Monash Gryphons Amateur Football Club

Seniors
10.8-68 UHS-VU def by
10.21-81 MONASH GRYPHONS
Goal Kickers: R. Sharkey 4, L. Dooley 4, P. Gomizel, C. Jones.
Best Players: T. Russell, G. Strain, M. Malloy, R. Sharkey, L. Dooley, P. Gomizel.

Reserves
11.15-81 UHS-VU def.
10.10-70 MONASH GRYPHONS
Goal Kickers: J. Rotstein 4, B. Lukav 3, G. Kent, M. O”Neill, S. Cantwell
Best Players: R. Fletcher, V. Coffey, B. Lukav, J. Rotstein, K. Love, M. O”Neill.

REVIEW:
I was chatting with another club stalwart prior to the beginning of the season and our conversation naturally progressed to Football and eventually we ended up giving our predicted ladders for D3. Like many old timers at the Gryphs we were somewhat conservative and predicted no more than 6 wins for the senior team. Hardly surprising, seeing that the club has had to scrap to avoid relegation each year since 2005. So on that proviso, 08 has already been a year that has exceeded expectations. Try telling this to Freddie or the Leadership Group though!

It is a real shame that Saturday’s result is not likely to matter much in the final wash-up as away wins are worth ‘2 in the bush’.

From the opening bounce it was evident that Monash had come to play accountable football. For the first time in many weeks, we were winning the contested ball. Michael Malloy was winning the Ruck contests and Leigh Dooley was taking everything that came his way up forward. Without trying to sound biased, I think the end scoreboard greatly flattered Uni High as we had thirteen more scoring shots and could’ve won the game by 10 goals.

It was also pleasing to see the continued improvement of youngsters such as Adrian Schroth and Nick Booth who commanded their respective wings with great aplomb.

We are mathematically still a chance to play finals, but I’m sure this is the last thing on Freddie’s mind as he attempts to further solidify his gameplans with the lesser experienced Gryphons. One can only look forward with great expectations for 2009 at this rate.

Seniors
10.8-68 MONASH GRYPHONS def by.
14.16-100 ELSTERNWICK
Goal Kickers: C. Leeton 2, L. Dooley 2, C. Jones 2, W. Pocock, R. Sharkey, J. Hart, T. Russell.
Best Players: C. Jones, C. Leeton, W. Pocock, D. Baxter, T. Russell, A. Schroth.

Reserves
11.8-74 MONASH GRYPHONS def
4.13-37 ELSTERNWICK
Goal Kickers: Coxhead 2, Coffey 1, Warren 1, Cantwell 1, Rotstein 1, Fletcher 1, B Murphy 1, Holsinger 1, Wareing 1, O’Neill 1
Best Players:

REVIEW:
Saturday was a great day for the Monash Gryphons AFC.

Everything we conducted was done professionally and efficiently. The only blight however, was the one thing most will judge us on. The disappointing loss of the senior team.

Saturday began with best numbers ever at our Past Players Luncheon. The event was fully catered for and attended by past players, their families, sponsors and the opposition. Motivational speeches were made by former coaches, Gary Ryan and Phillip Knight and all past players entered the change rooms for the final address. The reserves won well and singing the club song brought back fond memories to all past players and officials. It was great to be able to introduce inaugural club coach, Arnold O’Brien to Freddie Naumoff just before the team ran out.

All the stirring of emotion must have fallen on deaf ears though, as our performance was poor from the outset. Allowing our opponents to ‘jump’ us in the opening term has been an all too common tendency in recent times and Saturday was no exception. Sure The Wicks had the breeze, but there was an evident lack of passion and commitment to winning the contested ball from early on. It is clear that Monash are a quality midfielder short of playing finals football at this level as our forwards could hardly be blamed for the lack of scoring opportunities especially early on.

It was pleasing to see Ruckman, Chris Leeton return to form and Chris Jones was probably our best ground level player. Full credit to Elsternwick though. They have as good a power forward as anyone in the competition. If David Smith had been playing all year, I’m sure they would’ve won far more games.

Many thanks to all who helped make Saturday an ‘Off-field’ success both on Saturday afternoon for the lunch and in the evening evening (for the Karaoke night). Congratulations to Phil Warren on winning his 100th game for the club.

Phil Warren 100 Games

Seniors

Reserves














Photos courtesy of Reagan

All at Monash congratulate Phil ‘Rockefeller’ Warren on reaching 100 games against Elsternwick this weekend.
Phil has contributed a number of roles in his association with the Gryphons including Sponsorship and coaching and is a dual reserves B&F winner in years past. It is great to see Phil playing again this year as his presence in the midfield cannot be understated. Well done.

All past players, officials, supporters, sponsors and families are invited to come down for the Monash Gryphons v Elsternwick for the annual Monash Gryphons Past Players Day Luncheon.

When: Saturday 19^th July 2008. Midday to 2.30pm.

Where: East Caulfield Reserve Clubrooms

What: Two Course lunch $15 or Lunch and complimentary drinks $25 (Life members and patrons free)

Who: Guest Speaker is Gary Ryan.

Enquiries:
Matthew Healy
phone:0417 419 293
email: heam@jpc.vic.ed.au
or sign up at Facebook

Seniors
22.17-149 HAWTHORN def
10.13-73 MONASH GRYPHONS
Goal Kickers: M. Davies 3, W. Pocock, N. Rutherford, R. Sharkey, L. Wells, P. Gomizel, J. Hart, C. Jones.
Best Players: M. Malloy, W. Pocock, M. Davies, D. Baxter, J. Hart, J. Fraser.

Reserves
11.11-77 HAWTHORN def by.
14.17-101 MONASH GRYPHONS
Goal Kickers: C. Leeton 3, R. Fletcher 2, J. Rutherford 2, V. Coffey, D. Charleson, B. Murphy, J. Hickey, D. Holsinger, G. Strain, K. Love.
Best Players: C. Leeton, M. Baldwin, G. Strain, J. Rutherford, N. Booth, J. Ducat.

Review:
Every now and then even the most parochial supporter must acknowledge a superior opponent. As much as we hate to admit it, Hawthorn Amateurs were better than us in almost every department and (even though we toiled hard for three quarters) the scoreboard showed as much. It would be petulant to try and attribute excuses for the loss, suffice to say it was very disappointing.

It was clear from the opening bounce that many of our best players were not going to have their usual impact as The Hawks had carefully selected their match ups. Some positives came from the form of Mick ‘Crackerjack’ Malloy at CHB as well as part-time Ruckman Phil Gomizel around the ground, but in truth we had very few four quarter players.

As Eltham and Powerhouse both won at the weekend, it is now a virtual Elimination Final for all clubs outside the four this weekend and old rival Elsternwick will not want to let us retain the Murphy-Wells cup. Should be a cracker of a game. Please get down to support. It is past players day as well.

Finally it would be remiss of me not to mention the excellent recent form of the Reserves who are now in 5^th position and are every chance of playing finals football should they continue playing good accountable football. Full credit to Coach Jim Gonis and Skipper Vaughan Coffey for their efforts.

This weekend against Hawthorn we have:

150 Games, Andrew ‘Alannon’ Clarke

Congratulations to the effervescent Andrew Clarke on being just the twelfth Gryphons to bring up 150 games. Andrew has been a model of consistency in the reserves backline for ten seasons and is a role model to all players at the club.

Congratulations and Well Done!

Seniors
14.16-100 MONASH GRYPHONS def by.
9.5-59 ST JOHNS
Goal Kickers: R. Sharkey 3, L. Dooley 3, W. Pocock 2, C. Jones 2, N. Rutherford, P. Gomizel, J. Hart, B. Lange.
Best Players: P. Gomizel, A. Schroth, L. Dooley, D. Baxter, M. Wilkinson, M. Malloy.

Reserves
15.13-103 MONASH GRYPHONS def
3.9-27 ST JOHNS
Goal Kickers: V. Coffey 4, B. Lukav 3, B. Coxhead 3, G. Strain 2, P. Warren, N. Booth, J. Ducat.
Best Players: N. Booth, B. Lukav, V. Coffey, L. Monfries, T. Russell, B. Coxhead.

REVIEW:
There must be nothing more pleasing in coaching (other than a premiership) than seeing the emergence of a young player. For far too long, Monash have relied too heavily on the likes of Wells, Nick Rutherford and Baxter to allow us to remain competitive in this grade.

However, in 2008, this ’stalemate’ is changing. We are finally seeing the development of some young players that could well be the stars of the future. Names like Jared Hart and Jordan Fraser immediately spring to mind, but we also must add Adrian “AJ” Scroth to that list. AJ controlled the ‘members’ wing at ECR with the poise and prudence of a 150 game veteran and in the process collected around a dozen catches from the sky. AJ, along with regular stalwarts such as Rutherford and Wells ensured that St Johns barely touched the footy in the first half. Only our poor kicking for goal kept them in it.

If AJ is to play like this regularly, then we can have a real crack at finals football this year. Either way it is an encouraging sign for the future of the club. Special mention should also be made to Bala “Clubber” Lange in the Ruck, who in his first game (due to the absence of Leeton) showed great signs that he can be competitive at this level.

It was similarly pleasing to see that the Gryphons did not panic when St Johns closed to within 3 goals early in the final quarter. Monash sides in recent years may well have faltered, but under the more accountable ‘Naumoff Regime’, we steadied and ran away with the match.

We are currently 6 and 6 in the middle of the D3 ‘logjam’. Our solid % may yet be a deciding factor in the finals race as 10 wins may well be enough. However we have to play each of the top 3 teams  in the next 6 weeks and will have to beat at least two of them to feature in September.

Only time will tell…