Mornington Preseason Gala

Mount Eliza U8 Red

After a great 2018, the U8 Red’s jumped at the chance to get the band back together again and play at the Mornington Gala. We warmly welcomed some new players to the squad in Lewis Jedynak and Elliot Melder, who were already known to most of our team through school, nippers and/or cricket and will no doubt add great value add to our team.

Our first game was scheduled at 9:40am against Langwarrin Royals - but upon arrival we realised that the schedule had been changed to a 9:00am start and neither we nor the Langwarrin side were aware. First game was a considered a draw - and our next game was not until 11:000am. This was not the start to the season we dreamed of - and the weather was not playing its part. As it turns out an email had been sent entitled ‘Changes to U7 and U9 schedules’.

We U8’s did not read it assuming said changes had left us alone. Lesson learned!

Our second game was against the Langwarrin Reds and the boys found themselves up against a very good team who had been tough to beat last year. We held our own for much of the game with Lewis Jedynak having a cracking first game in defence and mid-field. However, Langwarrin were just too good and the boys went down 2-0 but in a promising start to the year.

The third game was against, you guessed it, Langwarrin Blues, but the MESC U8 Reds had found their groove. Ewan Barnes scored early in the first half to kick off the season’s golden boot competition - but it was the silky skills of Maxy Silk that were then on display as he repeatedly found ways through the Langwarrin defence and scored a rapid fire brace to put the game beyond Langwarrin. In the second half Callum Helmore and Christian Bethune opened their goal scoring accounts for 2019 while Elliot Melder put on a skills clinic. However, it was Austen Bettess’s screamer, hitting a ball flush from just inside half way and laser beaming it in to the Langwarrin net, that was the highlight of the day and capped off a great game to set the wheels in motion for 2019.

We did not qualify for the final, given the loss and the draw, but we were all happy to escape the weather and the boys had been well primed to kick off the season proper next week.

Mount Eliza U11 Green Kangaroos

This was a great opportunity for the Greens to get some extra game time in before the official start of the FV season. Weather wise It was like being in the UK in winter - cold, windy and rainy.

Our first game was against Mt Martha Captains. Like most games the players needed 10 minutes to settle down but didn't take long to find the back of the net. They chased down the ball well, used the width and defended well. The final score was 5 nil to Mt Eliza.

The second game against Langwarrin Reds (Wallabies) was played on a smaller pitch. With only 10 minutes per half the Greens had to work hard but didn't take long to get through - with some determined physical play the final score was 7 nil to Mt Eliza.

The 3rd game against Mornington's Wallabies was similar with the greens breaking the opposition down, winning the ball and finishing the game 7 nil victors.

With the group games out the way we moved  on to the semi finals to play the Casey Comet Kangaroos. This was the most challenging game so far with some large, skill Casey players to compete with. We marked them well, chased the ball down kept to our game plan winning 2 nil.

Having been there since 9am and playing the final at 1pm the players went straight on to play our friends the Langwarrin Blues Kangaroo's team who had earlier drawn against Casey. From the first minute Mt Eliza chased the game with Langy producing some well rehearsed passing out from their solid defence to their speedy wingers. After a strong first 8 minutes we made some subsitution's and lost our shape. Most of the possession was with Langwarrin and we watched the ball much  after that going down 1 nil just before half time. In the second half  the Greens did some impressive defending and came very close to an equaliser from a corner with a header just going over the bar. Mid way through the half Langwarrins speedy winger out manouvered our defence and scored the winner to make the final score 2 nil. We always have entertaining games against Langwarrin and the players need to be congratulated on playing such a high standard of football throughout the day scoring a total of 21 goals and conceding only 2 in the final.

Well done Greens and lets keep up the great work!!

Thanks to Mornington for putting on another well organised gala.