Seniors

It is very exciting to see the senior team fileding 7 or 8 young players raised through Maccabi junior ranks. Now, with an average age of 22, team is battling hard in the State League 3 and has set up a promotion as its goal for year 2010. It is guided by Andrew Freund, Maccabi Team of Century member, assisted by Jimmy "The Greek God" Nikolas, who has become an integral part of the coaching stuff since joining the club 3 years ago.

Reserves

The team which serves as a platform for young guns to earn their stripes and press for senior selection has been very competitive in the State League 3 competitions. Now it includes several players with significant senior experience, who are pushing for the first team selection.

Women

Masters

After stinging criticism regarding the match report I thought it prudent to send on the Sunday night as it is still fresh in my memory, and I would have time to proof read the report before I send it. Not that I give a rat’s…

Today we were away at Doveton, who, it must said, are probably the nicest group of blokes we have played against and today’s game was no different. We travelled to the very end of the earth, to a land filled with strange creatures, wondrous and monstrous all at once, a land called Doveton.

We welcomed Bryan Golante (Gooni) to the fold, who slotted into the central defence seamlessly and along with Arthur, Clive and Marc held the line beautifully. Little Nick and Darren were dominating in the middle, Adam on the left and Shalom on the right. Uti and Lionel Rabs up front, and it wasn’t long before Lionel rounded the central defenders and beat the keeper: 1:0. As much as they tried, they kept breaking down under pressure from the back four, the ball was coming through the middle and again Lionel Rabs was put through, beating the keeper: 2:0.

Now in terms of stuff ups from team members there really wasn’t anything to write about, but Doveton did, on one occasion got through onto an open goal, when one of their players screamed "leave it". The ball was in the back of the net and the goal was disallowed. The look on the faces of the boys on the Doveton bench was just a sight to behold, I think one of them even began to cry. Anyway the first half ended not long after.

The second half began with Doveton trying a lot harder, and they did take the game a little to us, but we still dominated the midfield and again Lionel was put in position when the ball was put in the box when the unthinkable happened - he missed. The clouds parted, hot hail struck the earth... anyway Uti was there to clean up and put it into the back of the net: 3:0. At this point you would have thought Doveton would have given up, but in fact they didn’t and after that score we took a step back and ceded the midfield to them and we were on the back foot for some time, but there was great counterattacking forays. Uti was coming close at least twice. One was brilliantly saved by the keeper and the other was on Uti’s right so that was the end of that. Darren put a ball in after some fantastic work on the right and it was left for Little Nick who chipped it towards the far top corner, only to have the ball touched over by the keeper, it really was a superb save. Now Doveton got a goal back with a bit of a melee in the box: 3 -1.  Finally the fourth goal came with a dazzling display of footwork, twisting and turning, the Doveton defenders were totally at a loss as to where Lionel was, and frankly neither did we, but all of a sudden from outside the 18 yard box an exocet missile was launched and ended up in the top right corner: 4 – 1. But Doveton kept coming and there was a one on one challenge with the Damon (keeper), but the attacking player had been adjudged to have raised his leg to high and the goal was disallowed. Again there was a goal mouth melee and Doveton pulled back another goal: 4 -2 and that’s the way it ended.

White Star has bye, so we are provisionally on to top. Next week we are home to be played at Caulfield Park, then we are away at White Star, a big game the committee should attend.

By Phil Gostin.