State league win at Caulfield

Camberwell 17 defeated Caulfield 6

Best: Hussain, Kerr, Lander

Scores: Lander 6g 1a, Kerr 4g 4a, Vercruysse 2g 2a, Casey 1g 2a, Pagliaro 1g, Meehan 1g, Easson 1g, R.Gloutnay 1g

It was great to see our State League team hit their straps, although a little too late in the season. After a slow start and being down 1 goal at quarter time, Coach Duncan McKenzie put the playbook on the shelf and asked the team to be creative. This paid great dividends and the team played with enthusiasm and smiles. They poured on 16 goals to 4 despite poor weather and ground conditions for a big win. No finals this year, but a takeaway is that this team has beaten all but one other team at least once.

Well done to Dante Francese on his State League debut. He played a great game, picked up some important ground balls and held Caulfield attack-men out well. There was some disappointment in the crowd that he didn’t use his shiny new helmet, but it may be the secret weapon that will help him take his game to the next level next time.

After Clinton Lander reached the 1000 State League goal milestone last week, the question on everyone’s lips was who would shoot the goal for his 300th assist? Cocky had an outstanding game and peppered the goals, scoring six, well on his way to 2000. His one and only assist came in the third quarter and was scored by the apprentice, Joey Pagliaro. Joey has been coached and mentored by Cocky for a few seasons now and tried to honour the master by replicating a classic Cocky crease dive later in the game. Unfortunately he didn’t come home with that goal, but did pick up a bucketful of Caulfield mud. 

Another highlight goal was Robbie Gloutnay with a long pole. The Caulfield defenders did not twig to the fact that the long pole coming down the field with the ball was actually an allrounder who has a career average of more than one score per game. He calmly slotted it home to equal up with Al at 1 longpole goal and 1 assist each this season.

Player of the match had to be Aaron Hussain (and referees agreed). He was running at 50:50 in faceoff early but was smart enough to adjust his game and tactics to ensure that Camberwell dominated possession out of the centre in the second half.

Finally, hats off to Connor, who absolutely peppered the Caulfield goalkeeper into submission early in the game. He also managed to score a few. He has been a great asset to the team and is now headed back to the USA to take up a graduate school position. Best of Luck.