After a week off with a bye the reserves travelled to Geelong with fresh legs and high hopes of continuing the great start to the season. Geelong however had other ideas. Very rarely do Geelong put a poor side on the ground and this was no exception. It wasn’t long before it was obvious that this was going to be a close game. We made several promising moves forward only to be held up by a very experienced Geelong back line. Our quick but younger strikers weren’t able to penetrate a solid defence. Geelong also made several forays forward but our defence stayed well-structured and composed and kept them out. Eventually Geelong scored after a bit of a scramble on the line that really could have ended up anywhere.
The girls responded really well with greater pressure around the ground particularly on Geelong’s 16’s which resulted in a number of turnovers. Their fitness started to show late in the second half as they started to find more space behind Geelong’s defence, but unfortunately were not able to capitalise on the opportunities. We went in at half time one nil down but well in the game.
The second half didn’t start well with Geelong scoring early and putting some mental pressure on the girls. To their credit, they didn’t take a step back and continued to press for an advantage. This eventually paid off. After a number of runs down the left-hand side, Fred finally found space behind the backs with Abhi, Fred and Lydia streaming forward on the inside. The three worked the ball really well and allowed Fred to clinically finish.
The rest of the second half was a bit of an arm wrestle, but with our girls have the best of it. It seemed only a matter of time that the equaliser would come. But, in the fickle nature of the game we all love would have it, and with only minutes to play Geelong turned another scramble in front of goal into a stroke. Despite Mary picking the direction she was unable to prevent it finding the net.
A slightly disappointing 3-1 score line that didn’t reflect the closeness of the game. Lots of positives that the girls can take into next week.