By Marcus Uhe
Two minutes of football in the final quarter will live long in the memories of Gembrook Cockatoo fans as the season continues – but not for the right reasons.
Saturday’s Outer East Football Netball Premier Division clash with Officer was played on a knife’s edge for the duration of the contest, with neither managing a lead in double figures in the opening three quarters.
Both sides averaged the exact same points for across the opening five weeks of the Outer East Football Netball season and parallels came to the fore as the match played out in the late Autumn chill at Officer Recreation Reserve.
A lead of five points to the home side was as large as the margins got at the first three breaks, with the next two giving the Brookers the smallest of edges on the way to a thrilling crescendo.
But the game changed halfway through the final term, fatally for the Brookers and brilliantly for Officer.
From a boundary throw in on the far wing, Jake Gains and Brenton Hillard combined to work the ball inside 50, where Riley Wierzbicki was unable to complete a juggling marking attempt amongst a large contingent of flyers.
Robert Hudson sharked the crumb and kicked forward to the top of the goalsquare, as debutant Jeremy Valentine and Gembrook Cockatoo veteran Brayden Weller set off on a critical foot race.
Weller reached the Sherrin first, but a clever nudge from the crafty Valentine saw him take possession as Weller lost his footing.
With numbers swarming, Valentine stayed composed and fed a handball backwards to a trailing Taj Beddows, who snapped truly from the pocket to put Officer ahead by five points.
Jeremy Monckton’s desire and drive at the ensuing centre bounce earned a free kick and in kicking long to a contest, found Valentine again at the right place and right time.
His kick hung in the air for what felt like an eternity and too long for Gembrook Cockatoo’s Michael Bourne, who spilled the mark at the top of the Officer goal square.
Bourne quickly gathered the ball and went sideways to Jesse Busacca, anticipating a simple collect at ground level, but fumbled in the worst possible place.
Swooping in was Wierzbicki, like Steven Bradbury in Salt Lake City back in 2002, for what was the easiest of goals off the ground into an unguarded goal mouth.
Within two minutes, Officer had turned a one-point deficit into an 11-point lead, the largest gap between the combatants at any stage in the game to that point.
The final 10 minutes was nothing short of a slog, but Officer managed to shut the contest down when required.
Mark Seedsman chewed up time with a pair of set shots and repeat inside 50 entries took vital time off the clock, while keeping the ball at their preferred end of the ground.
Gembrook Cockatoo wrestled momentum in the dying stages but everything was beginning to of Officer’s way.
A long shot on goal on the run from Josh Tilly died on its approach to an unguarded goal line and was recovered in time by the Officer defenders to snuff out another scoring opportunity.
It was all hands on deck for the Kangaroos in the final stages, and many hands made for light work as they held off the visitors’ charge to notch a third win for the season.
But Officer coach Daniel Charge didn’t sugar coat what he thought of the performance, describing the win as ‘ugly’.
“It wasn’t a good game by any stretch of the imagination,” a frank Charles said.
“We just got things right once or twice more than Gembrook did.
“It could have gone either way, but probably the only good thing to come out of it was the win, there wasn’t much else.
“We’re trying to play a certain brand of football, so any time we don’t play our brand, whether we win or not, I’m not happy.”
A shoot out in the first term gave spectators a sense of what was to unfold for the remainder of the afternoon, with Officer kicking four goals to Gembrook Cockatoo’s three.
The physicality and pressure from both sides was through the roof, clearly aware of the importance of winning against a side in their bracket on the ladder.
Gembrook Cockatoo ruck Patrick Snoxell was gaining an advantage in the middle when Gains rested for Officer while plenty of attention was being payed to Hillard, who struggled to get a foot hold in the contest.
Officer kicked the opening goal of the second term but the Brookers responded with the next three.
Snoxell hit the scoreboard after an Officer turnover in the middle of the ground, and quickly had a second thanks to a strong tackle from Konner Allcott further afield.
The heat was on Officer as the Brookers looked to convert possession into scoreboard advantage.
The Kangaroos were their own worst enemies for much of the second term, failing to hit targets in the forward 50 time and time again.
Myles Wareham’s second pushed the lead eight points for the visitors as Officer’s routes to goal looked clogged and congested.
Gains finally answered shortly before half time cut the lead to one at the main break, with every score feeling momentous on a low-scoring afternoon.
Both sides were intent on owning the open spaces and spreading with their ball use but often did not possess the skills to match their intent as the ball bounced between the forward 50 arcs.
Wierzbicki opened the scoring in the second half after Officer chipped the ball slowly down the ground from the back half in a rare example of skill and composure, before the ability to kick into the forward 50 deteriorated in the third term.
It failed to cost them the other way for much of the contest until a Gembrook Cockatoo rebound in the 19th minute went the length of the ground for the Brookers’ first of the half through Brad Frater, putting the visitors back in front.
A one-point margin at the final break was more than fitting for how close the contest had been, and set the scene for a tense finale, where Officer prevailed.
Despite Gembrook Cockatoo building a brand around their fitness and ability to run games out, it was Officer that was stronger in the contest for longer when it needed to be.
But Charles was quick to point out that there’s plenty of room for improvement for his side in a number of facets, beginning with their execution late in the contest left him “about to explode”.
“They went down the line too many times for my liking,” Charles said.
“I still want them to back themselves, run hard to get open and actually hit the free bloke, rather than just bomb down the line.
“A couple of times, the boys panicked and got themselves under pressure when there wasn’t much there, and made wrong choices.
“We’ve only been in these structures for a little while and blokes are still learning.”
Jeremy Valentine was a handful in the forward line on debut and Jeremy Monckton’s run and carry was excellent on the wings, as was Brent Moloney’s as he continues to adapt to a new role, while senior players in Omar Ashkar and Kyle Hagger stood tall in the when the game was up for grabs.
Officer joins Gembrook Cockatoo at three wins and three losses to further congest the middle of the Premier Division table, but there’s plenty of work to do in the eyes of Charles.
“We’re trying to establish ourselves as a premier club and we’ve got a long way to go to be competitive with Narre Warren, Woori Yallock, Upwey Tecoma, those teams that have been in Premier Division for a long time,” he said.
“I think we’re going to compete really well against Pakenham, Gembrook Cockatoo, Monbulk, but there is a gap between the best teams and that gap is teams like us, Gembrook Cockatoo, that are still learning their structures.
“We’re learning that, hopefully we can continue to get better with our structures and hopefully towards the end of the year, we can get it more right than wrong, and be more competitive against the top tier sides.”
For Gembrook Cockatoo, Snoxell was brilliant in the middle, and Ben Schultze continues to justify his recruitment in defence.
The going is about to get significantly tougher for the Brookers in the coming weeks with Narre Warren, Woori Yallock and Upwey Tecoma to come in the next three weeks.
