Moe falls short against Eagles
Posted on July 14, 2009, 7:07pm
The Moe Lions couldn’t hold off the Maffra Eagles as they stole the game out from under a brave Moe side that simply ran out of petrol with six minutes to play last Saturday, in the battle for league supremacy in round 12 of the West Gippsland Latrobe Football League.
Earlier in the season the Lions were making it hard for themselves by making slow starts, but now the problem has diverted to the business end of the game with Moe not being able to run the last two games out, after leading all day.
The ironic thing about this result is now there are five out of the nine teams sitting ‘on top’ of the ladder with 28 points each. As they say in the classics’ “great result for footy”. This competition is really hotting up, with four of those five teams playing each other next week.
The game got under way in fairly heavy conditions after the overnight and morning rain. A long kick deep into the Moe attacking zone saw star forward Matt Forys take a great contested mark to put the lions on the board first. Maffra, not to be outdone, countered straight out of the centre clearance for Maffra’s perennial on baller Gary Jones to pounce on a loose and run it into an open goal. Game on.
Moe wingman Chris Smogavec, playing his 249th senior game, won free just behind the centre, and after a bit of lip to the umpire by the Maffra defender found himself just on his range at about 46 metres out. He made no mistake with the kick at the South street end to fire up the locals.
Again, Maffra took the ball out of the centre, where Jones was on the end of handball that saw him slot through his second before the Moe faithful were into their second ‘shout’. Moe ruckman, Chris Hancock, back from a weeks ‘holiday’ last week was timing his jumps beautifully as he used the Maffra ruckman Andrew Dunsmuir’s rib cage as his step ladder, but Maffra’s on ball brigade were starting to rove to the big Moe ruckman’s taps.
The ground was getting heavier under foot and the ferocity at the ball by the players from both sides was intense. Moe’s ‘angry’ Phil Town got in inboard handball out to playing Capt Coach Troy Makepeace who drove the ball to a hard leading Adam Kennedy. The Maffra spoil went straight into the hands of Moe small Googa Thorpe, who was at full tilt and goalward bound as he fired through Moe’s third and last goal for the quarter, to give the home side a two point lead going to the first break.
Makepeace had a steely determined look on his face as he challenged his charges to continue with that intensity at the ball and the man for the next three quarters. Moe broke for the restart and before the ‘boys’ on the hill had worked out whose shout it was Adam Kennedy got on the end of the first clearance to goal after thirty seconds of play.
Hancock followed the next clearance down into Moe’s forward zone and played rover to the rovers as he slotted one home from close range to give locals 17 point break early in the quarter. Moe had their match ups on the dangerous Hayden Burgiel, with Symon Lee working him over nicely, and Ash Payne had the big job on Maffra star centre half forward Daniel Stubbe who had been well held to this point. Jones and ex AFL player Ben Robbins combined to get the ball lace out to the fast leading Stubbe who kicked a trademark long left foot goal to keep the Eagles in touch.
Maffra mid fielder Michael Coleman chimed in with a timely goal to lock up the scores before Moe youngster Jake Munro put through a left footer from the fifty metre line to give his side a hard fought seven point break going in to the sheds at half time. The weather was just holding as the two sides came out to renew hostilities in the ‘premiership’ quarter.
Moe were minus Peter Ainsworth out of their defensive six as he succumbed to injury in the second quarter. Makepeace and his coaching staff had re jigged the back six to combat Maffra’s four man forward set up and both sides were content to play with extra defenders playing the sweeper and link up attack thrust roles. Maffra have perfected this style of play over recent years with players the calibre of Burgiel and Ben Batahla, both being highly skilled in their ball use and delivery to their teammates up field.
Tom long and Makepeace were playing the same roles for Moe as the game became one of forward thrusts and strong rebounds by both sides. It was well into the ‘third’ before Munro got onto the end of a pass and goaled for the Lions, followed up by a ‘Saturday ‘ special from Forys as he reeled in a ball on the outer boundary and wheeled onto a left foot tracer that tracked around that boundary and straight through the middle, defying the odds that say you can’t kick a left foot goal from out there. The crowd went quiet, mouths were gaping open on the hill in disbelief, but he does it every week, at every ground. This should have been the goal that galvanized the Moe players as they got around him.
The point where they might have been thinking, ‘this is our game today’ but Maffra quickly put paid to any such thoughts. They scored the next three goals of the quarter from the 19 minute mark onwards as Sam Bristow found the ball at his feet after some heavy traffic in the Maffra goalsquare and he toe poked it through. Burgiel and Stubbe who still hadn’t done much, then kicked one each in trademark fashion to come within a point of the home side, as the siren sounded to end a hard fought and thoroughly entertaining quarter. Moe had their social rooms packed with a past players function and the mood in the crowd was intoxicating as they all knew the history of the recent battles between these two tough sides and the last quarter was highly anticipated.
Moe’s tackle count, 1%ers and hardball get stats were all up, but I reckon Maffra’s stats would have been similar. They had been inside fifty more often, Moe were more efficient in their attack on goal ratio but both defences were on top. It was 9 minutes into the last quarter before Forys won a free on the fifty metre arc. I don’t want to sound smart, but he is a short odds bet from there, and the crowd expect him to do the obvious. True to the story, he kicked the ball straight over the goal umpires head from the 55 metre mark to give Moe a 7 point break. The game really locked down in the middle and Burgiel had been pushed forward of the play by Maffra coach Graham Robbins in an effort to change up the game. Burgiel repaid his coach by kicking a beautiful running goal at the 16 minute mark and then followed up with another similar goal at the 19 minute mark to give the Eagles the lead for the first time in the match.
“Plenty of time left” as you would think the next goal would be the winner. Maffra went into lock down mode as they forced the ball out wide and went into scrum pack mode at every stoppage. They forced the ball over the boundary line in no mans land 4 times in a row as they ran down the clock and stole a 5 point win right out from under Moe’s nose. A bitterly disappointed Moe side left the playing field wondering what they had done wrong over the last two weeks, as they had let both games slip in the last ten minutes.
Moe’s best was Phil Town who was in every pack, he was well supported by Andrew ‘Googa’ Thorpe. Symon Lee played a great game, Matt Dickason, Leigh Hale and Tom Long were fantastic in defence.
With the results of the rest of the round Moe now sits in second place behind Traralgon on percentage. Guess who Moe plays this Saturday?
The Moe Reserves flew the flag for the club with a fine 14 point win over the Maffra reserves in game that went goal for goal. These two sides have had some fantastic matches recently and this was no exception. The Moe boys only pulled away in the last five minutes. Moe reserves coach said it was nice to get the reward today for a great team performance. Best for Moe were John ‘Jumbo’ James, Braden Robertson, Luke MacKay, Kenny McKay, Jim Keltie and Anthony Battista.
The Moe under 16’s and under 18’s went down to strong Maffra outfits. Moe under 18’s coach said “he was really happy with the way his side played today bearing in mind that they are a largely down age side” Traralgon this week will be a real test of character as they are generally the benchmark in the under age competition.
For all the scores in the other footy and netball matches on the day go to the Moe website: www.moefnc.vcfl.com.au
This Saturday, Moe travels to Traralgon to take on the old enemy in a battle for top spot on the ladder. Head over and cheer the Lions on. And don’t forget our Moe Lions family day out at the Stockyards Hotel Sunday lunchtime commencing at 12.30pm.
These articles might be of interest:
Maffra aren’t half as good as they used to be. Moe should have won this game.