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Off and Running

By Connor Schmidtke

It has been an indifferent start to the 2022 season for Croydon North MLOC, but the club recorded an impressive bounce-back win in round two.

The KangaRams suffered a 128-point belting at the hands of Silvan in the opening round, cruelled by injuries with no players left on the bench at halftime.

But despite the disappointing season opener, Croydon North MLOC managed to claim the four-points in a five-point nail biter over Nunawading on Saturday, in a fixture that is beginning to emerge as an unlikely rivalry.

Head coach, Mark Holly, credited his midfield for their improvements in week two.

“For us it was more about working around the hands out of stoppages, because that’s where Silvan destroyed us the week before, so we knew we had to work a lot harder at that.

“That’s what we aimed at during the week, and it showed off in the first and last quarters on Saturday.”

What this meant for the KangaRams was they were able to find a greater quantity of inside 50 entries, leading to more scoring shots and a match winning total. By comparison their first-round clash, they only had six scoring shots for the entire game against Silvan.

But in round two they managed to storm out of the gates, kicking seven goals in the opening quarter alone. Croydon North MLOC went on to kick 13 for the match, with a total of 26 scoring shots for the game, a major improvement on their week one performance.

“We managed to get on top of them which meant we got first looking going forward,

“It’s a hell of a lot easier to score once you get first look heading forward.”

“We played our style of football,

“Our run and receives were high up, our intensity was up and that was the difference.”

Trailing by five-points at the three-quarter time break, the KangaRams were able to flick the switch in the final term and kick four-goals on their way to victory.

Holly said that nothing changed tactically, but he left it up to his players to find the determination to carry the side of the line.

“We pretty much put it on them at three quarter time and said it’s up to you guys to own it and stand up, and that’s what they did.

“Nothing really changed, except we turned the pressure back on them.”

“We knew if we could get the football in our hands, they weren’t going to be able to keep up with us and that was the difference in the end.”

Holly was extremely happy with two key inclusions down forward, which made a huge difference from week one to week two.

“We had Jacob Crowe come in for his first game on the weekend.

“We knew he was a fairly handy footballer, giving us that big marking option helped.”

“We also had Matt Hayhurst come into the side after round one as well. He took another key defender, which gave us more options to look forward to compared to the week before.”

Croydon North MLOC will now enjoy a two week break before their next game, an interesting match-up with the Kilsyth Cougars. The KangaRams will look to build a winning streak, with Kilsyth impressing early in the 2022 season themselves, despite sitting winless.

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