VFL Women's Round 13 2016 - Geelong Magpies v Cranbourne Eagles
- Jul 17, 2016
- 3 min read
In a contest that proved the old adage “a week is a long time in football”, the Geelong Magpies produced a stunning upset to defeat the Cranbourne Eagles by 15 points at Osborn Park.
A week after the Magpies lost to bottom-placed Knox and the Eagles stormed home against 2015 Premier Division side VU Western Spurs, Geelong totally outclassed Cranbourne in the second half and held off a late challenge to win 9.10 to 7.7.
Geelong came to play from the first bounce, determined to make up for their Round 12 boilover defeat. They were first to the ball at the stoppages, despite the dominance of Cranbourne ruckmen Cara and Breann Moody, and were front and centre in marking contests. Ruckman Maddie Boyd and full-forward Michelle Fedele goaled before the Eagles woke up. When Cheryl de Groot soccered through a goal five minutes into the second quarter, the Magpies had jumped to a ten-point lead and alarm bells started ringing for Cranbourne.
In a trend that would plague them all day, Cranbourne couldn’t display the previous week’s resolve and too much was left to too few. Captain Bianca Jakobsson was their only four-quarter performer, stretched between positions to plug holes in the Eagles’ game play. They over-finessed in their ball movement early, giving Geelong time to fill holes in defence (the Magpies took three out of the four marks in Cranbourne’s Inside 50 in the first quarter).
Tellingly, when Cranbourne moved the ball directly in the second quarter they played their best football, linking with run and carry through Tess Thomas and Marlee Tatham. They kicked the last three goals of the second half as the pacey Kirsten McLeod and Hayley Wildes gave the Magpies plenty of headaches and seemed to have recovered from their sluggish start. When Jakobsson kicked a stunning three-bounce goal on the run fifteen minutes into the third, it seemed Cranbourne had gained the upper hand.
However, the Magpies had a statement to make and were not prepared to go quietly. The match turned on its head in seven incredible minutes before three-quarter time. It began when Cranbourne defender Stephanie Binder, marshalling her side’s backline up until that point, attempted to rush a behind only for Lily Mithen’s boot to interrupt as the ball crossed the goal line. From the next play, bulldozing Geelong midfielder Richelle Cranston snapped her first from thirty metres.
After a string of behinds, Fedele converted her second to reclaim the lead for Geelong. Just before the siren, fledgling Magpie Lucy de Groot out-bodied three Eagle defenders to mark and goal, pushing the margin to 14 points.
Aside from their preparedness to move the ball quickly and catch Cranbourne off-guard, numerous changes by Geelong turned the match their way. Madison Janssen became the most influential midfielder on ground after moving from half-back and youngsters Laura Taylor, Tamikka Beeston and Cheryl and Lucy de Groot came into their own in more prominent positions across the forward line and midfield. Arguably the biggest game-changer was the instruction for ruckman Maddie Boyd – who didn’t win a hit-out in the first half against either Breann or Cara Moody – to stop jumping in the contests and simply become a fourth rover. Boyd became instrumental in winning clearances and outran both of her opponents all over the ground.
Geelong were in a photo-negative of the situation they had been in against Knox going into the final term. Cranbourne came at them hard as crisp disposal saw McLeod slot her second and another blistering run from the seemingly tireless Jakobsson slashed the deficit to just a point. Geelong steadied the ship as Cranston, moved into the forward line to assist her younger teammates in a pressure cooker situation, swept across the front of a pack to gather and bend through her second. Incredibly, the younger Geelong side then assumed almost total control of the play. Mithen has starred all year but rarely been as influential in the packs whilst Laura Taylor and Ash Wilkes just got better as the game went on. Both de Groot sisters stepped into the role of marking forwards alongside primary target Fedele – Lucy’s second goal minutes from the end put a resolute stop to Cranbourne’s faint chances of stealing victory. A week after being on the wrong end of a huge upset, Geelong consigned hot favourites Cranbourne to a long, lonely drive home.
Geelong coach Steve Janssen said attitude was the Magpies’ driving factor all day.
“We all just came with a really good attitude. The best thing for us was we were challenged twice and we used a bit of initiative and common sense to hold them up and win.”
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