Home of the Central Blues Australian Football Club

Similar to last week the Blues took some time to settle in the first quarter as players adapted to some unfamiliar positions but after some tough contesting from both sides the Blues looked to have hit found their rythum.  The wiley old 50 gamer wasn’t going to let the occasion get the better of him and provided some fantastic run from the Blues backline to setup Dan "D2" Lock who took a magnificent pack mark before going back and slotting the first major of the game.  Ivan "Milat" Oulette was back to his menacing best up forward throwing his body around in a demonstration of how effective the one-percenters can be.  Shaun "Shagger" Kentwell, fresh after some buck riding in Calgary, was brilliant in the midfield and snuck forward late in the quarter to mark in space and slot through another Blues goal.  However, the Hawks were able to settle themselves and turn the momentum, running out the quarter with 3 goals of their own to be down by a slender 6 points at the first break.

Despite the small deficit the Blues remained calm in the huddle and confident that increased discipline and persistence would see them gain and maintain their dominance over the opposition.  Jacob "Skip" Sone continued his great season form, dominating the ruck and allowing the Blues midfield to gain first use at the stoppages.  Enter Sean "Shorty" Goedheer. After a dominant performance last week, kicking 10 goals against the Rebels, Shorty again found his rich vein of form banging home 5 goals for the quarter on his way to 6 for the match.  Blues debutant Kyle "Doc" Docherty was making himself at home, racking up  touches across the half backline and through the midfield including some of the best contested marking seen at the Blues since the departure of favorite son Mark "Knackers" Dobson (aka the 2nd best contested mark in the competition). Also down back Jared Postance continued his good form in not only shutting down his opponent by providing forward drive from deep in defense. Postance would go on to take a share of the Blues Top Contributor with 50-gamer Jase Cain. The Blues backline has been superb this season and this quarter was among their best as they continued to rebound the Hawk attacks with silky ball movement and run. Ewan "Obi" Williams was given the task of shutting down the Hawks Cody Royle who was dominating for the Hawks in the 1st quarter and promptly quieten the Aussie down for the next couple of quarters. With the Blues defense stepping it up a notch and Shorty’s 5 goal blitz the Blues went into the main break with handy 4 goal lead.

The half time break provided some much needed recovery time for the Blues who had really worked tirelessly in the previous quarter to take control of the game in the extreme heat. However, it was the Hawks who seemed to be struggling and their decision to relocate their huddle to the shady confines of the shed gave the Blues an unexpected psychological boost. Like a shark sensing blood in the water the the Blues picked up where they left off in the first half to go in for the kill.  Matt "Dunney" Dunne was exceptional all day across the half forward line and fired up in the 3rd kicking 3 goals as well as unselfishly setting up a goal to Rob "Chaps" Chapman. Fellow forwards, Kyle "self appointed Human Microwave" Pinto and Shorty also provided some classy finish each slotting goals and Doc continued to impress in his first Blues game taking arguably the mark of the game (ironically the other 3 contenders were also his marks). 17 year old Kevin "Shaft" Callendar was asked to go head to head with the Hawks Mario Pareja who was one of the Hawks main contributors in the first half, and the 17 year old impressed to limit Pareja's impact for the remainder of the day. But the highlight of the quarter belonged to Milat who continued to harass the Hawks backmen and effected an inspirational smother resulting in a Blues goal. Again the Blues backmen continued to work hard restricting the Hawks to 2 goals while the Blues piled on 6 of their own to extend their lead to 7 goals at the end of the 3rd.

As the rain started fall and the temperature dropped the final quarter once again became a tough arm wrestle between the two sides.  Shorty was again dominant and fed Chaps his second goal for the day while Jared continued to throw his body into every contest.  In a reasonably uneventful final quarter it was Derek "George" MacDonald who provided a bit of spark with a courageous spoil in defense.  George has been a big improver in the last two years and after some blistering form in the Div 2 had certainly earned his call up to the Div 1 side.  Despite being one of the smaller guys at the club his efforts on Saturday have not only demonstrated that he can be a Div 1 contributor but also again highlights the depth of Canadian talent at the Blues disposal.  In the end, the Blues took the honours by 29 points in an important win against a very competitive and dangerous Hawks outfit.  While the Hawks might not be showing the form expected of them at the start of the season you get the feeling they are very close to turning things around and will be a formidable side come finals time.

Next week the Blues face the Guelph Gargoyles a 2nd vs 3rd battle in what should be the match of the round at Humber Nth.  The Blues comfortably defeated Guelph earlier in the season but will be in for a battle this time around as the Gargoyles look to extract some pay back and as both sides surge towards a potential top 2 finish.