Dark Day at Shark Park

What was supposed to be a day to send the retiring Mark McGough off on a winning note, quickly turned in to a nightmare for the Sharks in their round 14 clash with Claremont.

There was no shortage of motivation for the East Freo boys, with McGough’s retirement, but also a chance to arrest a 5 game losing streak that was putting finals aspirations at risk.

The first quarter certainly didn’t go as planned with Claremont attacking the ball and the ball carrier with greater ferocity, forcing the Sharks to turn over the ball and then hurting them on the way back.  Clean ball movement forward enabled the Tigers’ forwards to take advantage and in a six minute period they had three goals on the board, all from marks inside forward 50.  By the time Maister had kicked another goal from an inside forward 50 mark during time on, the Sharks trailed by those four goals at the first break.

The second didn’t start much better with Ledger kicking the first goal of the quarter, but from there it seemed as though the Sharks were all over the Tigers in general play.  However East Fremantle just couldn’t take that advantage to the scoreboard, missing three shots on goal and having a fourth rushed over the line.  Defensively the Sharks had lifted their pressure and were able to keep their opposition goalless for the quarter, but ended the second quarter still without a goal of their own, but it wasn’t through the efforts of McGough who was clearly giving it his all in his final game, plus McNamara, Read on Bradshaw down back and Williamson, who was looking lively.

It was the third quarter that finally saw the game put beyond doubt, with Claremont piling on a further seven goals.  Finally at the 32 minute mark of the quarter East Fremantle were able to hit the six point column with a goal to Boyle.

A spirited last quarter saw the Sharks kick two goals, matching Claremont’s two, but it was a very disappointing 68 point loss that was handed out.

East Fremantle                  3.7 = 25                 def. by                  Claremont           14.9 = 93

The day didn’t start much better for the Sharks with a very young, inexperienced Colts team beaten convincingly by Claremont to the tune of 30 points.

The first half was a very scrappy affair, with both sides missing crucial shots on goal and general play littered with turnovers and like the seniors our boys were unable to kick a goal in the first half.  Defensively we were holding up ok, limiting the Tigers to only a solitary goal of their own. 

However the second half was somewhat a mirror of the first, but it was Claremont who were able to be a little more efficient and therefore capitalised on the scoreboard, scoring 5.7 to the Sharks’ 2.7 for the second half to win by that comfortable margin.

With a number of state players and PSA players unavailable for selection this very young group was just unable to sustain the effort that was genuinely there, but there were still some great signs for the future.

East Fremantle                  2.10 = 22                              def. by                  Claremont           6.16 = 52

In some positive news for the Sharks the Development League recorded a very gutsy 22 point win, their first since beating South Fremantle way back on April 27.  The boys were really keen to put in a strong performance, given their big loss last week and playing another top five team.

The first quarter was a war of attrition with both sides having opportunity, but turnovers and errors hurt both team’s ability to hit the scoreboard.  With Claremont kicking with the aid of the breeze our defensive pressure was really good, with Claremont only kicking a single goal for the quarter whilst kicking two of our own.

The second quarter saw the Sharks continue to apply the pressure forcing the Tigers in to error and then being able to capitalise on those errors.  Jacob Green was getting the ball at will, working in tandem with Holmes and Dion Anthony in the midfield.  Carl Green was applying outstanding defensive pressure, laying 7 tackles for the half and with goals to J.Green, Locantro and Bowey the boys went in at half time 16 points in front.

The Tigers came out snarling in the third, playing more direct, with their midfield gaining ascendancy with possession and entries inside 50 and by three quarter time, after they had kicked 5 goals to 2  for the quarter, Claremont went to the final stanza with a one point lead.

Enter Adrian Ricciardello.  In a term where the Sharks kicked 7 goals straight it was “Ricca” who cashed in, kicking 4 goals for the term. By the time Jacob Green kicked a super stoppage goal and Bannister (who had earlier given off three excellent handballs to team mates that resulted in goals) kicked truly the game was effectively over and the Sharks boys could celebrate a fantastic win.

East Fremantle                                 14.6 = 90                              def.                        Claremont           10.8 = 68