in his second game of the day, not only scoring but taking some big hits and bouncing back straight away, he was far from out of place
Division 3
Malvern 10 Bendigo 5
Div 3 travelled to Gold town Bendigo this weekend for the game of the round. With the stands packed, there wasn’t a seat to be had.
Malvern were up against it. Bendigo were in full flight running, dodging, catching and shooting the ball on goal.
All this before the game had even started. While, we could only watch.
With most of the team over 40, with 6 forwards and no middies, we were in for one hell of a battle. With two of the three under 30 running on one leg, it was going to be hard.
Bendigo started well and had us worried right through the game. At 6- 4 up at half time it was going to be tight, with Malvern short on the bench, we had to dig out something special as we were fast running out of legs. Our defence worked hard all game and some smart thinking of the forwards to move the ball and make the most of it really saved us. Old heads playing smart defence combined with smart ball control we managed to get away with the win.
We kept just enough in the tank to put on the afterburners in the last quarter to speed away for them when it really counted.
A special thanks to Boppa and Jono Bean for helping Malvern, without them there would have been no game.
B Grade Women’s
The B Grade team started the season with a bang with a 9-1 victory against Williamstown in Round 1 and have continued their winning streak sitting on top of the ladder with 3 wins and no losses thus far. The girls have conceded only 2 goals against their opposition taking full opportunity of the home ground advantage against Eltham at the Town Hall last week. Lacrosse Victoria decided to bring the women’s rounds in line with the men’s this season and instead of all games being played at one venue, will run with a home and away fixture, giving the B Grade girls the opportunity of playing, what was previously a rare occurrence, home games!
Our run coming into the next few weeks looks a lot tougher on paper than we have encountered so far but with a full bench at the ready and our newcomers getting into the swing of things we are looking forward to the challenges ahead. We have another home game against MCC this weekend so come down and cheer the girls on.
Under 18’s
Under 16’s
Under 14’s
U14 Defeated MCC/Knox 24-2
Our injury plagued U/14 team hit another snag this week with Sam Todhunter out with a leg injury before the MCC/Knox game even got underway. Stepping up to fill the hole were Harry Arthur and Ben Freeman debuting in their first matches in full gear, doing a fantastic job, running hard and chasing up ground balls, a few more training sessions and a little confidence will see these boys scoring plenty and having a huge impact on the game in no time.
The boys in black (and Ally) started off well with a quick few goals from Aaron, Benny, Mitchell Baker and a few Bown to Bown brother goals saw us step out to a quick 7-1 first quarter lead. The second quarter was much the same with Thom dominating in the centre and Az bagging 5 for the quarter forcing Coach Squeeker to put the brakes on at half time and get our more experienced boys to play left handed and pass to everyone in the attack line before having a shot. Harry Lowe and Ton Martin showed their defensive strength around the ground beating the opposition in all contested ground balls, with Kaileb displaying his awesome speed and again coming close to his first goal. Ally finished strongly with 3 goals for the game and has done a great job of helping out the boys whilst they have been short. It was Ryans turn in the cage and although i think i saw him shivering a couple of times, when he got some action he made some great saves only letting 2 through.
We welcome back George Bidgood this week from a broken hand, its fantastic to see the injured players on the sidelines still coming to games and cheering on their team mates.
