USA Freedom team wins first game at International Cup

August 18, 2011 By Troy Anthony
USA Freedom versus Australia Multi-Cultural Indigenous Team

The match was held at Bruce Purser Reserve in Kellyville, which if it could be any further from Sydney would be in Brisbane. Conditions were not as good as the day before, there had been light drizzle all morning and the ground was slippery. The rain built through the game making ball-handling difficult; good old wet weather football.

Having had the bye in the first round the team had been champing at the bit to play. You can only have so many practice matches, training runs and team meetings - a true contest was needed. Game faces, iPods, and murmurs of encouragement were the order of the day on the bus. This quiet commitment built in the change rooms, through the warm up and the national anthem (sung acapella by both teams) until it was unleashed on the MCI team in the first quarter.

The Freedom hit the ground running thanks to strong work and merciless dash from the midfielders. Jessie Hazen, Judith Stein and Eileen Geoghegan continually pumped the ball in to the forward line with the tall timber Lindsay Kastanak and Tracy Corwin continually presenting.

The slippery ball brought the smaller forwards in to the game and they relished the ball being trapped in the Freedom attacking zone. Jess Estrada, Siobhan McHale, Monica Rasocha and Jen Cravens constantly battled for the loose ball and looked for scoring opportunities.A 5 Goal quarter thanks to Kastanak, Estrada, and Geoghegan definitely made life difficult for the MCI.

The second quarter was much like the first. The few advances made by the MCI were quickly repelled by the Freedom half-back line. Karen Stablein and Marie Lavictorie mopped up anything that came their way. Helen Spink's second efforts were second to none and Suzi Ohle and Janelle Meyers did a lot of hard work to give their teammates clear possessions.

The only blemish in the second quarter was inaccurate kicking for goal. The city end seemed to present problems in both quarters the Freedom attacked that way. Estrada missed from the goal square after a fine mark and brush off, Stein dropped short several times, and Nicole Fasula missed from a quick snap among others. Only Tracy Corwin split the big sticks at this end. It was enough, particularly as it lead to a further 4 goals in the third term.

In the end the young MCI team found the Freedom too hard at the ball and too slick around the ground. Great win to the Freedom 10.12 72 to 0.

Final score USA 10.12(72) AMI 0.0 (0)
USA
Goal kickers: Corwin, Hazen, Estrada, Cravens, Geoghegan 2, Kastanek 4
Best Players: Hazen, Kastanek, Rasocha, Geoghegan, McHale, Corwin

Those at the ground also got the chance to see:

Nikki Peoples cleanly gather a skidding ball, pivot off her opponents hip and tear off down the ground. The crowd roared as she took a bounce.
Nikki also took the coach's instructions to be more attacking literally; named at half-back she started the last quarter at half-forward.

The hazy conditions and the wet weather often made it difficult to tell who kicked the ball. Understandable then that Bob cheered for Lindsay when Tracy kicked a goal. Understandable to everyone but Tracy, who is his girlfriend.

The ball was hardly in our full-back line, so the most effort Lara "Crofty" Porter put in for three quarters was to sprint to the interchange bench. When coach Barnes went to send her back out, she offered a few of her team mates instead. "It's too cold", she said. Wasn't too cold to swap in to full-forward a few minutes later.

If you make an undetected interchange infringement it's probably not wise to stop 20 yards infield, say "Ooh" and then run back over the boundary. Particularly if the person you are swapping with is already off the ground and sitting down. Becky, please write this down.

It's not often a coach sends the runner out to tell a forward to be less aggressive and stop trying to disrupt the defence. But, as Becky Kraft can attest, if the ball's 100 metres away, hasn't been anyway near your forward line for 3 quarters and your team hasn't scored, you can probably stop elbowing the defender in the ribs.

You don't stop until the whistle blows is a mantra drilled in to all footballers. Of course, if you take an obvious mark, everyone stops and lets you step back and line up for goal you could just think the umpire was slow, or maybe forgot. It's definitely a surprise to get thumped in to the turf before you can take your kick. It's not fair when the only person to hear the umpire whisper "touched" is an opponent, is it Jess?

Siobhan took Kai out for pizza last night. He is adamant it was a date and she is now his girlfriend.

A group of school kids attending a Giant's Auskick sang along with the Australian team as they sang the National Anthem. Stirring rendition where most of the crowd actually knew the words to the second verse.

The USA Freedom shared the change rooms with the Great Britain Bulldogs (not at the same time to their disappointment). A sign they pinned up in the room read "Well done AFL. They (GB's opponents New Zealand) have got jumpers, footballs and gear paid for by Hawthorn. What have we got ----> NOTHING!" A little bit of British angst methinks.

Tom Harley still cannot remember Luke Quirk. He now recants his earlier statement about having a vague memory of a little kid hanging around at school. He thinks there was a Luke somebody who worked at Red Rooster.