By Marcus Uhe
Officer coach Daniel Charles praised his burgeoning midfield brigade for its two-way performance in Saturday’s 60-point win against Hallam.
Having kept the Hawks to a single goal in the first half, the Kangaroos held Hallam to the lowest score they have conceded for the year to date in the 14.10 94 to 5.4 34 victory at Hallam Recreation Reserve.
Mark Seedsman kicked five and skipper Brent Moloney added three, but Charles said the midfielders set the tone for the afternoon, and played a significant role in restricting Hallam’s ability to hit the scoreboard.
“It’s not only the backline setting up properly but it’s the midfield,” he said.
“The best way the midfield can help the backs is the pressure they can put on up the field so that the delivery is not as good.
“We changed lanes really well. Our inside midfielders in the first half with Jack Brettoner and Anthony Bernardo, really controlled the inside.
“We held our width on the outside, we dominated the outside of the stoppages.”
With a six-goal lead at the half, Charles used the second half of action as an investment in the future of his younger crop, throwing the likes of Zac Charles, Ryan Hutton and Mitch Mibus into the middle of the ground to learn an alternate perspective.
“They’re still finding their feet but they got a better understanding on what it means to be an inside midfielder.
“Some of them are going to be really good inside midfielders in the not-too-distant future. It’s just so that they can get a taste of where they’re at and where they need to improve.
“But you also get a better look at the stoppages from inside to outside and it was basically a learning tool to see what works for them, what they noticed on the outside when they’re on the inside, and so that they can get a better understanding on their positioning on the outside, because you do see it a bit differently.”
Hutton and Riley Perkins have been two players to have made an impact on the senior side since their promotion from the under 19s, with Perkins holding his won in the ruck despite playing a key defensive role in the under 19s setup.
But with youth comes fluctuations in form; Officer have been unable to string consecutive wins together since round five, and outside of Seville are yet to defeat a side above them on the table, having lost twice to both Berwick Springs and Emerald.
But Charles does not believe the gap is as significant as the results would suggest.
“I know we lost both times to Berwick Springs but in both games we had our opportunities to win,” Charles said.
“On the weekend we had 10 blokes in the team who were under 21. We had 15 under 24.
“There’s a lot of people in there who haven’t played a lot of games, and when you get the inexperience you get inconsistency.
“It’s just a matter of getting games into them and continuing to educate.”
The fruits of the learnings will be on full-display on Saturday when they host Emerald at Starling Road.
The Bombers responded to a shock loss the week before to get the better of Healesville by five goals at Healesville.
Sean Clearihan’s side made the running early in the contest by kicking the final three goals of the first quarter, highlighted by a stunning checkside snap from Mitch White under pressure on his left foot.
It was an even contest for the remainder of the afternoon as Emerald kicked eight goals to Healesville’s seven, but the Bombers could have won by more, had they not kicked 12.14.
Mitch White kicked a further two goals for the afternoon, making the most of the opportunity to contribute at local level with Casey having a bye in the VFL.
Callum White also kicked three to move into equal-second on the goalkicking tally with 29, behind teammate David Johnson on 32, who added two himself.
Healesville midfielders Shaun Donkin, Cody Anderson and Connor Ballingall were among the home side’s best, as key forward Sam Gebert kicked two to take his season total to 28.
At Mick Morland Reserve, a spread of seven multiple goalkickers for Berwick Springs powered the Titans to an 87-point thrashing of Belgrave, despite the absence of Braydn Hoewel.
Lucas Smith kicked five, nearly doubling his season total of seven, as the home side ran-ragged in the second half with 14 goals to Belgrave’s two, with the final score reading 22.13 145 to Belgrave’s 9.4 58, the highest score for the Titans in 2023.
Ty Ellison, Tom Nelson and Corey Green each added three, premier midfielders Daniel Ousley, Hayden Stagg and Connor Guley two each.
