2016 ROUND 18 V AJAX

Teams	1st Q.	2nd Q.	3rd Q.	4th Q.
Beaumaris	3.1:19	7.4:48/td>	10.6:66	14.12:96
Ajax	3.3:21	3.4:22	7.10:52	8.12:60
Goalkickers : Stephen Milne 4, Lachlan Boyd 2, Drew Kelly 2, Danial Gribbin 2, Josh Ward 1, Matt Petering 1, Liam Hiscock 1, Rob Cathcart 1.

No	Player	No	Player	No	Player	No	Player
2	Robert Cathcart	3	Matt Petering	4	Sean Coote	7	Tom Dean
8	Josh Ward	13	Will Murton	15	Lachlan Boyd	18	Will Edmonds
19	Joel Di Natale	20	Callan Buckley	22	Steven Scott	23	Ben McLean
25	Daniel Gribbin	28	Jack Gabron-Uhe	29	Tim Cummings	32	Dylan Gabron-Uhe
33	Stephen Milne	35	Luke Globan	37	Liam Hiscock	45	Drew Kelly
55	Will Gillespie	56	Nick Dickinson

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"Today I will do what others won't, so tomorrow I can accomplish what others can't."

Jerry Rice (former American football wide receiver with the San Francisco 49ers).

Our pre-season started back in November of 2015 and after 17 rounds of football we came to the final game of the Home and Away season. Certainties were that Old Haileybury and Hampton Rovers were heading back to Premier C while Old Brighton, Parkdale Vultures and Ajax would play their last games and then continue in Premier B next year, but, depending on results, the final composition of the top four hadn't yet been settled. If Fitzroy defeated Parkdale (which was the likely result) they would wait on the result of the Monash Blues v St Bedes match. Most pundits expected St Bedes to follow form, to defeat Monash, send them crashing out of the four, and allow Fitzroy to take their place and compete in the finals. Monash's destiny was firmly in its own hands. In a game that see-sawed, Monash led early then St Bedes came back before Monash closed the game out in the last minutes to win and keep their place in the top four. Their victory let us claim back top spot on the ladder which means we wear our home shorts and have the home change room at Trevor Barker Oval.

But onto our Rd 18 clash with Ajax. We were coming off two bad losses and it meant that this final round took on much more significance than might normally be the case in a match against a side that couldn't make finals & wasn't in any danger of being relegated. Ajax were always going to 'come to play' and it was very important how we were going to respond as we headed into the finals.

Six changes were made to the side that lost to Old Brighton. Boyd, Buckley and Petering all returned from injury. Hiscock was back from Sandringham. Globan from a week back in the Under 19s and Coote for his first game after some solid form in the Reserves. A strong 4 goal wind was blowing to the Fitzroy St end of Gary Smorgan Oval and with us kicking into it, we were tested from the opening bounce. As one would have hoped, a different Beaumaris team came out to play. The trust between the players had returned and the ball movement was resembling that of the Sharks from earlier in the season. Even though Ajax were kicking with the aid of the near gale force wind they were having trouble getting the ball into their forward line. Within the first 10 minutes we had kicked three goals into that wind, two to Milne and one to Kelly. The drive was coming from the on-ballers and our back six who were switching the ball when needed and forcing the ball back into our forward half with hard running and quick ball movement. We had 58 kicks for the quarter and 60 handballs. Major ball winners were Petering with 10 disposals, Dean, Cathcart and Scott with 9 each. But, although we had started the quarter well, Ajax got themselves back into the game by kicking the last three goals of the quarter, two of those were from David Fayman (#6) who was showing his class and proving a handful for our backline. We went to the first break trailing by just two points, 3-3-21 to 3-1-19 but, very disappointingly, Buckley sustained an injury that has most likely ended his season.

It has not been often in 2016 that we have had teams control the ball more than us. But, that's what happened in the second quarter. Ajax had 96 disposals for the quarter to our 73. They also took 41 marks to our 19. However, on average we scored a goal every 18 possessions while Ajax scored a solitary behind for the quarter from their 96 disposals. They controlled the ball with some precision kicking but weren't able to move the ball quickly enough into their forward line. Milne kicked his third for the game, Cathcart and Gribbin got amongst the goalkickers and Hiscock, pushing forward from the backline, also slotted 'a major'. Overall, the team was back playing some of its best football and we went to the half time break leading 7-4-46 to 3-4-22.

The third quarter saw the wind still blowing strongly to the Fitzroy St. end of the ground. Ajax scored the first two goals through Fayman (#6) and Measey (#8) but we answered with the next three, Kelly kicked his second, Milne had his fourth and Ward kicked his first for the day. Cathcart was busy with 10 effective disposals for the quarter and Dylan Gabron-Uhe also gathered 10 disposals. But Fayman wasn't done just yet and he added two more goals to take his tally for the game to five. An interesting stat for the quarter is that Ajax had exactly the same number of disposals as we did in the second quarter (73) and they also kicked four goals for the quarter. We had 108 disposals and managed to kick three goals. We went to the three quarter time break leading 10-6-66 to 7-10-52. Ajax had won the quarter but we had the wind in the last.

That last quarter didn't start the way we would have expected with Ajax's Joel (#31) kicking the first goal. But, that would be their last for the game, and the season. We added another four goals with Gribbin kicking his second, Petering his first and Boyd the last two of the match. Globan made a welcome return to the Senior team with 21 disposals with 100% effectiveness. Both Petering and Cathcart also finished the match with 21 effective while Dean had 19 effective. Dickinson and Cumming dominated the hit out count with 23 and 27 respectively while Ajax only managed a total of 18 for the day. Dylan Gabron-Uhe was everywhere, taking some hitouts, taking several contested marks and sending the ball inside our forward 50 on four occasions, all effective. At the end of the game we won 14-12-96 to 8-12-60.

The regular season is over and we are down to the 'business end' of the season. Hopefully the rain holds off, the weather gets a little warmer and we get to see some fantastic football with the results being in our favour. Week one of the finals are at Trevor Barker Oval, there should be a big crowd in attendance for another local derby with our Seniors against St.Bedes/Mentone, and, our Reserves are in action in the early game against Old Scotch. Don't you just love this time of year and don't you just love the footy.

Go sharks.