KEW Hockey Club

Mentone 5 def Kew 0

 

The mood was bright as we arrived at the State Hockey Centre this week.  We had a full list of players, and our opposition were sitting second last on the ladder having won only one match for the season.  Plenty of reasons to be looking forward to a relaxed game, and perhaps even put another win on the board.  What could go wrong?

 

It’s tempting to stop this week’s match report right here, but for the sake of history I’ll reluctantly push on and put it on the record.  Suffice to say that we were in for a nasty shock.  We would really like to know what they’ve been eating for brekkie in Mentone, or where they’ve been recruiting their players.  From the opening minutes things were looking grim, and by half time we were already three nil down.

 

With four extra players we were subbing on and off at 5 minute intervals trying to keep the motor running at maximum capacity, but to no avail.  We had our moments and there was some marked improvement in the second half, but for the most part it seemed that no sooner did we have the ball in our possession than a pair of maroon socks dashed by and whipped it away again.  At the final whistle the damage was 5 nil.

 

Perhaps things wouldn’t have seemed so bad if we had been more mentally prepared for a tough opposition this week.  We couldn’t help wondering if this is all part of the Mentone game plan…lull the league into a false sense of security for the first six rounds, then bring in the big guns for Round 7.  If it is, it’s working.  Hey, our record so far isn’t great – perhaps we could adopt the same tactic.  Maybe we’ll think about making our move in Round 8.