A trip to Crawford oval saw the Xavs taking on a Uni Blacks side on the improve. Although their results hadn’t shown this, they had been very competitive over the last month without much luck. Injuries and unavailability saw our depth tested this week and some well deserved calls up for those playing good footy in the 2s. Brendan Goss returned from the seniors too, adding some speed at ground level, which had been lacking recently.

Despite a good pre-game feeling in the rooms it was blacks who came out firing, kicking the first 3 goals of the game and looking very dangerous. The young Xavs were being lead to the ball, a few numbers behind the play and some sustained possession of the ball saw us regain composure to get us off the mark and keep the deficit to 3 goals at the first break. Some home truths and a shuffle of a few positions saw the unders play a much better brand of footy in the second quarter. Johnny Pintal went back and controlled the half back line; his ability to read the play whilst still shutting his opponent down was fantastic. Will Moffit continued to find his form after an interrupted season due to injury and looks better with every game, while Captain Tom McClusky was enjoying his best game of the year with hard leads and composed finishing. The young Xavs kicked 5 majors for the quarter to go into half time leading and happy to have answered the challenge so far.

Brendan Goss was enjoying being back in the under 19's as he reminded the rest of the competition why he was leading the goal kicking, even after missing 3 games. He was involved in everything up forward, jumping over packs, crumbing and taking them on the lead. He rarely wastes a chance and has been threatening a day like this all season. His 10-goal haul was a fantastic effort and reward for his hard work so far. His job was made a lot easier as the game went on with the midfield getting on top of a tiring Blacks. Louis Tiernan was bringing others into the game with his hands, Hicham Nidam was damaging with his penetrating left foot and Sam Lees continued to crash packs.

At three quarter time it could have been easy to rest on our efforts, but we continued to run. Daniel Barry did a power of work all day at CHF in a role tall role up forward and in his first game Nick Meehan was dashing from the backline. One bloke who deserves special mention is Matty McLean who has shouldered the ruck duties by himself over the last few weeks. His willingness to engage in a contest and push back in the holes has been fantastic and appreciated by his teammates.

This was far from our best performance this year but it also was good to see the boys respond to a challenge. With the break coming up next week, this week’s match against Old Camberwell becomes very important as we look to stay in touch with the top 2.