Scott 5Story: A day at the local football (Scoresby vs Lilydale)
July 13th 2010 10:08
Again, I'm departing from my normal posting of results and am instead going to bring you a story of my day at the local football on Saturday.
It was a cold Saturday morning and the time was 7am and I was getting ready for what promised to be an interesting day of local football up at Lilydale.
I had the chance to think back to the last time I had gone up there to watch the football (2 years ago) and remembered the brawls and the frustration of the senior team losing. I also remembered that the Scoresby Seniors had an inability to win up at Lilydale and this had me a little alarmed but I knew there were many hours before the Seniors game.
So, being the committed football fan, I hopped on the bus and 2 trains to get up to Lilydale and really, it was a boring trip. Besides the weird country feeling you get, travelling between Mooroolbark and Lilydale, it really was a boring, mundane trip.
Arriving at Lilydale an hour before the Colts (under 18s) kicked off gave me the time to shop for food for not only the local football, but for the Richmond vs Fremantle game at Etihad that night. Coming out with lollies and then some reading material just enabled me to kill enough time
.
Getting into the ground for free is always a good thing and then settling in for what promised to be a memorable day of goals, marks, ferocious tackling and hopefully wins.
Unfortunately my thoughts were disrupted by the fact that the wind was being rather odd and was going towards the clubrooms end of the ground and the possibility of rain too.
The game kicked off and Scoresby Colts had the bulk of the play but just had an inability to put a score on the board. There were a lot of turnovers and frustratingly were playing a similar boundary line style game to their namesakes, Collingwood. Lilydale got a goal against the wind and at quarter-time, Scoresby led by only 5 points.
The best thing about local football is being able to go onto the ground between the quarters and either have a kick of the footy or listening in to the coaches message for the troops.
Second quarter kicks off and finally the scuffle I half expected materialised and compared to past scuffles at the local level, this one was remarkably tame. Either way, both teams had a player yellow-carded and sin-binned for 15 minutes however Lilydale took advantage of the wind and turned the 5 point defecit into a 20 point lead by keeping Scoresby goalless.
Half-time was a chance for me to sit back and relax and hope that the coach (who I viewed as being very quiet and restrained) was drilling the team for a fightback and for the first 10 minutes of the 3rd quarter, it looked to be working. 2 quick goals saw Scoresby back in the game and looking good with the wind but then Lilydale took over as Scoresby became affected by soft, lazy football. Tackles were missed, challenges shirked (according to spectators I listened to), turnovers frequent, it was ugly and painful.
There's not much that needs to be said about the last half but the match was summed up by a horrendous miss from a Scoresby player in the goalsquare in the last quarter (against the wind though) and from that 5 point quarter-time lead, Scoresby slipped to a 31 point defeat
Straight after that it was the reserves and my interest as always resided around how many interchanges the Scoresby coach would make. The reason for this bizarre interest is that in a match earlier this season, the Scoresby coach made 94 changes. This was at reserves level and we're looking forward to the day he cracks the century banner.
The game barely kicked off and within the opening 2 minutes, it had grounded to a halt as a heavy collision in the center square left a Scoresby player down and not moving. Thoughts were concussion but eventually the player got up and it emerged that it was an AC Joint injury in the shoulder.
Once that was all sorted, we were treated to an opening quarter to remember as Scoresby's Nathan Hicks came out and took a couple of high marks and kicked 4 goals. Having said that, one of the most bizarre moments occured when the goal umpire was unsure as to what decision he should be giving. The ball went through the goal but was signalled as a point. The ball went to go back to the centre as if it were a goal but then they brought the ball back, realising it was a point and then it was overruled by the field umpire, meaning a goal was awarded. It was farcial but really funny and at quarter-time it was Scoresby up by 44 points.
My mate turned up and I was listening closely to what was going on with regards to the bench and he was able to tell me that Lilydale Reserves hadn't won a game this season. I could see why as they were outscored 4 goals to 2 despite having the wind.
From there, well, it was an utter embarrassment. Lilydale went goalless in the second half, while Scoresby booted 12 goals and Nathan Hicks booted 11 throughout the game. Scoresby cruised to a 135 point win.
Last but not least was the big match between the Senior teams of Lilydale and Scoresby. Scoresby had first use of the wind and we were treated to the farce of Lilydale starting off with a 12 man backline. I knew they'd been useless this season and I can't say I faulted their strategy but they still had to score. It was one way traffic and Scoresby led by 28 points at quarter-time.
Lilydale had next use of the wind and they had a 10 man backline which was bloody ludicrous and the quarter itself was horrendous to watch. 2 goals each and Scoiresby wasted some golden chances to finish the game off. In any event they led by 34 points at half-time and were next for the wind.
The premiership quarter was where it all came to an end though. The 12 man backline was back and Lilydale couldn't buy a shot at goal. They went scoreless in the quarter while Scoresby booted 5.9 and extended their lead to 73 points at the last change. Lilydale then shocked everyone by playing a regulation game-plan (6 defenders, 6 midfielders and 6 attackers) and a shootout ensured with Scoresby kicking 6.7 to Lilydale 5.3. Amazing what happens when you actually try to attack and if they'd played the previous quarters like that, who knows what would've happened?
So really at the end of the day, my love of local football just continues to grow
There's nothing like listening to coaches addresses.
There's nothing like having a kick of the footy between quarters
There's nothing like yelling at umpires without any fear of being evicted from the ground.
There's nothing like supporters sledging each other
Most of all though:
There's nothing like 3 games of footy costing you nothing besides food costs.
Lilydale Colts 11.9.75 defeated Scoresby Colts 6.8.44
Lilydale Reserves 2.6.18 lost to Scoresby Reserves 23.15.153
Lilydale Seniors 7.5.47 lost to Scoresby Seniors 17.28.130
It was a cold Saturday morning and the time was 7am and I was getting ready for what promised to be an interesting day of local football up at Lilydale.
I had the chance to think back to the last time I had gone up there to watch the football (2 years ago) and remembered the brawls and the frustration of the senior team losing. I also remembered that the Scoresby Seniors had an inability to win up at Lilydale and this had me a little alarmed but I knew there were many hours before the Seniors game.
So, being the committed football fan, I hopped on the bus and 2 trains to get up to Lilydale and really, it was a boring trip. Besides the weird country feeling you get, travelling between Mooroolbark and Lilydale, it really was a boring, mundane trip.
Arriving at Lilydale an hour before the Colts (under 18s) kicked off gave me the time to shop for food for not only the local football, but for the Richmond vs Fremantle game at Etihad that night. Coming out with lollies and then some reading material just enabled me to kill enough time
.
Getting into the ground for free is always a good thing and then settling in for what promised to be a memorable day of goals, marks, ferocious tackling and hopefully wins.
Unfortunately my thoughts were disrupted by the fact that the wind was being rather odd and was going towards the clubrooms end of the ground and the possibility of rain too.
The game kicked off and Scoresby Colts had the bulk of the play but just had an inability to put a score on the board. There were a lot of turnovers and frustratingly were playing a similar boundary line style game to their namesakes, Collingwood. Lilydale got a goal against the wind and at quarter-time, Scoresby led by only 5 points.
The best thing about local football is being able to go onto the ground between the quarters and either have a kick of the footy or listening in to the coaches message for the troops.
Second quarter kicks off and finally the scuffle I half expected materialised and compared to past scuffles at the local level, this one was remarkably tame. Either way, both teams had a player yellow-carded and sin-binned for 15 minutes however Lilydale took advantage of the wind and turned the 5 point defecit into a 20 point lead by keeping Scoresby goalless.
Half-time was a chance for me to sit back and relax and hope that the coach (who I viewed as being very quiet and restrained) was drilling the team for a fightback and for the first 10 minutes of the 3rd quarter, it looked to be working. 2 quick goals saw Scoresby back in the game and looking good with the wind but then Lilydale took over as Scoresby became affected by soft, lazy football. Tackles were missed, challenges shirked (according to spectators I listened to), turnovers frequent, it was ugly and painful.
There's not much that needs to be said about the last half but the match was summed up by a horrendous miss from a Scoresby player in the goalsquare in the last quarter (against the wind though) and from that 5 point quarter-time lead, Scoresby slipped to a 31 point defeat
Straight after that it was the reserves and my interest as always resided around how many interchanges the Scoresby coach would make. The reason for this bizarre interest is that in a match earlier this season, the Scoresby coach made 94 changes. This was at reserves level and we're looking forward to the day he cracks the century banner.
The game barely kicked off and within the opening 2 minutes, it had grounded to a halt as a heavy collision in the center square left a Scoresby player down and not moving. Thoughts were concussion but eventually the player got up and it emerged that it was an AC Joint injury in the shoulder.
Once that was all sorted, we were treated to an opening quarter to remember as Scoresby's Nathan Hicks came out and took a couple of high marks and kicked 4 goals. Having said that, one of the most bizarre moments occured when the goal umpire was unsure as to what decision he should be giving. The ball went through the goal but was signalled as a point. The ball went to go back to the centre as if it were a goal but then they brought the ball back, realising it was a point and then it was overruled by the field umpire, meaning a goal was awarded. It was farcial but really funny and at quarter-time it was Scoresby up by 44 points.
My mate turned up and I was listening closely to what was going on with regards to the bench and he was able to tell me that Lilydale Reserves hadn't won a game this season. I could see why as they were outscored 4 goals to 2 despite having the wind.
From there, well, it was an utter embarrassment. Lilydale went goalless in the second half, while Scoresby booted 12 goals and Nathan Hicks booted 11 throughout the game. Scoresby cruised to a 135 point win.
Last but not least was the big match between the Senior teams of Lilydale and Scoresby. Scoresby had first use of the wind and we were treated to the farce of Lilydale starting off with a 12 man backline. I knew they'd been useless this season and I can't say I faulted their strategy but they still had to score. It was one way traffic and Scoresby led by 28 points at quarter-time.
Lilydale had next use of the wind and they had a 10 man backline which was bloody ludicrous and the quarter itself was horrendous to watch. 2 goals each and Scoiresby wasted some golden chances to finish the game off. In any event they led by 34 points at half-time and were next for the wind.
The premiership quarter was where it all came to an end though. The 12 man backline was back and Lilydale couldn't buy a shot at goal. They went scoreless in the quarter while Scoresby booted 5.9 and extended their lead to 73 points at the last change. Lilydale then shocked everyone by playing a regulation game-plan (6 defenders, 6 midfielders and 6 attackers) and a shootout ensured with Scoresby kicking 6.7 to Lilydale 5.3. Amazing what happens when you actually try to attack and if they'd played the previous quarters like that, who knows what would've happened?
So really at the end of the day, my love of local football just continues to grow
There's nothing like listening to coaches addresses.
There's nothing like having a kick of the footy between quarters
There's nothing like yelling at umpires without any fear of being evicted from the ground.
There's nothing like supporters sledging each other
Most of all though:
There's nothing like 3 games of footy costing you nothing besides food costs.
Lilydale Colts 11.9.75 defeated Scoresby Colts 6.8.44
Lilydale Reserves 2.6.18 lost to Scoresby Reserves 23.15.153
Lilydale Seniors 7.5.47 lost to Scoresby Seniors 17.28.130
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