Season 2013
Naked on the Crease
Player profile
Hopefully every week we will be able to do a profile on a current or past member of our club.
This week we will start with the shyest person in the club .
Glenn “Rubber ” Meredith
Starting with Last Century[su_list icon=”icon:chevron-circle-right”]
- 1980 under 16 Victorian Team National Championships Perth Australia
- National Champions and Selected in All Stars Team
- 1983 under 19 Victorian Team National Championships Melbourne
- National Champions and Selected in All Star Team
- 1983 under 19 Australian team tour of America
- 1984 under 22 Australian Team played as 4th Team in Senior National Championships in Adelaide
- 1985 Box Lacrosse Tour of Canada and America
- 1986, 88, 89, 91, 92, Senior Victorian Teams National Championships Adelaide and Melbourne. 3 Times National Champions
- 1989 Senior Australian Team, Tour of America World Series warm up
- 1989 Senior Australian Team Captain, tour of Japan
- 1990 Senior Australian Team World Series Perth
- 286 Victorian State League Games, 1384 Goals, 100 goals in a season 5 times
- 5 Victorian State League Premierships with Malvern from 1987 to 1997
- This Century
- 2008-2011 Victorian State Team Coach 5 wins
- 2009-Current Head Coach Malvern Lacrosse State League Team
- 2012 – Appointed Head Coach Australian Men’s Lacrosse Team 2014[/su_list]
Match Reports
State League
Malvern 12 defeated Eltham 9
Won 6 lost 0 for season
After a couple of inches of rain overnight conditions were always going to be tough for both teams and it would be fair to say any ground in Melbourne would have had issues after that amount of rain.
We started well enough and took control of the midfield through Patty Mac who again had a great day and despite the close score line l believe we were the better team on the day and could easily have won by more than the score suggested.
All credit to Eltham for playing the game out to the very end and they are a better team than their place on the ladder suggests.
Some of the players have criticised me for addressing the team after the game about not being happy with the 10 or so poor decisions we made as a team on the day and l have no control as to their thought processes as to why they would say that but assume that they accept mediocrity in their lives and that is fine for them, but l do not. And players in this team deserves better.
This is a Malvern team that has been 6 years in the making and after a lot of blood sweat and tears is now a team on the verge of being successful, the last part of the process is to train and play at a relentless level, enough said.
National Championships this week and a another week off, which is extremely distracting for all concerned but Camberwell when we get back in a fortnight and that is all l need to say.
Rub
Division 1
DIVISION 1 DEFEATED ELTHAM 15-5
The highly anticipated return of Craig ‘ Browny’ Brown had at last come to fruition, with Craig down for the week he made a great cameo in the Div 1 team this week in their victory over Eltham. After getting burnt early, and the Malvern supporters on the sidelines letting him know about it, he let nothing more past him for the rest of the game. Barnesy came from the back of the cage in the first few minutes and hit the goal keeper square in the middle, two minutes later he repeated the move but this time found the back of the net and then again 4 more times over the course of the game making him Div 1’s top scorer. With AJ scoring 4 and Toby with 2 its the firepower Div 1 were desperately missing last season, throw in Jake Coleman Cam Mac, Boppa, Joe and Squeeka who are usually good for at least one a game along with all the midfield work they do and things are starting to look exciting for this team. 8-3 up at half time and the defence looking as strong as ever with the return of Sherm this week, the boys in black didn’t back off, scoring another 7 in the second half. Cam’s dominance of the centre, backed up by Toby’ Jets’ Exton running in off the wing gives us first use of the ball almost every time. A great mix of youth and experience are what makes this team so good and so great to watch.
Divsion 3
Defeated MCC
Playing at the Town Hall on the New Lake provided by Mother Nature. The boys where in for a sloppy one with the ground under water.
This week we had a full bench to work with. The almost Legendary World games Face off player Chris Baker geared up to play face off, but it was to muddy, so he went to the forward line. We started Travis on the forward line, hopefully to get that elusive first goal. It’s still elusive.
We were also joined by a couple of under 18’s who did a great job.The Hubbards played very well again getting goals and some assists. Our defence line once again were pretty tight holding out their shooters. No mention of Darcy Campbell this week as he’s getting too much press after taking all the faceoff’s that were to muddy for Uncle Chris and running the lines scoring goals and assists. The ” Hi Light ” so I’m told was Geoff Finnigan dodging from behind at amazing speed only to be tripped and then Aquaplaning 5 metres into the crease, on his back with arms and legs flying everywhere. In goals at the other end Paulie described it as a turtle skidding stuck on his back. No compassion at all out there, Just laughter.
Pinkie played his break out come back game, it was good to see him back out there running around confusing everyone. My hard working player of the round has got to be Travis, he is solid in defence and does he chase down ground balls, fighting for everything. Well done.
The team is still to be tested as we seem to be doing it pretty easy at the moment but the are tougher teams coming.
B Grade Women’s
B GRADE DEFEATED BY SURREY PARK 9-14
After much discussion about the state of the ground and getting Caulfield’s ground as a back up, it was decided to turn the field sideways and play across the ground to try to preserve the goal ends a little. The brains trust (Steve, Boppa, and Mal, later joined by Rocket) worked and measured out the ground dimensions and marked it out, it was a little odd for to see the field set up this way but could be a good option for men’s games too if we can get some netting put up along High St. Thank to these guys for marking out the women’s ground every week, much appreciated guys.
The Malvern girls are yet to beat Surrey Park in our short three year playing history and with rumours circulating of the Surrey team not being as strong as they have been in the past, this looked like the game to change that. Unfortunately, as has happened on too many occasions, we started slowly not chasing ground balls or covering cutters and our quality opposition made us pay for it dearly scoring seven unanswered goals in the first eleven minutes of the game. Coach Rocket used his last time out at the nine minute mark of the first half to ‘calmly remind’ the girls what we had been working so hard at training on since pre season. This seemed to work and we finally switched on, but the damage was done and we went into the half time break 4-8 down.
Tara Healy just returned from her ankle injury and had to be content with sitting in the attack line instead of her usual dominance through the mid field. She scored two for us, Romy top scored with three and worked hard in the centre and its great to have the skill and height of Phoebe Naughton in the team when we come up against experienced teams like Surrey, despite dubbing herself a defence player Phoe was our second top scorer with 2 goals, Katie Benson scored a great goal making use of those long legs and blistering speed on a fast break, and Kate Francis also scored although her celebration after she assisted a goal was one of the best I have seen.
We spend plenty of training time working on our shooting skills, but in tough games our shooting placement lets us down, doing all the hard work around the ground to pass it to the goal keeper time and time again. Final score was 9-14. Lots of positives that came out of the game and lots of things that we can work on before we take on another strong side in Camberwell in two weeks time.
Under 13 girls
U/13 Girls Defeated By Eltham 2-8
The U/13 girls last played Eltham in their very first game at the beginning of the season, we only had 6 players and came away wondering if entering our very young and inexperienced team in the U/13 competition was a good idea! To see the development of these girls from the first week is amazing!! Since the first round we have also recruited Jenna Croll and sisters Emma and Sarah Davie who all make a huge difference to the team. Lochie again suited up in the goalie gear for the girls and is not only becoming a great goalie for them making a heap of saves, he also talks with the girls on the defence line telling them to pick up players and positions they should get into , sharing his experience of playing 5 years of boys Lacrosse with them. This week we also had Mitch Reid take the ground with the girls to try to give them a bit more height and experience and he ran the midfield hard all day, Thanks Mitch!!
Sarah and Emma started in defence and are already amazing defensive players, watching these two chase hard, cover cutters and scoop up ground balls you would never guess they were new to the game this season, and their future in Women’s lacrosse looks exciting. Brooke Reid was unstoppable again running down the field with awesome ball control skills and scoring one of our goals, Meg and Ashley made some great position in attack finding themselves open in front of goal a lot, some more hard work at training to master their skills will help them convert this to goals in no time. Jacinta and Eden’s fight for the ball is great, they never give up in a competition making the older Eltham girls fight hard for every ball they won. Paige Currie skills are improving ten fold each game and she is a reliable outlet catching everything that comes her way. Jenna scored our other goal and with her experience the girls look to her as a leader in the team, she runs hard all day and is always a relief pass for the others when needed. The Malvern girls would have had a few more goals if they took the shot when it was on instead of sharing the ball around a little too much which caused costly turnovers. These girls may not have won a game yet but there are so many positives with these girls every week!!! Their small cheer squad can see the massive improvements game after game and just to have a Malvern junior girls team running out on the field every week having fun with their friends is worth more than any victory! Well done Malvern u13 Girls.
Under 18’s
Under 16’s
Under 14’s
U/14 Boys defeated Eltham 13-8
It was a nervous coach that made his way out to Eltham on a very wet Saturday morning, we had heard good reports about the Eltham U/14 kids and thought this may be our biggest challenge to date, with Ryan still sunning himself in Bali and George Bidgood almost knocking himself out, walking into a door during the week we were already 2 down before we started, to add to our woes Ben Chapman was unwell and showed up looking like a ghost. Coach Squeeker made the decision to put Thom Bown in goals and ultimately it was a decision that paid off, Thom (much to his disgust) is a fantastic goalie and made some great saves and clears for the team. Without Thom in his usual position of dominating the centre it was left to Aaron and Benny to take over, and that they did winning most of the face offs and putting us in a great position, Sam Todhunter also took a few centres and did an awesome job. The Eltham team were solid defensively and that’s something our boys can probably learn from. Harry and Tom Martin are staring to make their mark as backmen laying some great bodies and doubling really well. Mitch was back on the field this week and made some great cuts in the attack line along with Ally Campbell and Lochie both scoring a goal each. Mitch Baker had four assists this week and six last game showing great team play as well as running hard through the midfield. Kaileb came close to his first goal again but might need to work on his finishing at training this week to ensure he nails it next round. After a close first quarter 3-2, Malvern kept Eltham scoreless in the second and had 4 goals with four different goal scorers for the quarter giving us a 7-2 lead at half time, the rest of the game was fairly even but the damage had already been done and the Malvern Kids took the win 13-8, they still have a lot to learn and it looks like another tough match this week against the combined Surrey/ Moreland team, i think defence might be high on the agenda at training this week.
Under 12 Black’s
Under 12 Red
Social Events
Past Players Day June 22nd
June 22nd is the day we get to go ‘head to head’ with the old rival.
They were the bench mark of last year who won all the ‘silverware’ with all senior and a under 18 premiership to their collection.
Has it been done before, if so when and who? Thats one you’ll have to check in the archives of the past. ; )
Malvern is lucky enough to have the annual day against Williamstown coming up very soon.
All grades are competing to see where ‘Malvern’ is at!
Make sure you keep it free as it is promised to be a HUGE day of lacrosse at the Town Hall.
Past players are invited to come and catch up with other ex players ( both Malvern and Williamstown ) to reminisce about old times and compare with the modern day game.
Good time Guaranteed…tell your friends and see you there!
