Old Ignatians Football Club Inc.

A's dethroned by Kings

SCOREBOARD
Old Ignatians 1.4 3.5 6.6 8.7 (50)
Kings 2.1 8.5 11.13 15.19 (109)

Goals: Boydy 3, Robo 2.3, Lepp 2.0, Harty, Alby, Stevo 0.1

Best: Harty, Boyd, Frini, Scholes, Slebbooo, Robo, Cliffy, Lepp,

By Tys,

It’s been a long wait, but we’re finally going to write a match report about Old Iggies’ final match of the season, a loss to the eventual runners-up Pembroke OS. The reason being, of course, that it’s hard to write up a report about any loss, let alone the pr!cks that call themselves the “Kings”…

Old Iggies went into the match high on confidence, despite losing inspirational leader Carlo Calabrese to a leg injury. The team felt we had the ability around the park to match it with Pembroke, but we needed to play physical football in order to set the standard for our play.

Going with a very strong breeze in the first quarter, we jumped out of the blocks well and had many opportunities to put a score on the board, but inaccurate kicking let Pembroke creep back into the game, and they duly punished us, kicking straight to take the lead at quarter time.

In the second quarter, the floodgates opened as Pembroke ran harder, played more direct and finished off as Iggies struggled to cope with the intensity of the clash. At half time though, the boys still thought they were in with a chance, and just needed to lift their intensity and pressure during the second half.

Admirably, the boys were to lift, but it wasn’t enough as in both the third and last quarters, Pembroke were able to shut out any resistance from Iggies and progressed through to the next game (against Athelstone – a match which Pembroke would go on to win). To the boys’ credit, they never gave up, even when Pembroke were comfortably in front, which showed there is a good basis upon which to work on for next season.

Against a slick Pembroke team, it became clear where Iggies needed to improve, particularly in our skill level and finishing off in front of goals. During the first quarter we controlled the match early, but inaccuracy at the pointy end didn’t punish the Kings, and we were duly disposed of. It would be interesting to see how the game would have materialised had we been more accurate with our kicking. Around the ground, this showed too, with too many stray passes giving the ball back to Pembroke, and under pressure we were too stop-start in our possession, where Robo had instructed us to play on at all times.

Better players for the day were Harty, who worked tirelessly, even when the stoppages weren’t going our way, and Boydy, who moved up forward in the second half to provide a mobile target and was rewarded with three goals. Frini also worked hard all day, and Scholes, Slebbs and Cliffy all worked hard down in the backlines. Robo also stepped up in the forward lines, providing an option and working hard all match.

Although the match ended in a defeat, there is much to look forward to for Iggies in ’07. The team took giant strides in 2006, after missing the finals in the previous year, and some of the young players in the team will have another year of experience to help them play at this level. We need strong numbers out in pre-season to allow the coaching staff to make further progress on what we achieved this season, but we should all be confident that we can see a better Iggies unit in 2007.

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