Accolades for Alberton win

ALL involved with the Alberton Interleague team which travelled to Bendigo for the match against the Loddon Valley Football League were full of praise for the players.
Alberton FNL president John Schelling said, “Each of them was there to make a contribution.
“It was a pleasure to take them all away and the idea of playing the players you want to play, still works.
“Alberton had an effective blend of youth and experience.”
The league’s director of football operations, Barry Stride, said that not one player was there for the glory.
Mr Stride said, “Each of them came to play, to make a contribution.
Not one player was beaten on the day.
For Loddon the sign were ominous from early on.
Alberton had three goals on the board, from the boot of Foster’s Nick Connellan, inside five minutes.
The ball was being won from the centre convincingly which allowed the team to come out of the blocks as quickly as it did.
The team was as solid as a rock in defence all match and made it difficult for Loddon to penetrate.
Loddon came out in the second quarter with a loose man across its back line and this had the desried effect for Loddon of catching Alberton out.
Loddon was able to get its first majors on the board and outscored Alberton, but just, in the quarter.
If Alberton’s last line of defence had been anything less than the bulwark it was, the scorebard at half time could have looked quite different.
The captain, from Phillip Island, Jaymie Youle, his team mate Brendan Kimber, Fish Creek’s Ash Snooks and the Allies Justin Marriott all kept driving the football out of danger and back forward and Fish Creek’s Callan Park kicked two feeding off the half forward flank.
In the third quarter Alberton really proved itself in charge and by three quarter time it had put the game well out of Loddon’s reach.
It controlled the game in every position around the ground.
It was especially strong from the middle with Stony Creek’s Josh Schelling well on top in the ruck with the knock on effect of Kimber and Cam Stone continually feeding the ball into the ravenous Alberton forward line.
The last quarter was a canter for Alberton even though its strengths had been reduced by injuries to two players.
Brendan Kimber was named best on the ground but Justin Marriott wasn’t far behind.
Nick Connellan’s forward work was a standout and Jaymie Youle defensive work, particularly in the first half, was telling.
It is hard to single out individuals though because this was a team victory by 22 players exceptionally well coached by Mark Lafferty and his assistants, Chris Turlich and ‘Sticks’ O’Halloran.

A unit: Lyn Whelan, operations manager for the Alberton Football Netball League said, “It was hard to believe they hadn’t been playing together as a team for years, they were that good.”

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Posted by Sarah Vella on May 26 2015. Filed under Sport. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry