Sport / Football
Brunswick men come crashing back to earth
Brunswick NOBs 2.5 (17) lost to Kew 20.15 (135) at Victoria Park
Tim Purdey
“A week is a long time in football” may be an overused cliche, but it accurately describes what Brunswick just experienced.
After soaring to a memorable victory over Oakleigh the week before, the NOBs crashed back to earth with a forgettable, 118-point flogging at the hands of Kew at Victoria Park on Saturday.
Playing on the long weekend because of a fixturing fumble by the VAFA, Brunswick were on the back foot from the outset as they struggled to cover the loss of several mature players in wet conditions, compounded by being on the receiving end of a number of questionable umpiring decisions early in the game which led to goals to the home side and visibly deflated them.
The game followed a familiar trend throughout. In the first term, Kew got off to a fast start with three goals on the board inside 10 minutes, as the ball lived in their forward line.
The umpires were intent on paying technical free kicks favouring those playing in front, who tended to be in brown and gold, and the Bears took full advantage. Brunswick began to get their hands on the ball more often as the quarter progressed and a late soccer goal to Liam Allman reduced the margin to 23 points at the first change.
The second quarter was largely one-way traffic, with the NOBs’ turnovers between half-back and the wings being routinely punished by a home side that was handling the wet ball extremely well. More dubious umpiring decisions also ensued, which caused frustrations to boil over and the undisciplined gifting of a couple of majors to the Bears.
Brunswick were clearly feeling the loss of two gun midfielders in Daniel Mott and Angus Ross, but that doesn’t fully explain Kew’s dominance out of the middle and around the ground, and at half-time the deficit was 57 points.
A more competitive showing was expected in the third term and early on there was one, but turnovers again proved to be a killer as Kew capitalised with another three goals, before Jackson Davis, who did a fine job stepping up in the midfield, slotted Brunswick’s second for the day from a free kick to reduce the margin to 73 points after 16 minutes.
It was all downhill from that point, however, as the Bears kicked the final seven goals of the match. A scoreless last quarter rubbed a little more salt in the wound for the NOBs.
On a tough day, the NOBs’ skipper Ben Wilson battled hard for his team in the midfield, alongside Jackson Davis, Lewis McKenzie and Gabe Banova. Debutant ruckman Ben Pickering, playing on permit from the junior club, showed that he is a footballer for the future, while Tahj Haddock was again very good in defence.
In another big game, Brunswick hosts Prahran at Gillon Oval this Saturday to round out the first half of the season.
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