Fair Go round turned out to be a tough day for the Seagulls on Saturday at their Grant Reserve home ground. A round to celebrate diversity and inclusiveness in sport, which saw the CEO of Hockey Victoria and representatives from Fair Go Victoria in attendance, saw a colourful and fun-filled atmosphere at Altona. Unfortunately the results didn’t go Altona’s way, with Doncaster taking out both Premier League matches comfortably.
The women were first, and the young A’s side started well, with centre half Bronte Kerley dominating, and Hockeyroo Danielle Schubach beating multiple opponents on long, skilful runs through the midfield. Unfortunately the A’s didn’t put this on the scoreboard, and some scrappy goals from similarly young, but more experienced, Doncaster side took advantage and a 2-0 lead into half time.
The second half opened up and Altona struggled to contain the Doncaster midfield, with them moving the ball from defence to attack with ease. Taylah Brennan, in goals, was inundated with shots from the Doncaster forwards, and despite making numerous saves, couldn’t keep the ball out of the back of the net.
While Altona got a second half goal, the first ever in Premier League from Anisha Kidd, they were never a chance to win, eventually going down 1-5 to Doncaster. Coach Marc Richardson was disappointed after the match but found positives “While the blow out in the score line was disappointing, I was very impressed with Bronte Kerley’s match, and Anisha’s first goal was a great achievement from a young, talented player. These kind of small achievements will assist this squad developing into the future as they gain experience in this competition.”
Altona 1 lost to Doncaster 5
Goal: Anisha Kidd
The men started their match looking slick and dominated play for the first 15 minutes. Veteran defender, Mathew Higgins, was finding his midfielders at will, while centre half Kieran Symons was setting up classy strikers Chris Porter and Neel Garcia for several chances. The A’s dominated everywhere on the field, except the scoreboard, with the Doncaster ‘keeper able to shut out the chances the Seagulls created.
After such a long period of dominance, without conversion, it seemed only a matter of time before Doncaster would get the ball up to their forward line and score a scrappy goal, and just before half time, they did.
The second half saw a different Altona than the first. The A’s seem to struggle with their basics in the cold, windy conditions, and the same slick ball movement of the first 20 minutes of the match was absent.
Doncaster weren’t dominating, but were much more effective when they entered their circle, and scored another two scrappy goals against the run of play. Facing a 3-0 deficit, the match appeared over, but Altona fought back, scoring a goal with 20 minutes to go through a field goal from Chris Porter.
Doncaster answered the challenge almost immediately, and while Altona scored another goal, a corner conversion from Josh Coote, the result was never in doubt, with Doncaster running out victors 4-2.
Coach Ben Guy commented “For our standard of play to drop so much from the start of the match to the end was extremely disappointing. We have to convert those periods of dominance into score board pressure, and we also have to improve our defence of the break-away attack.”
Altona 2 lost to Doncaster 4
Goals: Chris Porter, Josh Coote