St Kevin’s OB celebrated Anthony Lynch’s 250th game in style, running over Old Xaverians by 61 points at TH King Oval. SKOB led by 21 points at half time and were pressured early in the third; however, through missed opportunities and SKOB’s ability to absorb pressure and launch a counter attack themselves, they piled on 11 goals to four in the second half. Lachie Sullivan was unrelenting and at his physical prime, kicking four goals, Jack Holden was operating at a v10 level of class, while the man of the moment booted two goals and was named best for his own standout display.
FROM THE PRESIDENT
It was a good weekend for the club. Most teams won their games and the teams that did not win went down gallantly.
• The Under 19’s Premier and Thirds had great wins while the Reserves lost to the top side of their competition.
• The Saints look secure 2.5 games clear in the four after a good win whilst the Reserves had a bye.
• The Thirds Green lost to a powerful Collegians outfit benefiting from a cascade effect of excess players from their Seniors. The Gold side won and put themselves a game clear in third on the ladder.
• The Seconds were beaten by a very strong (ladder leading) Old Xav’s side while the Firsts had a strong win.
• The Elder Statesmen (Masters) had a good win too!
PRE GAME LUNCHEON
The pre game lunch at TH King was a pleasure. As always, Lisa Ginies excelled. With so many great Old Xav friends in attendance it was great to catch up with them. At lunch we were able to welcome a few of their officials and compliment them on their great history and successes. We couldn’t let the opportunity pass though without some light hearted stories of some of the less successful episodes. Happily, and consistent with our close relationship – it was all taken with the best of humour. Indeed, for each story at Old Xav’s expense we had equivalent examples in our own history too. Our guests good grace was on display with many Old Xav players, officials and supporters in attendance at the post match too.
SPECIAL EFFORTS
I would like to point out a few players performances over the weekend that embody so much of what our club stands for. James Strauss and Stephen Gilham are two players that have played at the highest level. They always set the highest standards and are a joy to have around the club (and it is a bonus we get to see a lot of their Fathers too!). On Saturday morning James returned from overseas expecting a quiet morning. Instead, he answered the call from a depleted Seconds team and pulled on the boots. Stephen Gilham is coming back from injury. He graciously agreed to help out and play in the Thirds (Gold) team as he ramps up his return to Senior football. Their behaviour is a salient reminder to all in the club - selflessness is a great attribute.
SPECIAL SPONSORS
Also, I would like to thank our great sponsors Bede and Andre Noonan from Acciona (formerly Geotech) for their continued support of the club. Without their support over many years we may not be in the fortunate position of stability we are in today. Acciona is a global leader in sustainable solutions for infrastructure and renewable energy projects. Because the business is so specialised – the commercial return from a sponsorship of SKOB is likely to be modest. Hopefully Acciona and other “corporates” get a great return from supporting a volunteer based organisation that does many good things in the community. Thanks again.
RISING STAR
Finally, I would like to congratulate Cam Hodges for his nomination at this Rising Star nominee for this week. His performance on the weekend was outstanding. A former Captain of Football at SKC (2017) Cam has been playing at SKOB since 2016 and played U19’s whilst in Year 11 & 12. He debuted in the Seniors in Round 5 this year and his ongoing improvement are a credit to his work ethic and fitness.
AROUND THE GROUNDS IN PREMIER
Old Brighton's victory over Uni Blues confirmed they’re in the four and there to stay. Old Trinity returned to the top four with a thrilling six-point come-from-behind victory over De La Salle. The week’s rest did little to slow down Old Scotch’s current run of form as they secured their third straight win, defeating Old Melburnians by 37 points at Camberwell Sports Ground whilst seven goals to one in the opening term led Collegians to a comfortable 74-point victory over St Bedes/Mentone Tigers at Harry Trott Oval.
CAMERON HODGES - RISING STAR NOMINEE
All at SKOB congratulate Cam Hodges on his nomination as the Round 10 Grill’d Rising Star following a standout performance against Old Xaverians on the weekend.
Cam made his debut for St Kevin’s Old Boys in 2016 playing 8 games as a year 11 schoolboy. In that year he was a part of the U19 Premier Premiership Team.
Cam captained the St Kevin’s College 1st XVII Football Team in 2017 and also managed to play a further 7 games for the old boys. He played his first Senior game for SKOB in round 5 this season.
Cam plays like Liam Picken, tenacious and unselfish. His strengths are contested work and fitness. He is well known for his distinctive haircuts.
Congratulations Cam on achieving another notch in your football career
SKOB MASTERS 2018 – ROUND 6 MATCH REPORT by John “Foges” Fogarty
Sunday dawned darker than the inside of a dog with clouds as ominous and as black as a raven in a coalmine. The thermometer at my place must have been broken as it refused to budge up beyond low single digits and started me thinking...hmmm perhaps that macrame workshop is not looking such a bad idea for a Sunday afternoon. But footy is a winter sport and so with weather that was as cold on your face as a peck on the cheek from your future mother in law at your own engagement party, the SKOB Masters ventured out beyond the bridge over the River Yarra, into the deep dark west to take on top of the table Point Cook, in what promised to be a ding dong battle of splish splash proportions.
In this day and age where weather forecasts can stretch out to eight days SKOB had an unusually large amount of withdrawals coincidentally enough - eight days ago - and it was always going to be tough trying to field a full team to take on the ladder leaders, however there were a couple of handy ins for this week. Notably the lad Simpson who apparently was rather talented back in the day and clearly not much has changed - same great ability - same ordinary haircut. We also welcomed back skipper for the day Luke “yes I still have to show my ID to prove that I am over 35 because I’m such a young-looking rooster” Kalasaren. We also had Pete “my hammy’s right but I just can’t kick with that leg” Murray, and Jesse “I can’t believe you blokes won without me last week” Seven. To bolster the thin looking bench that at selection time only housed this scribe - which is the first and last time I’ve been described as thin looking - were “General Manager of all things including popping myself on the David Dench in the hour of need” Dan Kennedy and Tim “I hear they have an electronic scoreboard at Point Cook” Kehoe.
Like most non-RAAF enthusiasts this scribe always believed Point Cook to be named after the explorer Captain James - he of the ill-fated phrase - “Don’t worry fellas, I know the locals here and they’re all good blokes” - but in fact Point Cook was actually named after another seafaring chap named John Cooke (whose sign writer found spelling a bit of a challenge). If truth be told the locals out here were much more accommodating than those the late Captain James encountered, but that didn’t mean they weren’t out to cut us down to size. So, on with the game.
With Sharknado out of the side there were no pre-match tunes to warm up the troops which went over well with most of the crew. The pre-game kick out on the ground made it pretty clear that there was a gale of American Werewolf like howling proportions, so it was going to be a handy toss to win. Alas, our man Luke didn’t quite have the charming luck of his predecessor Ben and picked the wrong hand in the bi-weekly guessy-which-handy the umpires like to play out in the middle to determine which ends the teams will kick to. With the early advantage of the wind, the home side quickly had a goal on the board and SKOB knew they were in for a tough one. However, SKOB ARE tough ones, and they slowly but surely wrestled back the ascendancy. It helped that we had the lad Simpson working the ball forward from every stoppage and allowing SKOB to inch around the far wing to set up opportunities for forwards like Jesse “Yes I know I’m 50 out kicking into the teeth of Cyclone Tracey, but I’m a chance from here” Seven who put everything he had into a towering drop punt only to hit it skinny and low and straight into the hands of Razor Ray Short. Nice pass Jesse. The Big Short made no mistake from 20 out and the SKOB Masters had a precious goal into the breeze. Buoyed on by this, SKOB started hitting the contests harder and playing a smart brand of football that for most was at least 35 years in the making. The wingers and on-ballers were having a field day at the feet of Mick “Johnny Tapp” McCullough who was posting pin point palm outs and causing a feeding frenzy for the hungry sharks of SKOB to gobble up and distribute forward. The visitors were stiff not to have another goal on the board after kicking one seemingly over the line, but although they have nice facilities and an electronic scoreboard at Point cook - they don’t have the VAR, so what was good for Paul Pogba and his Frenchies the night before was not good for SKOB. Nevertheless, SKOB were able to keep the ball in their forward half for most of the quarter and at the first break actually found themselves in front by a point - which given the breeze was like a four goal lead.
At the quarter time huddle, Coach Rock was reinforcing the message that with the breeze SKOB should refrain from launching bombs as our hosts had done in the first term - no doubt as a homage to their RAAF ancestry - and instead to kick three quarter drop punts of telling accuracy and let the wind do the rest. This instruction was followed to the letter by Jesse “I’m gonna keep taking shots at the posts but in reality, am just passing to Shorty” Seven, whose shot was once again marked by Ray “Don’t call me Stoney” Short who made no mistake and put a second on the board. He followed up with a third soon after and it looked like he was going to kick the entire card before Matt “call me Gary Pert - I only play at one end of the ground” Shannon roosted one through and then Jesse “I’m tired of passing to Shorty” Seven got one himself. The Point Cook coaches decided to park not one, but two buses in the SKOB forward line and this did result in a drying up on the scoring but left the SKOB defence with little to do but run around on the spot in an attempt to stay warm. Fortunately, the heavy-hearted clouds that had shed a thousand tears earlier in the day had adjusted their serotonin levels by now and were feeling chipper enough to keep the rain at bay. At half time, SKOB held a handy break of 5 goals to 2 having conceded one against the flow when a bit of backchat cost us a 25m penalty, but aside from that we were looking more comfortable than the multitude of music fans sitting in their cars waiting for the band to start - but more of that later.
The half time jellies provided by Johnny F Murray Abraham were of the Starburst variety proving that he is as mysterious as his namesake in that movie Amadeus when it comes to delivering the sugar hits to the troops. To balance this out, Muzz Snr elected not to provide Kool Aid (after the Narre Warren debacle) and it looked like it would do the trick - but alas no amount of jelly treat would help the lad Simpson who had pinged his hammy arguing with the umpire and was done for the day. To compound this Wayne “Cage Fighter” (no that is not a nickname) Cornell was looking a bit woozy after copping a head high and the thin bench was starting to look positively anorexic. We knew that Point Cook would throw everything at us given their one last shot with the breeze and after a lucky snap bounced through just a minute into the second half things were starting to look bleaker than the entrance gates to Gods Waiting Room Retirement Village that overlooked the ground we were playing on. The home team were starting to get their hands on the ball more but the SKOB defence stood up like a toddler in a crib, strong, defiant and mildly satisfied with their efforts. Jay Mac was General like across half back whilst Meat Axe Strauss and Nick “Surfer Joe” Trenfield - who was paying his own homage to Mick Fanning by wearing a wetsuit under his guernsey - made sure that nothing got through their tightly packed formation. There was even time for Paddy “Sermon” Mount to venture off on his own expedition far and wide with the hapless opposition forwards in fruitless pursuit.
By orange break this game was dusted, and all that was left was for SKOB to put one final stamp on this contest like a knitted beanie posted back from Machu Picchu, but by now the ball was heavier than a Dear John letter and the Route 495 to Point Cook was again parked in the SKOB forward line allowing only a couple of clever snaps from “Bend it like” Ben Marchesani to allow us to extend the lead out to an even 5 goals - which given the conditions was probably worth twice that. Frankie Four Fingers Calucci was on the heavy end of a bump to the head that looked nasty at first but did nothing more than knock a bit of wax out of his ear - “man I can hear out of that side now - didn’t realise it was blocked…”Dave “Shut Down” Sheehy showed no ill-effects from dominating the dance floor at the 100 year dinner the night before and put on a performance in conditions that were perfect for penguins, whilst Stoney “do I really look like Shorty” Stonehouse was his reliable self despite copping a bloody nose after wearing one in the hooter early on. Nick “none shall pass” O’Halloran was again unrelenting like a parishioner passing on the collection plate - giving absolutely nothing - not that he would ever do that mind you…whilst Timmy Kehoe was collating his own highlights reel out on the wing in the last quarter, racking up touches at will. Fabulous Phil Cameron was once again filthy that his kicked for goal dropped short after another strong mark inside 50 - it will come Fab Phil - it will come. Meanwhile Captain Kala finished off a solid game with some bruising tackles and strong spoils that show he’s not all showbiz and glam when it comes to getting down and dirty.
And so, as the final siren rang out on this cold and bitter day that put a new meaning to the term bleak, SKOB were able to bring their own little ray of sunshine in the form of a commanding win over the ladder leaders. In the process, they supplanted their hosts at the top of the tree and with four rounds remaining are looking like they want to stay there. After a heavy outing in tough conditions, the hosts put on one of the better after match functions, providing magnificent burgers and putting on a band - yes a band. The name of the outfit was “Get Funked” - which I hoped was a clever play on words and not another spelling error. As this scribe walked into the rooms the joint was rocking to “I’m a Believer” and forced me to admit - I AM a believer. It once again proved that in this comp you can play hard on the field but at game’s end we all come together to enjoy what playing footy is all about - burgers beers and…bands. When I left the rooms, Paddy “I might stick around” Mount was settling in for a solid Sunday session as the lights dimmed and the ballads came out - hopefully he made it home.
Scores SKOB MASTERS 1.3 5.6 5.6 7.9.51 POINT COOK 1.1 2.1 3.2 3.2.20
Goal Kickers: Ray Short 3, Ben Marchesani 2, Matt Shannon 1 & Jesse Seven 1. Best Players: Michael McCullagh, Nick Trenfield, Ray Short, Matt Shannon, Ben Marchesani, David Sheehy
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