Round 7 v Camberwell
By Nick Kings
On Saturday pennant E looked to continue its winning steak against an
improving Camberwell side. From the opening whistle the Hawks put
together some positive attacking moves which put Camberwell under immense
pressure. This pressure eventually told when Sam Fairbrother scrambled in
a goal making it 1-0. Following this scrapy goal Pennant E immediately
scored again making it 2-0. Finally as the first half was drawing to a
close Pennant E switched the ball from left inner to centre half to right
wing who then played a beautiful ball to centre forward who layed a
perfectly weighted pass back into the centre half who smashed the ball
into the net. A culmination of almost 10 passes, a beautiful move and a
highlight of the Hawks domination.
In the second half Hawthorn again started brightly mounting strong
pressure which ultimately resulted in a beautiful corner conversion making
it 4-0. Now the Hawks were in full flight and cruising. Yet
unfortunately one David Wansbrough had other ideas and single handled
earned a corner after beating almost 4 players. From this corner
Camberwell passed to Wansbrough who beat both runners and slotted a great
goal past the stranded Hawks keeper. At this point Camberwell realised
that perhaps giving the ball to a player who has played for Australia more
than 200 times may be the key to winning. Thus from this point out
Wansbrough was the key, he single handly scored all 3 Camberwell goals and
created havoc throughout the field. Yet to Pennant E’s credit they
managed to hold on and win 4-3. A valuable 3 points.
Round 6 v Geelong
By Nick Kings
Pennant E made the long and incredibly boring journey down to Geelong to take on the ladder leaders. Aware that a good performance was needed in order to ensure that we did not lose touch with with the top 4, the boys looked to put in a committed performance. This performance was too be founded upon defence. Unfortunately we were without our two regular full backs owing to their aversion to travel outside the greater metropolitan area. Hence Kings and Ranga were called into the heart of defence and for once the defence was capable of moving at a pace greater than a slow jog owing to a new average of 25 as opposed to the regular average age of almost 45.
This pace showed with the a strong performance with only one goal conceded of a rather amazing drag flick. However not all credit should go purely to the full backs as excellent running out of T Mcpherson, D Casey and B Mason enabled the full backs to always have viable outlets. Furthermore G Hodgson in only his first full season in goals had another stand out performance. Finally good leads were created by our on loan brit Will and A Phillips. Thus in the end the boys came away with 1-1 draw against strong opposition. A great team performance.
Round 4 v Old Xavs
By Nick Kings
Coming off the back of two two successive wins PE was desperate to notch three in a row. Our travels had brought us to Elgar park to take on Old Xavs. The game opened in a somewhat cagey manner with Hawthorn pressing and Old Xavs controlling the flow of the game. This control ultimately meant Xavs scored first. The goal was a result of the ball falling kindly to a Xavs player at the top of the circle who then applied a spectacular flick into the top right corner through a crowd of players. A rather amazing goal with more than a hint of luck. However Old Xavs luck did not end there. Hawthorn conceded a bad turnover and a Xavs player proceeded to run from the half way line and despite numerous stick checks he managed to hit a diving tomahawk past the goal keeper. At this stage Hawthorn was extremely dejected having conceded two rather amazing goals to Xavs. Yet one S Rutter knew that with his masterful corner hitting skills Hawthorn would not remain down and out for too long. Hence at the next Hawthorn corner Rutter decided a deflect off the on rushing Xavs player was the past way into the net. Shortly after half-time was blown and it was 2-1.
In the second half Xavs opened the scoring again. At 3-1 with 25 minutes to go it was not looking good. But C Smibert had other ideas. Receiving the ball at the 25 Smibert spun, ddribbled and hit a diving slap shot into the top corner 3-2. At this point Hawthorn caught fire and when Sam Negri put a slower ball under the keeper it was all tied up. Finally Rutter stepped up to complete the fair tail with a delicious lob over the keeper who was down on the short corner. 4-3 and the boys had done it 3 wins in a row.
Round 3 v Kew
By Nick Kings
Coming off the back of a strong win last week Pennant E came into its round 3 match against Kew fired up. The opening period of play was a tight affair with Kew holding an edge in possession but failing to generate any noticeable scoring threat. Furthermore Hawthorn appeared dangerous on the break with Sam Fairbrother’s bruising approach to the game generating havoc in the forward line. However, Hawthorn shipped a cheap goal after a poor midfield turnover led to a short corner that was duly converted by a rather special looking corner battery. Hawthorn heads dropped and it looked as if it was going to turn into a blow out. Then a moment of brilliance by Sammy Fairbrother tipped the game on its head. Sam tackled one of the Kew boys deep in the forward line and he then proceeded to take the ball into the circle and launch a rocket at the Kew keeper. The keeper was equal to the task, but undeterred Sam pounced up to the rebound and sent another thunderbolt straight through the keeper’s legs. Cue manic celebrations. Hawthorn sniffed a win. The midfield hustle increased and, through excellent hold up play by Chris Kings, Hawthorn was able to dictate the pace of the game better.
In the second half this sustained period of possession led to a beautiful through-pass to David Emerson who cut along the back line and slotted another through the keeper’s legs. Kew attempted to hit back, but now Hawthorn was the far more dominant team and the rest of the game played out virtually exclusively in Kew’s own defensive half. Hence when Sam Fairbrother got another goal off a well-worked corner Hawthorn really had their tails up. Playing confidently to the end, Hawthorn ran out 3-1 winners and Pennant E had claimed two in two.
Round 2 v Southern
The Hawthorn Mens Pennant E side got their season off the ground last weekend with a stellar 8-3 victory against a lucklustre Southern United at Moorabbin. After a relatively slow start that emptied the already sparsely populated stands on a cold and wet Saturday evening the Hawks machine kicked into 2nd gear and piled on 3 goals before half time. Lowlight of the half was Steve Rutter’s CLANGER of the year contender of passing the ball backward to an opposition player standing unmarked on the spot. Much to Steve’s relief that player then proceeded to complete to the comedy act by missing the goal.
After the half the opposition had no answer to the Hawks regular tsunami of fast and decisive attacks to finish the game full of running with an additional 5 goals for the half. The side benefitted from an injection of speed and youth in Tim McPherson and Chris Kings and in an impressive all round team effort the stand out performers were Nick Kings, Charlie Smibert, Andy Phillips and Sam Fairbrother.
Goals:
S Negri 2
B Mason 1
A Phillips 1
C Smibert 2
S Fairbrother 2
Round 1 v MCC
MCC turned up with a coach and did drills before the game, a novelty which we had not encountered in our previous life as M3E. Somewhat alarmingly, most of the MCC team looked like they were about half the age of our captain. In anticipation of such treachery, we had wisely recruited some younger talent from the U15’s and placed them in key positions on the field. This paid off with some outstanding play from Jack Jessup, Julian Lugg, Robbie McIntosh and Hugh Simpson, ably assisted by Gus Evans, which saw fine goals to each of Julian and Gus while the rest of us stood around and watched admiringly. Regrettably, while we were doing that MCC snuck a couple of goals in too which saw us finish with a 2-2 draw.