We were looking forward to our chance to match it with the rampaging ladder leaders, but again we had to go in at less than full strength.  Nevertheless, we still had plenty of talent and we backed ourselves to show them what we were made of.

Our pre game was one of the best all year and I could sense we were ready.  We started well and were hard at the ball, but failed to capitalize on our opportunities.  We showed Oakleigh that we would not be intimated by them and when they decided to snipe blokes behind play we were dignified in our response and simply went harder at it.

We were faced with a big issue early when Jenkinson came from the field with an injury which left us exposed against their in form full forward.  Fortunately, we were able to throw Adams down back who contained his man well but left us with no talls down forward.  In the end, this probably contributed to our undoing – as for all our control of the game we simply were not creating enough scoreboard pressure.  In saying that, the likes of Curtis worked well as small targets for us but just could not do enough without a bigger body down there.

So at 3 quarter time and 6 goals down our mood was actually quite upbeat, we had played a hard contested style of footy and blokes were putting in 100%.  But the aforementioned issues meant that with all our domination of play we still faced a big deficit, though I didn’t think a win was beyond us.  Our message was to keep pushing and set our finals campaign up with 1 last gutsy quarter.

Unfortunately, our last quarter was the worst for the day and old habits started to slip back into our routine.  Oakleigh kicked clear and turned the game into a 12 goal thumping, which probably flattered them.

That aside, we will take a lot from the day moving forward.  Some stars continued to shine and young blokes like Louis Denton & Robbie Ralph made a huge case for themselves come finals time.  I was impressed by the way we stood up to Oakleighs intimidation tactics and I’m more than confident we can stick it to them come finals provided we get the chance.  However, with 2 games remaining these are must wins for us if we want to give ourselves every chance.