Scores: Old Xaverians: 17 – 24 – 126 def. Old Trinity: 9 – 8 – 62

Round 2 against Old Trinity gave us the first taste of the Ménages newly renovated home ground at Stradbroke Park. The sun was shining, there was barely a breath of wind and a perfect deck greeted the boys - the scene was set for some classy football. After an authoritative start by the Ménages, wasteful kicking for goal and lazy field kicking gave a determined Trinity side the chance to post a respectable score, which didn't truly represent the gap in talent on the park. It was clear from the outset that Trinity were undermanned, but the Ménages weren't on song for much of the day, which took the gloss off what should have been a huge percentage builder for the season.

It's fair to say the Matt's dominated early, with Matt Dimattina impressing early in his debut for the Ménages, bobbing up in the forward pocket to post four majors in the first half; Matt Romanin seemed to have his own football on a wing with plenty of the footy; and Matt Roach was welcomed back after an overseas sojourn to provide a big target up forward. By half time the game was over on the scoreboard, but the Ménages were down two players with Chocolates taken to hospital to have an ear re-attached and Jnr. Grigg suffering from a lower leg injury. All players needed to lift.

The Ménages started the second half poorly, taking the foot off the accelerator and simply going through the motions for 25 minutes. Understandably, the coach was irate at three-quarter time and the players were given a deserved dressing down. Danny Meehan responded across half forward along with the leaders in Matt Altis and Patty Purcell who continued to work hard. Big Trev was put behind the ball and big Grigg in front of it, with instant success as the goals seemed to start sailing through.

To the credit of the group, the team responded and finished off the game in better fashion. The commitment was there all day but the skills were atrocious and it is an early reminder to all Ménage players that you only get a certain number of chances in any game of football and if you create your chances early, as we did on Saturday, and don’t capitalize on them, then you give the opposition a sniff and against better sides, it will certainly come back to hurt us. A 41% conversation rate for over 40 shots on goal was a disappointing end result.

I'd keep an eye on this group though, who keep continuing to mould and develop into a promising unit. This week Marcellin await us, and after a 20 goal thrashing of Old Brighton this week, the Ménages will need to bounce back to their best. There is little doubt that this will be the case.