SUMMARY

DLS started brilliantly with Matt Moore having 4 marks in the scoring arc for 2.2 and acting captain Michael Duggan goaling
before Uni Blues got on the board with 2 quick majors. Moore got his 3rd but U Blues De Crespigney replied as DLS took a 6 point lead into the 1st break.
DLS exploded in the 2nd stanza with U Blues unable to contain the run of David Lowe, Jacob Gotch
and the centre clearances by Aaron Shields and Jarrod Moloney to slam on 7 unanswered goals. Moore and 4th gamer Sam Wlliams both got 2 while Jacob Gotch marking spectacularly contributed another.
With all players contributing DLS took an 8 goal lead into the main break.
The 3rd quarter was the exact opposite of the 2nd as unbelievably U Blues slammed on 9 goals to nil by DLS whose run had stopped and confidence had deserted the team. Mistakes compounded poor decisions as DLS went to the last break 1 goal down.
It had been a 9 goal turnaround!
U Blues aided by a lucky bounce scored the opening goal and the game seemed beyond the flagging DLS. U Blues were now dominating the clearances and stoppages and slammed on another 5 goals before Tom Moloney after missing an easy goal on the run, kicked truly. Matt Moore who had been starved of opportunities after half time, cleverly out marked the pack and got his 6th in an inspirational performance.

QTR1
Chris Kelliher doing well at centre bounces and with Aaron Shields & Jarrod Moloney gaining possessions in the clear DLS attacked strongly. Matt Moore leading as usual missed from the angle but Shields marked the kick in and passed to Moore again on a fast lead to open his account. Jarrod Moloney contesting well passed to Shields to Moore freed in the marking contest and he had his 2nd after 9 minutes of play. A brilliant smother and recovery by David Lowe who passed to Moore again too fast for the opposition, marked and quickly passed to acting skipper Michael Duggan who in contrast to last week kicked truly and DLS had run to an 18 point lead half way through the quarter.
U Blues sting into action goaled twice despite some fine defensive work by Will Fenton, Allan Greenhalgh & Jeff Morel.
DLS had the substantial portion of the play without much scoreboard benefit. Duggan, running well to position passed to Fenton back to Duggan who with a superb pass found Moore and he got his 3rd from a sharpish angle. De Crespigny already looming as a problem got his 2nd and U Blues 3rd to reduce the DLS margin to 6 points at the end of an entertaining 1st quarter although DLS would be slightly disappointed with the scoreboard return for their clear superiority.

QTR2
DLS continued with flair and confidence but were unable to penetrate the U Blues defence. Shields, Gotch, Lowe and now Ryan Sherman were strongly influencing the game. A high cross to Sam Williams did not look promising until he was freed in the marking contest and given 25 meters to bring up the 1st of the quarter. Sam Nethersole hustling well at the centre bounce somehow got the ball to Duggan whose pass again found Moore and the 6th was on the board. It was pleasing to watch the emergence of talent running with full confidence in each other’s ability to win the contested ball. U Blues were floundering, pushing numbers back but all to no avail as a great passage of play involving Trent Anderson, Shields & Shermo delivered to Moore who bagged his 5th and the team’s 7th extending the margin to 24 points 7 minutes in.
U Blues applying much greater pressure at centre bounces now shared the clearances but DLS were doing much better at the boundary stoppages where Kelliher and Nethersole were doing well. Shields across to Tom Moloney whose high delivery to our smallest player at CHF did not look all that productive until Gotch rose spectacularly over the pack to mark and get his 1st for the game. Margin out to 32. Not to be outdone Williams in his 4th senior game set a not a difficult task after fine work of Shermo, Shields, and Gotch spilled the mark under considerable pressure but recovered skilfully to snap his 2nd and DLS 9th to extend the lead to 38 points.
Matt Fieldsend, playing his 1st senior game for some time used his left foot to advantage and sent a long ball in the Sam Pickett direction. His spoil was gathered by Lowe and DLS were jubilant. Boundary contest, Nethersole to Gotch, pack forms under the high snap, Demetriou roves the spillage and snaps spectacularly & truly for DLS 7th of the quarter.
A fine exhibition of running, backing up football capped off with accurate disposal to the right option. To confirm its dominance DLS had 20 entries to U Blues 7 for the quarter. Margin 48 points.

QTR3
Jubilation quickly turned to anxiety as U Blues stormed out of the blocks kicking 5 goals in 11 minutes to put themselves back into the match. They were effectively winning all the centre clearances. Forwards were leading and kicking goals with remarkable accuracy. Certainly DLS had several players who were less than 100% but the run was gone. Capacity or willingness to get to the contest and put pressure on the ball carrier had evaporated! U Blues with Gleeson & De CRespigny running riot slam on another 4 before the ¾ time siren puts a temporary stop to the carnage!
Entries were almost the exact reverse of quarter 2; DLS 8 : U Blues 19.

QTR4
Trailing by 6 points any hope of a DLS revival was quashed when a cruel, fickle bounce of the ball eluded the front positioned Anderson to land at feet of U Blues Patterson in the goal square and the margin was negative 12 after only 50 seconds. Things did not improve for the hapless DLS backs despite the valiant efforts of Morel and Fenton specifically. De Crespigny continued his amazing accuracy booting another 3 for the quarter. When Tom Moloney at about the 25 minute mark goaled it ended an amazing 15 goal streak by U Blues. It was DLS 1st goal since the 25 minute mark of Qtr 2 meaning that it had gone a full 2 quarters without a major.
Moments later Demetriou after a hard earned free hand passed to Duggan whose kick to the top of the square was marked by Moore who duly kicked his 6th goal in an inspirational performance which was constrained only by lack of opportunities in the 2nd half of the game. To illustrate this aspect DLS had 18 entries in the 2nd half :33 in the 1st half!

Colin Glover
Secretary De La Salle OCA FC Inc