Home of the Central Blues Australian Football Club

The Blues have reached the half-way mark of the 2010 OAFL season at 6-1 after defeating the Etobicoke Kangaroos for the first time since the club entered the league in 2006. In arguably the match of the round, the Central Blues (5-1) headed out to Humber Sth on a beautiful Friday night to take on the Etobicoke Kangaroo’s (4-2).  Up until this game, the Blues had never tasted victory against the Roos who have been (and still are) one of the strongest teams in the OAFL.  Not only had the Roos been undefeated against the Blues, but they dominated them dishing out some of the clubs most brutal and humiliating defeats. More recently, the Roos ended the Blues 2009 finals campaign in the preliminary finals. But despite all this history the Blues were confident coming into this game - after putting together the best start the club has seen in its five year history. The coaching group knew they had the right mix of personell to finally the 4 points against one of the top sides in the competition.

After enjoying strong starts that led to comfortable wins in the previous few weeks against opponents such as the Goyles, Dingos and Swans, the Blues were quickly given a reality check as the Roos dominated the proceedings early in the first quarter. After winning the toss, the Roos came out strong and sent a clear message that if the Blues wanted to win then they would have to fight hard for it.  The Roos midfield seemed to get on top early and gprovided plenty of supply to their big forwards.  It was the Roos full forward, Emile Studham who got the home team on the board first with a strong mark and goal, followed closely by another.  The task of subduing the Roos powerhouse forward was given to Riley "Vossy" Armstrong, a rookie of only 6 games who was not getting the support from his teammates that he deserved.  To Vossy’s credit, he kept his head high and withered the initial storm, limiting Emile to only those two initial goals in a magnificent performance that gained him the Blues Top Contributor Award. As the quarter progressed the Blues began to settle and managed to get themselves on the board courtesy of a great mark and goal by Karl "Lomba" Lombardozi who worked tirelessly in the Blues midfield all night.  Lomba would go on to kick 3 more goals (4 for the evening) in a best on ground performance.  Despite the slow start the Blues finished the quarter with a small amount of momentum and went into the first break confident of making up the 17 point deficit.

The instructions at quarter time were simple; "Keep playing how we finished off that quarter". And that is exactly what the Blues did. With Lomba and Sean "Shorty" Goedheer taking charge at the center bounces the Blues forwards began to get more of the ball.  Coach Macumber and Denton Levy got on the end of some good delivery to notch up goals and suddenly the Blues were within striking distance.  As they have done so often this year, the Blues backline knuckled down and held the Roos goalless in the quarter.  Jacob "Skip" Sone, initially given the hard task of minimizing the Roos other big forward, Travis McKenzie, was busily adding another scalp to his collection while Andrew "Boota" Booth was relishing running amok across half back line and providing the run out of defense that was lacking at the start of the game.  With the momentum firmly in the Blues favor it was a 5 point deficit at the half - as the Blues slowly reeled in the home side. 

The third quarter was a great battle as both teams worked hard to gain any kind of advantage.  Both teams moved the ball well from one end to the other and traded goals.  Kyle "Human Microwave" Pinto continued his great form bagging 2 spectacular goals, while Lomba again bobbed up for another.  However, it was the efforts of Canadian Ewan "Obi" Williams and Kien "Keno" La on the wings that got the Blues moving.  At one stage Obi found himself in a 1 on 3 battle on the wing and after a first, second and third effort was able to gather the ball and pass it off to a team mate in an inspirational play resulting in a goal.  Again, it was the Blues who seemed to have wrestled the momentum in their favor at the three quarter time break, going in with a 1 point advantage hitting the lead for the first time in the game.

Having never been in this position against the Roos before, the Blues were determined to fight this game out and after a minor reshuffle of the board it was time to go.  Boota was injected into the midfield and had immediate impact.  Both teams played desperate footy again but it was the Blues who managed to make the most of their opportunities scoring 4 straight goals to the Roos 1 goal and 3 behinds.  Close range goals from marks to Lomba and KP provided a small amount of breathing space before the Roos hit back to narrow the margin.   A brilliant running goal to Shorty again made the difference two kicks before Jase "Cherry Picker" Cain snuck forward to kick the sealer on the goal line with only a couple of minutes remaining.

The final siren saw a release of emotion from some of the long-time Blues who after being on the receiving end Roos losses for some long, finally had something to cheer about.  Now the Eagles remain as the only team in the OAFL that the Blues have been unable to defeat.  But the context of the win for this season was even more important. Brilliant games from Obi and Vossy against high quality opponents as well as an impressive return from injury for Jared Postance were big positives for the Blues out if this game.  Dan ‘D2’ Lock proved he can play at both ends of the ground after a stellar second half in defense and Kennard "Kenny" Wong also showed his versatility with a sensational last quarter.