Simon Gilson and Frank Seal
Olinda’s strong start to the season was brought to a halt on Saturday as Healesville lives up to their reputation as a competition favourite.
While Olinda still had a few injuries to the list, the coaches felt it was a strong team to meet a close to full strength Healesville unit and were looking forward to the hitout. The last few weeks have seen wins against tough opposition but the club did not believe it been playing its best footy. Against Healesville, the Olinda-Ferny Creek Football Club came out a little flat. You could see the lost momentum in the energy of the girls at the break despite this not yet showing on the scoreboard.
The second quarter saw Olinda continue to battle hard at the contest, but some clean ball use and uncontested possession allowed Healesville to score. Players looked a little rattled, not used to a team being able to convert turnovers like Healesville did and the ball use was often rushed. In attack, Healesville were able to create space and give their forwards plenty of options. When Olinda won back the footy, they regularly kicked into their waiting defensive wall, a pattern Healesville capitalised on. This is the brand of footy Olinda trains to play themselves, however the pace Healesville set for the game caught the team behind the contest and out of position. When panicked, Olinda used low percentage footy which inevitably led to turnovers and gave Healesville more opportunities to score.
The game continued into the second half in much the same way – there were plenty of individual highlights from players such as Grace Belloni and Maddie Collins, however, without the team cohesion and team defence out of the midfield we’ve shown all year, their efforts could not cause damage on the scoreboard. Casey Seymour and Leah Cody had plenty to do in defence and battled hard all night, but the game was fought and lost in the midfield. Isla Bradbury ran the wings and presented options. Phoebe Dixon presented well up forward but the delivery was not as sharp as it has been, whilst Ness Bateman pushed up the ground and provided options. Ruby Gilson continued her good form with creative running and working to get to the contest. Alex Gunn again provided her stopping power against one of the Healesville forwards in one of the few defensive wins of the night.
Healesville were playing inspired football, putting heavy pressure on the Olinda defenders led gallantly by Casey Seymour and Leah Cody. At the final siren, Healesville had pulled off the upset of the women’s season so far, inflicting Olinda’s first loss for the year (13-7-85 to 1-2-8).
The players are confident they can turn around that performance. With more discipline and a more defensive mindset and structure, Olinda feels they will give Healesville a much tougher game when the two meet again in three weeks.
