Men’s PC v Southern (R14)
Kew vs. Southern United (8-0)
Some people are great list makers: Things-To-Do, Things-Just-Done, Favourite Bands, Favourite Chinese Restaurant and Favourite Parent some great lists I can recall. Another great one has always been favourite “away games” in hockey. The old Moorabin ground has always figured very prominently in such a list. Its played host to some memorable times, including junior finals, senior finals, baseball finals, yellow cards, red cards and the odd head butt at goal. In this fast paced modern world, this ground has remained free from the clutches of development. It appears exactly as it did twenty years ago, surrounded by airports, grasslands, a state forest and a baseball field.
Not sure if the readers have been to Southern United (the artist formerly known as Moorabin) recently, but boy is that a decent road trip. Slugging it out with the rest of Melbourne’s finest in Saturday afternoon traffic enough to drive one to despair. In fact, on a slight tangent, how bad is weekend traffic nowadays? I remember a time and place where weekends were low key affairs, marked by rite of passage rituals such as BMX bike riding, radio control cars and throwing rocks at sick kids. Nowadays, you still do those things, but you just spend 90 minutes in traffic getting there.
At selection we regained the services of Stevie (Wonder) Gale and Ben Tibbals, but lost Tom Clements and Leigh Munroe. Incumbent President Tags was still not playing, as he was away at the Kokoda trail – but readers should note, this was not on holiday.
Southern certainly appeared very “up” for the game with a rousing three cheers to get things under way. But that bravado proved to be a slight false dawn for the boys in Black, Red and Grey. Just on this, its always seemed to me that Kew have always delivered a rather low-key “three-cheers” in comparison to other teams. I think we should form a sub-committee to determine whether we are using best practice in this regard.
Within minutes of the opening, Hamish Nelson combined with Hubba and Reidy down the right wing to open the scoring with a lovely deflection. Hamish then followed this by missing the unmissable just seconds later. The odd training may help sort this for you Hame…
This didn’t prove too costly, due a Stevie Gale double and a Lachie Walmsley tap in for a four-nil half time lead. All four goals coming from some sweet right hand side plays from Hubba, Reidy, Nath Stevens and Hamish. But it wasn’t a flawless half of hockey. At times our opponents tested us with their high strikers and good passes.
The second half was a bit more of the same. Reidy picked up an early yellow card because he thought he should even things up for a while. However, despite our numerical advantage, Southern struggled to break down a determined defence. The Ben’s (Jono and Tibbals) both put in tremendous second halves, with some outstanding tackles and outlet balls. This led to a very free-flowing second half, with oodles of spaces being gifted to our forwards. Inevitably the goals started to flow. A Hubba tap-in, Jono penalty corner, Lachie thunder bolt and Winny stroke, easing Kew out to an eight-nil final time score.
All this despite the acrobatics of the WWII aircraft display taking place overhead for most of the game. It’s a strange place to put a hockey field in the middle of an airstrip – or is that the other way around?
After the game, we enjoyed our beers and Gatorades. The baseballers enjoyed their pies and hot dogs. And the skies closed in to ensure the frivolities did not get too spontaneous.
After results fell our way, we have reclaimed top spot on the ladder and are inching closer to a finals berth. A goal difference of +48, a full 30 ahead of our nearest rivals, testament to our attacking virtues. With four rounds to go, some hard work on the track will leave us well placed to notch up the required wins to figure deep into September.
