On a picturesque Autumn day, the UFC had its best return for the year with 8 wins from 9 games. In a tale as old as time, the uni teams were able to display the clean skills and tough football on a beautiful day for football.
After a few rough weeks, the Women returned to the historic home of football (James Oval) to much excitement in the group. After some speed bumps to start the day, the girls were able to record emphatic wins in the Peacocks and Stormers, reminding the competition that their best football can match anyone.
The colts all carried on their merry way, with comfortable wins – most notably the C-Gulls scoring 180 points in their new competition. In the lower grades, the Dingoes did what Naarm could not – extending their undefeated streak another week. With Erk-Dogs birthday during the next round (allegedly), the Dings will be looking to extend the streak one more week as a little present to the great man. The Pirates were the only side to go down over the weekend, being beaten by a confident Forrestdale Side who were adamant that the Pirates knew they’d be enjoying their drive home.
The A-Grade and A-Res got some confidence back after a tough start to the season, both recording great wins at City Beach Oval. With the Bye next week and a few players returning – we will be looking to turn our fortunes around off the back of wins in both grades.
A week off is coming up, with a league-wide bye for WA day which will be enjoyed by all. When we return, the A-Grade will be taking on North Fremantle in a must-win match. Make sure to mark it in your calendars to get down and support the UFC.
Steinepreis Paganin A-Grade
University 15.12 102 defeated West Coast Cowan 9.11 65
The A Grade side travelled to City Beach Oval, taking on the in-form West Coast who have been playing some really strong football since their promotion to the top competition. The team had trained really strongly and welcomed back a flurry of players who have missed time due to injury and COVID such as; Matt Davies, Sam West, Quinn Donaldson, Charlie Stapleton & Dwayne Lake. We also had the exciting debut of two new players in Isaac Barton & Ryan Murphy.
We started like a house on fire, dominating the first quarter with our intensity and slick ball movement, kicking 5 goals, which was our best first quarter return of the season. Key forward Leigh Kohlmann picked up where he left off, snagging 2 early majors, with Isaac Barton and Finn Moloney proving to be handful in the midfield.
The second quarter we were challenged. Kicking with a stiff breeze, West Coast gained back momentum, putting on 5 goals to our 1 which gave them a 2 point lead at the main break. Uni were still playing some good footy, but West Coast capitalised on a few turnovers and made us pay.
The third quarter was the best football we’ve played all year, kicking 7 goals to 0 in what was a dominant display of A Grade football. The backline was resolute in defence, with captain Tim O’Hara showing why he is one of the best players in the competition, continually marking and spoiling every ball that came his way. Barton, Wilson, Flint & Moloney lifted in the middle of the ground, winning clearances and hitting the scoreboard. Lively forward duo, Quinn Donaldson and Herick Alforque applied manic pressure, keeping the ball in our forward half.
We finished the game off strong, winning by 37 points. After a tough last month of football, we proved to ourselves the level we can play at. Heading into the bye we are 3-5, with several players due to return from injury, the team will be looking to attack the second half of the season with real momentum.
Goals: Kohlmann 5, Moloney 2, Blakely 2, Alforque, Barton, Flint, Donaldson, Wilson, Davies
Best: O’Hara, Barton, Kohlmann, Moloney, Blakely, Stapleton, Flint
4 Pines A-Reserves
University 18.5 113 defeated West Coast Cowan 5.1 31
The Ressies have secured back-to-back wins for the first time in season 2022 with a commanding 82 point victory against West Coast last weekend. The mood was one of pure excitement with a host of ins, including the return of Jake ‘Pres’ Colvin making his long awaited return from injury. His inclusion as well as Durs, Willo’s made for close to the strongest side we had run out all year.
Going into the game the message from the Coaches was to do the small things right and execute, with Colvin’s return getting some serious air time.
Despite the inclusions though it was a flat start from the Uni boys with a stifling West Coast getting out to a flyer and kicking the first 3 of the game. A late steadier from the Piranha proved valuable in wrestling back momentum as went a goal down at the first break.
In the second quarter we started to win the ball out of the midfield, with newly found (albeit he won’t want to admit it ruckman) Tom Doggart competing very well. This competition helped to get Gaj involved as the pickle slicer started to get active inside. As well as this was the always dangerous Quincey Howard who proved invaluable all day. However, the story from the quarter was the Pres. The Pres going back from 50 out (approximately 65 if you spoke to him on Saturday Night) slotted an important one to give us a 10 point lead at the main break.
At halftime Coach McAuliffe challenged the boys to lift as the boys had been presented with a real opportunity to take this game on and come home with a strong win. With these words ringing in their ears the boys obliged and were able to lift for our best half of the year. Conceding a goal for the half and adding 13 was amazing to watch as Winners just started to stamp his authority on the game. With Winners lifting the whole forward line and midfield group did as well, and the backs were steadfast. Also notable was Manta dominating around the contest and Big O doing a stellar job on a dangerous West Coast forward.
Overall it was pleasing performance for the Ressies which now gets us back to 500. Our next game is North Fremantle at home and if we play as we did in the second half of this game we will be a tough outfit for any team.
Votes: Winners (5); Manta & Gaj (4); Doggart (3); Dur, Willo & Quincey (2); Owen, Pres, Sauce & Wads (1)
Goals: Quince (3); Nifty & Winners (2); Gaj, Willo, Doggart, Rana, Frosty, Bing, Darce, Pres, Crud and Con (1)
Phil Scott Colts
University 13.14 92 defeated West Coast Cowan 1.8 14
The colts have started extremely strong in the season and carried that momentum into this game. West Coast have had a strong last 4 games going 3-1 so we thought it was going to be a challenge. We started well, kicking the first two goals before West Coast pegged one back.
Going through the game it was basically a whitewash, nothing major to report from this game as we dominated in and out from quarter to quarter. Jack Cooper was outstanding kicking 5 goals, both our captains CJ and Slippers were incredible off half forward and the wing. Talked up talent Charlie Morfesse has yet to prove himself at the top colts level however tries his hardest every game and sometimes produces a bit of magic.
A dominant display from the midfield saw us take this game by over 70 points.
Best: CJ, Slippers, Cooper, Brooks, Chadwick, Love.
Goals: Cooper, Johnson, Chadwick, Rava, Morfesse, Love, McNee.
Crossing Law A-Grade Women Stormers
University 11.6 72 defeated Cottesloe 4.2 26
Steinepreis C2-Grade Women Peacocks
University 6.6 42 defeated Ocean Ridge 1.8 14
A successful return to James Oval for the Cocks, running out winners against tough opposition in Ocean Ridge. After a tough first 10 minutes, where the defence held tight against a flurry of D50 entries, we eventually started winning the clearances and were able to break away with a couple of late goals to set up a 9 point lead at quarter time.
Although the Cocks went goalless in the second quarter, our midfield really started to get on top, particularly at stoppages with our contested brand of footy on show – Izzy Rakich winning clearance after clearance and getting brilliant service from Michelle in ruck. A 3 point lead at the main break, but Peacocks with the momentum.
Our hard work and attack at the footy really starting paying off in the 3rd quarter – we continued to dominate the midfield and some huge defensive efforts from Alex, Bunny, Holly and Tilly helped to keep Ocean Ridge goalless for the quarter. Most importantly our forwards were beginning to find space, which is quite difficult at James Oval, and we kicked another couple of goals to take a 15 point lead at the final break.
Despite the heat and lingering Covidness, the Peacocks pulled away in the last quarter, with a brilliant all round effort setting up a huuuuuuuuge 28 point victory!
Best: I. Rakich, Gopfert, Cavanagh, Bunny, Bedford-Brown, Christabel, Holly, Tilly, Ellary
Goals: I. Rakich, Bedford-Brown (2), Clarke, Ford
Brewhub C4-Grade Pirates
University 4.12 36 defeated by Forrestdale 11.7 73
The pirates came up against Forrestdale Falcons this week and went down by 37 points. At times we let the physical and emotional nature of the game get the better of us as we lost our structure and composure and played into their hands. We struggled to transition the ball, played in straight lines and were unable to get effective and deep entries into our forward line.
In a footy sense the boys were encouraged to take the game on and try to play with more freedom. We tried to put an emphasis on using the width of the ground as well as the corridor and changing our angles to try and get more fluency with our ball movement.
Whilst the game calmed down in the third quarter we were still unable to get the game on our terms. For a second week in a row we had an extremely poor third quarter as our forward pressure dropped to the worst it’s been all year and we still struggled to move the ball with freedom and generate any run and carry. In addition, our defensive running and ability to restrict the opposition from using the corridor was pretty average as we went scoreless for the quarter and went into the final change down by 31 points.
Frustratingly, in a similar vein to last week it took a three-quarter time spray for the boys to wake up. We started to bite off kicks through the corridor and reward the runner with handball receives in a blistering start to the quarter as we crept to within 8 points midway through. Ultimately, poor kicking let us down early in the quarter as we kicked 3.7 up to that point. Disappointingly, after Forrestdale responded with a couple goals late in the quarter we seemingly rolled over as they piled a few on late and pushed the final margin to 37 points.
Overall it was a pretty disappointing outcome in a big game that provided some pretty big challenges across the board. However, there were lots of lessons to take out of the game and the boys are confident that with a different mindset and a few tweaks the Pirates will be able to put in a much improved effort and get back to their best footy next round against North Freo. The Pirates now sit in 5th with a record of 5-3.
Best: Squid, Vel, Squirt, Simko, Scooter, Pablo, Hench, Gus
Goals: Blackers, Hench, Klaz and Vel
BDO C4-Reserves Dingoes
University 15.8 98 defeated Forrestdale 5.7 37
The dingoes came into yet another week without much knowledge of their opponent. Back at home and facing Forrestdale who have had a good start to the season, sitting second on the ladder. This would pose as the biggest challenge for the dingoes and a good opportunity to go into the bye undefeated.
A main challenge in recent weeks for the dingoes has been slow starts to the game. This certainly wasn’t an issue this week. The dingoes looked hungry for the footy, winning the contested ball, but also backing it up with precision kicking. This resulted in an excellent first quarter with the ball pinging around the ground. Ryan Harper had one of the all time first halves, kicking 3 goals and clunking everything, before coming off with an injury. The Dingoes finished the game off with a full quarter performance, that included a brilliant team goal that was finished off by the skipper Alex White-dingoes coming out as 61 point victors.
Subi Hotel Laurie Keene Colts C-Gulls
University 27.18 180 defeated Warnbro 3.2 20
Brett Jones Yumbo puppy colts
University 12.9 81 defeated Kalamunda 9.5 59