PROUD TO BE BACK AT BSO

The Roy Girls returned to Brunswick Street Oval for the second week in a row and the footy gods smiled in approval. Against predictions, the skies spat down only a few annoying drops while the Comrade set up stall, causing the poor giant to move three tables of merch three times in and out of the community rooms before he could rest them in their rightful place under the Kevin Murray Stand.

The tech gods weren’t so forgiving though, demanding more than a few game organisers to rush around trying to get the electronic scoreboard going. But with help from Luci Murphy’s mum Sharon – an expert fiddler and regular scoreboard attendant – the wrongs were righted in time for the Seniors. In the meantime, the tatty tired old manual scoreboard the Roys have to get by with at Ramsden Street had to suffice. But not all lost: the club will use the imagery to entice the City of Yarra to join forces and get an electronic version up at Ramo sooner rather than later.

Away from that sorry sight, all elements for the Roys’ Pride Game were coming together beautifully. BSO’s 50 metre arcs were marked out in the colours of the LGBTIQ+ rainbow, the Kevin Murray stand sported the Pride and Trans flags, and business was as brisk as ever on the Comrade’s merch stall. Special mention to the St Kevins’ coach (who incidentally coached our own coach back in the day) for buying one of our Pride t-shirts and one of each of our Pride badges and wearing them to the after match.

A real highlight of the day was the music provided by DJs Arielle and Becky from the City of Yarra’s Youth DJ Skills program. Rumour has it the Comrade was seen to shake a move to the tunes, and was not alone in getting a kick out of the songs that rang out all day under the stand and across the ground.

Coming off a lofty high from last week’s definitive win, the first quarter looked good for the Twos. With this week’s team made up entirely of consistent reserves players, the signs looked good for a repeat. Calypso Poole managed to bag the first goal in her last game before adventuring in Europe, and Liz Olney continued her dominance with what looked like nothing short of a bicycle-kick snap shot for her first of four for the game.

A slower second quarter earned a judicious (and rare) spray from Coach Jason at the half-time break for their complacency. This seemed to have the desired effect, the Roy2s switching back on for the third quarter. Sara Guerra and Bronte Holt fought hard on the backline, and along with captain Yevette Godby, helped shut down the short-lived yet ominous St Kevin’s fight back. It was this sort of play and spirit that gave the girls the inspiration needed to close out the fourth quarter and register a close but satisfying victory for the Round 6 Pride weekend.

Best on honours this week go to Sara Guerra, Elyse Campbell and Hillary Collett, with Aspen Wagner, Liz Olney, Calypso Poole, Jessica Anticaglia, Yevette Godby and Gemma Minuz drawing special mentions from the coach.

For the Ones, it was another promising start, leaving the girls disappointed to again rue the fact that we didn't get reward for effort when on top of the game.

Pocket rocket Sunday Brisbane continued her great form on the wing while Lauren ‘Jacky Fowler’ put in another great game, repeatedly beating her opponent, dominating the backline, winning the footy and snatching superb intercepts all game.

Coach Nathan was full of praise for the centre four remarking that “our midfield battled hard all day, and probably had the better of a very experienced St Kevin’s outfit.”

Chloe Kodagoda and Phoebe Hargraves played their first games of senior Fitzroy footy, each notching up really impressive performances and drawing Nathan’s prediction of long futures at very high levels of football.

The highlight of the day was Chloe’s slick check-side goal from 30 out on the scoreboard pocket which received great acclaim from the Fitzroy faithful.

With a bye for Fitzroy’s women next week, we can all breathe a collective sigh, regroup, hit the training track, and be ready to return to BSO again. This time in a twilight spectacular against Old Scotch.

Be there. We can guarantee it’ll be one you won’t want to miss!

JG Gorilla

Image:
This old board has absolutely nothing to recommend it, except the score line that is!