The Royal Review

Boosted by the return of Tully Kennett and Armando Iannunzio, the Kings started well against the top side, with Harry Willis finding Henry Read who goaled after four minutes. Shortly after Tully Kennett found Tyson Matthews who kicked our second. From there North Haven got into the game adding two goals themselves in the next six minutes to have a one-point lead at the first change. North Haven goaled early in the second term and then play see-sawed, the Kings moving the ball well but were unable to convert their chances. North Haven was cleaner and made less errors in the latter part of the term, all up adding 4.3 to four behind to go 24 points clear at half-time. The third term saw both sides move the ball well, Matthews goaling at the 10 minute mark to get the margin back to 19 points. North Haven snuffed out the revival to kick the next couple to get the biggest lead of the day. Late in the term Archie Richardson kicked to Ollie Ormsby who marked well and goaled to get the margin back to 25 points with a quarter to go. Kicking to the Parade end for the last term, the Kings were running the ball well but couldn’t get that much needed first goal. North Haven capitalised when the chance arose to goal and push their lead out further. At the six minute mark, Tully Kennett who was consistent all day kicked a fine goal on his left foot but virtually 60 seconds later came the reply from the visitors. Midway through the quarter Tully Kennett won another free and converted, but sadly from there the Magpies got on top to kick the last three goals to run out comfortable winners. Best – Tyson Matthews, Jack Carruthers, Harry Roberts, Tully Kennett, Harry Willis. Injury update – Magnus Illman was out, hopefully he’ll be back soon. Dylan Hopkins, Levi Johnston, Ned Carruthers are all mid-long term injuries.

Disappointing loss this one, only because we let another one go like Uni, but having said that there is a lot of up to the game. This would be the youngest (in games played for the reserves) side that we have put on the park in some time, and overall, I feel that we were still the better side on the day, we just didn’t manage to “finish it off”. Finish it off is apt in many ways for this game, we had the game in our control but we didn’t manage to finish it off, we played 3 out of 4 quarters but we didn’t manage to play the whole of any quarter, allowing them to score easily at times and just didn’t manage to finish the quarters off, we managed to turn the ball over at half back with good aerial ability and transitioned the ball out of play, but if we had 3 quality possessions in transition, we didn’t manage to finish the play off with the fourth, we felt either real or perceived pressure and turned the ball over. Ultimately, this was the first pressure, intense and real physical contest we have had this year, probably something aligned to a finals game but in a final this would be x 10 and we were left a little wanting. In the end we fell short by 7 points, no shame in that, but there is also little honour in losing and, in the end the scoreboard showed we lost, whether this was us capitulating to pressure, losing the game rather than them winning, poor umpire decisions at crucial moments or the greasy elements, we did not pick up the 2 points and we need to be better. BUT as I said there were many positives out of the game, I was pleased with our willingness the continue to play our brand for most of the game and that fact we fought it out to the end. We will learn from this and be better for it. Most importantly, we are 3-2, with a better win/loss than last year and we all know how that year went. We have a big month ahead, let’s make it massive!

The Queens went travelled down to Lockleys Oval on Friday night for a cold and wet game against the second placed Lockleys team. From the opening bounce, the conditions made it difficult to be clean with the ball, but the Queens embraced it and bought great pressure all night. The Queens had a perfect start, booting two goals in the first quarter to take an early lead. The midfield battle was very physical throughout the match, with the McConnell-Psaltis sisters taking the most of it being thrown around in heavy traffic all game but still coming out on top. Their willingness to keep attacking set the tone for standards for the rest of the girls After the fast start, the defence had to dig deep with Lockleys having many scoring shots throughout the 2nd and 3rd quarters. With the rain making every possession very scrappy, Pembroke’s backline showed composure under pressure, with Ella Manning forcing many turnovers and run out of their defence. The Queens went into the last quarter up by just 3 points searching for a much needed goal to match that first quarter. That moment came when Lucy Hammond hacked it off the wet ground to dribble the ball through 5 players and into the goals to seal the win for the Queens. It was a great physical team performance with strong tackling pressure and good running all night which got the queens over the line in a very tight game.

We returned home in Round 5 to take on North Haven and delivered our most complete four-quarter performance of the season, running out convincing 19.16 (130) to 2.4 (16) winners. We set the tone early with a dominant first quarter, kicking six goals to one point through strong pressure, quick ball movement and great energy around the contest. From there, the group maintained its intensity across all four quarters and never allowed North Haven back into the game. Our attack on the footy was outstanding all day, and we rebounded strongly from defence to consistently turn defence into offence. The connection between our backs, mids and forwards continues to improve each week, and it was pleasing to see the group sustain that level for the full game. Harrison Prosser battled hard in the ruck all afternoon and gave our midfield first use around the stoppages. Up forward, James O’Halloran played a selfless role for the team while still managing to hit the scoreboard with two goals of his own. Through the midfield, Alex Favretto and Stewart Watts were again dominant around the contest, while Zac Teo produced a wonderful performance on the wing, using his run and work rate to help drive the game our way. We now turn our focus to PHOS this week in what shapes as a big challenge in the grand final rematch.