By Callum Ludwig
The Lilydale Seniors have found themselves once again locked in a nail-biting clash with a margin of under a goal as the Dales took on Beaconsfield at home in round nine.
The Under 19.5s kicked off the day in chilly, windy but dry conditions, and were unable to emulate the short-kicking style of their opponents as they went down 5.3, 33 to 11.9, 75.
The game was marred by an early injury to the ever-unlucky Astin Bucci after his hand was accidentally stepped on while trying to force a rushed behind, leaving the side down to one on the bench after the late withdrawal of Cooper ‘Backpacks’ Beckwith due to a bout of food poisoning. The source of Backpacks’ tummy troubles is yet to be confirmed but absolutely no one will be surprised by whatever excuse he comes up with.
Jaymin ‘Bull’ Townsley barged his way through opponents in a best on ground performance for Lilydale, despite experimenting with an unfamiliar centre-half back role, and was joined by Luke Phillips, Bailey Bateman, Daniel ‘Horseshoe’ Ryan, Austin ‘Oz’ White and Lachlan ‘Dangerous Dust’ Isbester.
Ashton ‘Dobby’ Dobbin got the full taste of the carrot or the stick metaphor, after a performance slightly below his lofty standards, with assistant coach John Gordon clearly straying from dangling a carrot and hitting him with quite the stick in his halftime spray. To ‘Dobby’s’ credit, he came out reinvigorated in the second half, showing grit and determination and kicking two goals in what turned out to be a great showing of respect between coach and player.
Dobby was joined by Bateman, Bull and Bailey ‘Tall Skinny Guy’ Grant among the goalkickers.
The U19.5s remain in seventh on the ladder.
The Reserves came out and scored themselves a convincing win, the Falcons toppling the Eagles 10.11, 71 to 5.6, 36.
Despite losing a number of key players to the U19.5s and Trent ‘Chunks’ Davison to the 1’s, the 2’s never looked undermanned and were comfortably ahead at every change after quarter time.
Harry ‘TikToks’ Mitchell slotted 3 goals to take his tally for the season to 11, despite teammates reminding him he could’ve easily kicked 6 or 7 by his standards.
Othe goalkickers were the returning Oscar ‘Big O’ Aliotta with 2, Jarrod ‘Blue Clouds’ Thompson also with 2 and Sean ‘Ranga’ Hajdu, Nathan ‘Thommo’ Thompson and Travis Mihan all with 1.
Blue Clouds was Lilydale’s best in the win, closely followed by Ethan ‘Pony’ Filliponi, the best no.22 at the club Luke Hogg, TikToks, Harry Gayfer and Jordan ‘Tubes’ Trollope.
Despite the strong win, arguably the best performance from these boys on the day was the back and forth between Blue Clouds and TikToks throughout the senior game, perfecting the switch from gameday focus to talking utter rubbish from the boundary fence in scintillating fashion.
The Reserves close the gap on Bayswater but stay in ninth place for now.
After being on the right side of a couple of close encounters over the last two weeks, the Seniors once again faced heartbreak as a late goal saw Beaconsfield run out victors by 4 points, 12.6, 78 to 11.16, 82.
The game will be skipper Riley ‘Santa’ Clausen’s last for 6 to 8 weeks, set for surgery on a fractured and dislocated finger which he has played through admirably for the last couple of weeks, featuring in the EFNL team of the week last week and still among Lilydale’s best against Beaconsfield.
The blonde bombshell down back Jake ‘Clem’ Clements took out best on ground honours, joined by Marc Massarotti who we were glad to retain late after training with VFL side Frankston Dolphins throughout the week, Santa, Mitchell ‘DeFran’ De Franceschi, Liam ‘Jeffa’ Jeffs and Jayden ‘Jib’ Depace.
Goalkickers were the big bad birthday boy (for Sunday) Beau Mitchener with 3, aspiring candlemaker Jordan ‘Jaws’ Jaworski and the returning Macauley ‘Bags’ Beckwith with 2 and solitary snags coming from Jeffa, Jack Bateman, De Fran, Josh ‘Scone’ White and a first senior goal for Chunks.
The 1’s are also seventh on the ladder.
An incredibly important clash against local rivals Croydon awaits all sides following the Queen’s Birthday weekend break. Round nine also marked the 150th anniversary of the Lilydale Football Netball Club with past players and coaches heading back to their old stomping ground to celebrate past memories and glory.
