After an even and entertaining first half with little between Birchip-Watchem and Donald, the Bulls simply overpowered the Royal Blues in a second half blitz dishing out a comprehensive 11 goal belting, led by an 8 goal haul from gun forward Ben Edwards, his second bag in as many weeks.
It was far from a one-man show, though, the Bulls’ new big man Hamish Hosking paving a way from the contest to provide his midfielders a plethora of opportunity where they just pumped way more forward attacking fifty metre entries with Edwards the ultimate beneficiary, and he duly rewarded the hard work of those teammates from further afield with his big bag of 8.
Hosking is just a brute of a man, 6ft 6″ in the old scale, 130kg rippling full of muscle, a Gippsland front paddock show bullock, but oh so mobile for one so big. No surprise to hear that he’s been a Fitzroy Street St Kilda nightclub door man. A poor disorderly patron would find himself on his backside on the street in a flash and there’d be no countenance back. And to think that he says he’s only 70 per cent fit after a pre-season mishap; scary to think what he might be capable of. Unearthed by sharp-as-a-tack Bulls’ secretary, Steph Scambler, with some super sleuthing she may well have found the Bulls’ key to success in 2024.
He was opposed to no slouch either in Blues recruit Andrew Browne, more a beanpole giant than brute, a former Richmond AFL player no less and whilst Browne won a reasonable share of the ruck contests, Hosking was just way more physical around the ground and at the contest where his force forged a way clear. Some of his deft tapwork was clinical providing opportunity after opportunity for an ever grateful Bulls pack of midfielders, with the returning Stef Pye in and under everything bobbing up across the park.
And speaking of parks, the George Cartwright oval was turned out in bowling green, pitch perfect condition, an immaculate playing surface, credit to the Birchip Leisure Centre committee and Buloke Council with the decision to significantly upgrade the pitch in 2021. Now up with the best of any in country footy.
Unfortunately the game was robbed of some topliners missing from both sides, Ross Young and Ryan Hards for the Blues and Nic Rippon for the Bulls to name but a few, but you can just deal with the cards you’ve got at hand and Trevor Ryan’s Bulls played a much better hand with a superb second half.
The game began at breakneck speed, white hot contest in the middle, Donald unveiling for the first time recruit Todd Stevenson, who was very noticeable from the get-go and then he became more dominant, clear best on ground up to half-time and vital that they were up to their neck in the contest at this point. He racked up the possessions, demanded the ball, good user of the pill, has an appetite for the contest, good overhead, just looks the goods and whilst he wasn’t near as dominant in the second half, he was daylight clear the Royals’ best player.
The brute force of Hosking against the guile and height of Browne, very few clear pathways out of the contest and then in a flash, Donald posted two quickfire goals coming from new coach local lad Josh Potter, and livewire goalsneak Blake Grant as a result of their intense forward pressure. The Royals cleaner by foot and hand, the Bulls with their hands on it plenty, but not clean, and the Donald boys bouncing on the turnovers. The Bulls had plenty of forward entries but close checking by Donald defenders was keeping the ball from Bulls’ hands. Good contest, plenty of heat in the battle, the Grant brothers providing the niggle.
Lachy Foott nabbed one for the Bulls before George Morgan cleverly intercepted a Bulls’ handball close to goal and snapped truly to push the Royals out to a handy lead; Potter leading from the front, aggressive in the contest and applying a number of bone crunching tackles. Blues here to play. A goal from Edwards just before siren time kept the Bulls within reach.
Robbed of Jos Builder who’s gone for the year after a serious knee injury suffered last week against Nullawil, and without the services in 2024 of stalwart forward and their possible GOAT Nathan Gordon, the Bulls began the contest trialling captain Dale Hinkley from the centre half-forward post, but tossed the idea back in the bin after quarter-time, sending him down back to familiar territory where he commanded his usual conquering best and threw Foott in to oppose Donald matchwinner Ryley Barrack, with Foott able to somewhat nullify Barrack’s influence. At 34 and still running around like a 21-year-old, Foott must be the beneficiary of wife’s Demi’s weekly fitness classes, where she has many Birchip folk up at the crack of dawn trying to get in shape and lose a few pounds.
The second stanza was a see-sawing contest with neither side able to gain any scoreboard advantage until a goal coming from Darcy Reid after a mark in the goalsquare, the lad obviously couldn’t make up his mind before the game of what colour boots to wear so wore different colours on different feet. Go figure, must be plenty of money selling machinery.
The match still a good contest, Stevenson everywhere with the ball seemingly on a string, Dale Kerr another Royal Blue recruit also winning plenty of ball around the contest, Cooper Anderson boring in around the packs, gave plenty but Hosking ominously got better the more the contest wore on. Both defences on top, young Charlie Frank up from the U/17s poised from the back pocket for the Bulls and then the other extreme, Jake Noonan 38 years young and back in the ones, toe to toe with Potter; yes, their gun defender from what seems an eternity ago back in the ones (maybe the Bulls’ brains trust thinking further ahead and looking for a big body to match the monster full-forward from further north) and at his lightest playing weight since he was a teenager. Perhaps he, too, is attending the Demi Foott morning classes. Might have to join but would need a later start time, dawn is just an ungodly hour.
And then a totally different match after half-time. The Bulls just completely dominated the contest, their midfield rampant gorging on the tapwork dominance and brute force of Hosking, newcomer Meyrick Buchanan coming under notice and looks a nice pickup, Pye racking them up and then the Edwards show out in front of the big sticks.
Patrick Morgan had done a fine job holding him to a 1goal first half before Edwards found his strut and he was up and about coming off a fine 7 goal effort against Nullawil the week previous. “Hard to keep a good man down”, goes the adage, and so it proved. Using height and smarts aided by an inordinate amount of ball coming his way, Edwards delivered 4 goals in a match winning third quarter effort, followed up by another “lazy” 3 in the last, despite wearing the close checking Daniel Pearce, a quality player. No junk goals here, Pearce makes a forward earn every possession. It could so easily have been the magical 10 if he had his kicking boots on.
Coach Potter was rightly disappointed with their third quarter efforts and urged a positive response at the break, they had not kicked a goal in two quarters, on what was a magnificent day for footy. The Bulls were just too hard at the contest, and from there away they went. Young Harry Forrest got them off to a flyer with a goal in the first minute of the last, but that was the only time they troubled the scoreboard.
Then more Edwards showtime, 3 in a row, with a couple of misses before Pye and Buchanan hammered the final coffin nails in, the Bulls powering to a dominant 11-goal win, continuing their impressive start to season 2024. This time last season they were zip from two.
Coach Ryan has plenty of reasons to smile at this early stage, with Hosking just providing so much force in the midfield, which is where games are won or lost. He gave armchair service to those lapping it up at ground level, Angus Butterfield is a real plus addition down back with an interesting challenge laid down his way by Josh Jenkins in a bit of merriment from a video post and the Pye man is relishing his return to the Bull pen. The Bulls will continue to be a force in 2024 and will get a real handle on where they sit when meeting the Tigers in 2 weeks’ time.
Whilst the Royals barely gave a yelp after half-time they have plenty of talent and will relish the return of the mercurial Ross Young in coming weeks along with a number of others and they have recruited a genuine “A”grader in Stevenson, he’s a beauty. Potter looks to be making a good fist of it in his first senior coaching role and with a full side on the park they’ll be thereabouts come end of the year in what’s already shaping as a fascinating season for NCFL 2024. The bar seems to keep rising.
Final scores: Birchip-Watchem 15.12 (102) d. Donald 4.4 (28).
Best players for Birchip-Watchem: Ben Edwards, Hamish Hosking, Stef Pye, Dale Hinkley, Joe Reid, Meyrick Buchanan.
Donald: Todd Stevenson, Andrew Browne, Dale Kerr, Ryley Barrack, Hayden Geddes, Daniel Pearce.
This article appeared in The Buloke Times, 23 April 2024.
