Rd 1 2008 Central v Port @ Elizabeth Sat night 29th

[NO-MERCY]

I don't think Centrals are going to be as dominant this year as the past.
I know its early days but they won't win the flag.
Who will ???? not Centrals.

[Dogwatcher]

You'd be backing the Eagles then No Mercy?

[NO-MERCY]

I'm a bit worried about the Blues Dogga.

[devilsadvocate]

Good updates Macca.

Sounds like a decent effort by Port, but piss poor kicking.

[smithy]

I'm a bit worried about the Blues Dogga.

Dont worry, BE HAPPY...

[NO-MERCY]

You'd be backing the Eagles then No Mercy?

Who do you think i'd be backing Dogga??

[Apachebulldog]

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!11

[Dogwatcher]

You'd be backing the Eagles then No Mercy?

Who do you think i'd be backing Dogga??

The Eagles mate!

[Dogwatcher]

Anyway, back to the footy. Will be interested to read a few reports of the game in the morn.
It looked early on like the Dogs might run away, but Port held on and threatened. Goodish result for them.

[Adelaide Hawk]

I don't think Centrals are going to be as dominant this year as the past.
I know its early days but they won't win the flag.
Who will ???? not Centrals.

No offence, but I've heard this every season for the past 3-4 years.

[NO-MERCY]

You'd be backing the Eagles then No Mercy?

Who do you think i'd be backing Dogga??

The Eagles mate!

GIDDY UP!
Whats Apachebulldog on about???

[RustyCage]

Good updates Macca.

Sounds like a decent effort by Port, but piss poor kicking.

Hit the nail on the head DA.

[smithy]

You'd be backing the Eagles then No Mercy?

Who do you think i'd be backing Dogga??

The Eagles mate!

GIDDY UP!
Whats Apachebulldog on about???

You'll get used to him.
IT's the only thing he can type.

[Grahaml]

Round one and the only important thing is the win. Nothing helps the confidence except getting the season off to a start. Plenty of players missing and given the players missing from nearly every side you wonder what is going on this year.

Story of the night was the way the dogs were able to defend and put pressure on the magpies. Space was closed down quickly, and players were run down effectively. Skill levels, especially from the dogs, were very poor. I don't think I've seen Luke Cowan drop that many marks in his previous 99 games, but after 10 months without footy it's easy to understand. Plenty of guys also seemed unsure of where to run, and too often there were players not in the correct areas on the ground. However, chalking up the win is priority number 1 ATM, and now the boys can worry about tinkering with the skill level under pressure and getting to the right areas. And regaining Ware, Gowans, McCabe, Faulkner and O'Sullivan will add much more bite to the midfield that looked strangely depleted tonight. Port were allowed to use the corridor too often, and we lacked the ability to hurt on the rebound which has been a trademark of the dogs. Bring in those guys, and surely the natural improvement of Spurr, Boyle, Shaw, Williams, Westhoff and Goodrem given their ages, experience levels and lack of gametime with the rest of the lads and I'm sure that won't be a problem.

The forward line looked very dangerous with Lawry, Havelberg and Cowan all prominent targets at different stages. Better delivery, not to mention some glue on sponge's hands will make an enormous difference. Best part was their finishing, no doubt, which was in the main not good luck but good management. Each shot was taken from a distance and angle every forward was very comfortable with.

The backline was fantastic. Sibenaler did a great job thwarting many early attacks while Andrew Hayes marking was clean and damaging, and his run carved up the port forwards going the other way. BOG in my book.

For Port, the midfield was very good, certainly better than the dogs. Summerton was a real nuisance. Hargraves got some fantastic supply, and were it 6 or 7 years ago or against most other defenders would have had a real bag before half time. The worry for Port would be that they will hardly be given more latitude than that. Mistakes simply weren't punished like they will in 2 months. Given their inability to handle the pressure when it was applied the must be a worry, along with the forward line efficiency and the backline's weakness in the one on one contests. Waterhouse will make a difference up forward if his knee comes up, but if it doesn't the answer lies far from Rugolo who just reminded all the dogs faithful why we never worried about him previously. The only damage he was going to do was in the BBQ. The defense looks undermanned and if Maric plays much AFL this year Port look in trouble down back. Corey Ah Chee is a fine player, perhaps past his best, but still he cannot be everywhere. He is a good CHF, and if you could clone him he's be first choice CHF but any Port team without CAC lining up against the number 1 forward will always struggle. Not many others there will contain Alleway, Schwarz, Cowan,, Chambers, Grima and the like. Eichner may be on the verge of a return, but after missing 2 years of footy he's going to be up against it getting back into the league team. And that's even if his knee is good enough.

Anyway, round 2 is where the real season starts IMHO so let's save our full assessments until after the round 1 nerves have gone.

And for what it's worth, I firmly believe that the dogs will be better this season than last. Given the result tonight, if anything, that opinion has only been firmed. It's far from a case of us chasing Sturt, North and the Eagles. It's North and Sturt chasing us with the Eagles hoping not to slip back to the clutches of Glenelg and, dare I say it, Port.

[Big Phil]

I don't think Centrals are going to be as dominant this year as the past.
I know its early days but they won't win the flag.
Who will ???? not Centrals.

Not Eagles either then hey...

You can't make that comment this time of year NO MERCY...

Just wait and see mate, wait and see...

Big Phil...

[Big Phil]

Great match report Grahaml, I'll have a crack at mine now... See how we go...

DOGGIES START YEAR OFF WITH A HARD FOUGHT WIN...

For those who weren't able to attend tonights game, here is MY wrap of of both the reserves and league games. Both teams starting the year of with a W in the books, WELL DONE BOYS...

RESERVES TEAM:
Hadden, O'Sullivan, Stengle, Giles, Officer, M.Westhoff, Baldwin, Moss, Hudson, White, Woods, Musolino, McShane, Barmby, McGrath, Porter, O'Hara, Duncan, Whiley, Brading, Matson

FINAL SCORES:
CDFC - 2.0 , 3.3 , 5.3 , 4.2 - 14. 8 = 92
PAFC - 2.5 , 2.3 , 2.4 , 4.3 - 10.15 = 75

GOAL KICKERS:
M.Westhoff - 3, Brading, Whiley, O'Hara, Woods - 2, McShane, Officer, Matson - 1

MY BETTER PLAYERS:
O'Hara, Whiley, Musolino, O'Sullivan, Stengle, M.Westhoff, Moss, Officer, White, Hadden

GAME SUMMARY:
The Magpies started the game with a few quality players in the line up including Power young gun, Nathan Krakouer and a very unfit, slightly over weight Byron Pickett. Centrals lost Lee Spurr to the League team before the bounce, after Cameron Faulkner didn't quite come up.

As per the form of early trial games, the boys started the quarter a little slowly, even though Sean Brading kicked the first goal of the game. Young Port Magpies forward, Jordan Erskine, kept us in the game by kicking 4 points in the first 10 minutes, all from set shots. Young Nick White was struggling at full back but we were lucky enough to be left off the hook with Port kicking 2.5 for the quarter. Chris Musolino looked good off half back, showing good run and drive, and it was great to see a fit, revitalised looking Kane Officer in a red, white & blue gurnsey once again. He looked good early winning a few possessions, however the story from most of his team mates was poor skills, resulting in errors and turnovers.

Chad O’Sullivan showed his class early in the second quarter, playing on the ball. He did well to set Kane Officer up for a good team goal. Again, at times, skills were letting both teams down, with indecision by foot and a lack of targets up forward. Our young Crows rookie, James Moss, was playing well from his wing and even floated across half back to take himself a nice big pack mark. The intensity lifted in the second half of the quarter and guys like Brayden O’Hara and the impressive Todd Whiley were starting to find a bit of the ball, with Brodie Hudson becoming a strong target up forward. Unfortunately Brodie couldn’t convert with a couple of shots on goal, but the boys still went into the long break of a tight contest with a solitary behind as their lead.

Once again, off to a slow start to the quarter with Port kicking a goal within the first 30 seconds. Despite trying to impose himself in his typical “crunching” manner, Byron Pickett was being well held by Ashley Duncan, who even took a crunching bump from the big man when laying a Sheppard. Impressively, the under 19 player from last year bounced straight back on his feet and pushed off to the next contest. Despite his superior stature and experience, Jonathon Giles wasn’t really winning the ruck contest so the on ballers were made to work really hard throught the middle. Then, against the flow of play, O’Hara kicked a big goal to start up a bit of momentum. Mossy took another hanger, Alex Stengle was playing really well off half back and Matty Westhoff was giving a strong contest in the forward line. Chad O’Sullivan and Ryan Porter then starting winning a few more of the contested possessions, which led to a really good goal by booming left footer, Todd Whiley. After a 5 goal to 2 quarter, we went into lemons with an 18 point lead.

We finally started a quarter will with Tassie recruit Keiran McShane getting a nice tap down from Joffa, delivered it to the forward line, followed up his kick and was able to go on and kick a good goal. I think we lost Luke Barmby to injury but the back line was able to cover him well with Nick White lifting his game to improve on a poor first half. Young NSW recruit, Ben Woods came into the game kicking a couple of goals. Despite the boys again struggling with turn overs and skill errors, both teams managed to kick 4 goals a piece leaving the final margin similar to that of ¾ time. Hicksy’s boys went onto register a hard fought 17 point win and the coach would have been impressed with a good team effort, which included 5 players kicking 2 or more goals each. Well done boys…

Now onto the main game, that was an intriguing battle, in more ways than one...

LEAUGE TEAM:
Lawry, L.Westhoff, Callinan, Cochrane, Slattery, Goodrem, Dutschke, Spurr, Thomas, MacKenzie, Shaw, C.Gowans, Hayes, Cowan, Schell, Williams, Sibenaler, Boyle, Slade, Havelberg, Switala

FINAL SCORES:
CDFC - 5.0 , 2.2 , 4.0 , 3.2 - 14.4 = 88
PAFC - 1.3 , 2.2 , 5.2 , 2.1 - 10.8 = 68

GOAL KICKERS:
Callinan, Havelberg - 3, Lawry, L.Westhoff - 2, Dutschke, MacKenzie, Cowan, Slade - 1

MY BETTER PLAYERS:
L.Westhoff, Callinan, Lawry, Switala, Hayes, Sibenaler, Havelberg, Slade, Schell

GAME SUMMARY:
It was a great start to the night with the 2007 Premiership Flag doing a lap of honour before the start of the game. It was also good to see the Cheersquad have a banner for the boys to start the year off. Didn’t see what it said myself, but maybe a tribute to Luke Cowan for his 100th game ? I had the chance to have a quick chat to Thommo before the game and he mentioned a late change with Cameron Faulkner pulling out after rolling his ankle on the track late in the week. Lee Spurr the replacement, for just his second game of league football.

After some experimentation in the North trial, Trent Goodrem started off at half back with big Buckets, debutant Power rookie, Daniel Boyle, and late inclusion, Lee Spurr sitting on the pine. The boys got off to a pretty good start with another first gamer, ex Swan Earl Shaw, getting his hands on the ball in the ruck contests. This led to the first of Daniel Havelberg’s 2 goals for the quarter after receiving a pin point bullet pass from Sponge and taking a good overhead mark. Leigh Westhoff was getting a bit of the ball early off his wing and after lifting our skill level half way through the quarter we were able to compile a good team goal from CHF Heath Lawry. Our attack on the both the footy and the player with the ball was impressive early with Heath Lawry charging at the ball, dishing out good handballs and laying a bone crunching hip and shoulders. Despite a few anticipated but still bewildering umpire decisions we were able to conjure up a very impressive 5 goal to 1 start to lead by 21 points at quarter time. This was also helped by a lack of discipline from a few Port players giving away 25 metre penalties, ending up with an easy goal to young Scott Dutshke in particular.

We started the 2nd quarter with good forward line pressure despite Port dropping a loose man in defence to fill up any holes. Despite dominating possession early we weren’t able to convert on the scoreboard and against the run of play, Daniel Elstone goaled to keep the visitors in touch with the reigning premiers. Again, Heath Lawry’s attack on the footy was outstanding and we managed to answer back immediately with a good running goal to veteran Mathew Slade. At the 12 minute mark of the quarter, Daniel Boyle got his first taste of SANFL footy, however within a few minutes he found himself in the umpire’s book for striking ex Eagle Vinnie Rugolo. Fellow Power player, Ryan Williams was given the task of tagging Port ace Jeremy Clayton. At times, he did well running off the Magarey Medallist, showing composure and good skills. Leigh Westhoff showed selectors he is ready to take the next step and play consistant League football. He kicked a really good goal as well as showing a clean pair of heels and a toughness at the ball and body. We controlled the footy for most of the quarter and despite both teams only kicking 2.2 a piece, we went into the long break with the same 21 point lead that we had at quarter time. Our backline was very impressive with Scell and Sibenelar quelling any influence of AhChee and Hargraves, respectively. Hayesy was a welcolm inclusion back in the team and played well aslo.

Our starts to the quarter were excellent and the 3rd was certainly no different with co-captain Paul Thomas soccering the ball off the ground, into out forward 50. A clever Ian Callinan separated himself from a little dust up deep in attack, swooped on the loose ball and pin pointed a pass to a strong marking Havelberg. The missile from last years B&F winner went whizzing over the top of the mele and Hav finished off with a great goal. Chris Gowans seemed to cop of cheap and heavy knock from his opponent and, of course, in true Gowans fashion, picked himself up and tracked down the instigator for a friendly chat. Despite the heavy knock Chris still won the hard ball and used it well on both feet. With another “mele” occuring whilst Chris seeked out revenge, Port managed to take the ball end to end, resulting in a goal to youngster Steven Summerton. Once again, our backline held up well, we were winning the battle of the wings with Leigh Westhoff and Adam Switala getting plenty of it and I was impressed with our forward line pressure. We had good run off half back, especially from Andrew Hayes, but we turned the ball over too easy. After a below par first half, Ian Callinan lifted. He was tough at it, found his team mates with superior skills as well as getting himself another goal. However, Port answered straight back with 2 quick replies to Miller and Rugolo and the margin was now down to 14 points. This was, in part, through our poor descision making and a lack of execution, causing the turnovers resulting in Magpies forward line entries. All of a sudden Port were breaking our tackles, finding space through th middle and outscoring us for the quarter 5 goals to 4. It could have been worse, but a 5 or 6 minute purple patch late in the quarter. This resulted in goals to Buckets and Wing Nut. Ex Rooster, Daniel Hargraves kicked the last goal of the quarter to not only fire his team mates up, but to also have the 3/4 time margin at the 14 point mark.

Like the majority of the game, the last quarter was a dour battle with both teams fighting hard for their maiden win of the year. We started the last stanza with Sladey winning the first clearance but were unlucky to not receive a free kick for holding the ball deep into our forward line. How the umpire decided on a ball up after a Port player took on 3 Centrlals players is beyond me ? Good to see the standard of umpiring hasn’t changed !!? From that resulting ball up the Magpies once again took the ball “end to end” for a goal to new captain Corey Achee, who had a pretty good battle with Schelly all night. The deficit was now only 7 points. Port were right in it. Then in what was probably the most crucial play of the night, Ian Callinan was actually beaten by his taller opponent Mathew King (I think ?) in a one on one. With Callinan closing in on him, the defender tried to turn inside only to do his hamstring !!Then in a desperate, hobbling attempt the Port player tried to get the ball to the boundary line, but failed. Once again, like a hawk, Callinan swooped in on the ball, turned another opponent on his heels, came inside and snapped a real quality goal. Goal of the night, margin now back out at 13 points.

Just as we had started to stretch the lead out and gain some momentum there was a bloody STREAKER on the ground. !!?? I really thought the cricket season had just finished ? With just his jocks on and a back pack, the alcohol affected supporter came onto the ground at the Southern End and slowly made his way across the oval, down to the Northern End. Although it was absolutely hilarious, the timing was poor. We had just kicked the last goal and now that swing in momentum was being held up. This crucial time lost was also due to the extremely poor and incompetent security staff from Weslo who not only just meandered after the “pitch invader” but also had to be ushered off the ground by umpires after just wondering around on the Grandstand side wing, like lost little puppies ??? What a joke Weslo. During all the commotion of the streaker, a customary orange flair was let off by the cheersquad as well causing more chaos down at the scoreboard end.

Once the game recommenced, Port were able to get first hands on the footy. When we did have the ball, once again we turned it over through poor foot skills. At the 16 minute mark of the last quarter, big Crows listed ruckman Ivan Maric marked and goaled from about 30 metres out to again cut the difference back to 7 points. From the next ball up, we managed to go forward with a high kick into our attacking 50. Ian Callinan showed his class once again by getting a ride on the back of his opponent, without infringing, to take a very clever chest mark. From about 45 metres out he slammed his set shot on goal into the post, taking the lead out to 8 points. A turn over from the resulting Port kick out, at the 22 minute mark, ended up in the hands of BOG Leigh Westhoff. He finished a great night off personally, with a classy goal. This now gave us a bit of breathing space, just knowing that Port still had to kick 3 goals in 5 minutes to still be a chance. Finally, our maiden win for 2008 was sealed shortly thereafter with a Heath Lawry bomb from outside 50, the result of a rare free kick to us in our forward line. The final winning margin was 20 points in favour of the Mighty Dogs with plenty of room for impovemnt (and some players to come back in... ?)

With our first win under our belt, we now head to Unley for a “top of the table” clash. It was probably good for the boys to start off with a dour, tough fighting game as they will probably find the Double Blues clash fairly similar. From what I could see, we had no injuries from tonights game and should also have a few players to come back in. Guys like J.Gowans, Ware, McCabe, Faulkner, Then there is also a couple of young boys impressing in the reserves, namely O'Hara, Whiley, M.Westhoff, Hadden, Duncan, Musolino, Giles, Stengle etc. It's good though becasue it not only adds pressure to selection but it means we are also improving our depth.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed my match report tonight, look forward to Unley next Suturday now...

GO U DOGGIES…

Big Phil…

[Mr Irate]

Also, how the hell can they play night footy at Elizabeth, the lighting is way below what is required.

Nothing wrong with the lighting at Elizabeth, North have never lost a game out there under lights.

Erm.....Round 1 2007 ?

[Mr Irate]

Battle of the ferals..... i feel the profession of dentistry was the real loser tonight.

It's the quality of the posting not the quantity

[Macca19]

Great writeups Phil and Graham!

[smac]

Happy to get a win whilst not putting together 4 quarters of footy - the dogs best is still as good as it has been over the past 8 years, looking forward to the day we click and play a consistent game at that level.

Lots of very young recruits for the dogs, augers well for years to come.

Karmic justice for Jeremy Clayton, who appeared to strain a hamstring (and struggled for the rest of the game) while stretching to hit his opponent who beat him to a marking contest. Angry little man.