THESE are the conditions you think of when you think of the quintessential King Island winter Saturday – wind, rain, changes every five minutes.
This was our Bellevue Advisors Cup game which saw their employees James Dornauf play with Grassy and Nathan Jackson play with North.
It also was Craig Constable’s 100th game for Grassy.
Keenan Fanning and Brandon Blomfield go up in the first ruck. Dylan Keeley, Justin Summers, Ned Hunter and Freddy Tatawaqua are in and around the contest early. Nathan Jackson for North, with a quick snap, opens with a goal off a pass from Mathew Button.
Aaron Wardlaw and Jeremy Summers are heated early with North receiving the free. It’s some body on body, contested play, all in the mid third of the ground for the first bit of the game.
Blomdield taps the ball in front of himself, but Keenan keeps pace and pulls a robbery. Button snaps it forward but there is no one deep for North and it trickles out for a ball in.
From the ball in Jeremy gets off a snap for a behind. Sam Reeves and Wardlaw are backboning the Grassy defence line but find themselves under the pump, with North getting all the forward entries early.
Wardlaw out to Dale Reed goes to Keeley on the wing but North have discovered early they need the match up and find a turn over.
Jackson Taylor gets the ball forward for Grassy into Keeley who lines up from the Grassy pocket but has to settle for a behind.
Tyler Rhodes uses his strong body early, Grassy are getting hungry around the contest in their forward line but some undisciplined play gives away a free and Forrest looks like he ain’t having that and with a chase down tackle which is rewarded, and he puts it’s back into the Grassy’s forward line.
In the centre, Taylor goes into Tyler Rhodes who marks this time, but kicks it across the face, perhaps given the benefit of the doubt, it was a centring kick and eventually dribbles through for a Grassy behind.
David Vellekoop and Keeley play kick to kick in, turn over to turn over before Vellekoop centers it to Justin Summers who gets a shot on goal and nicks the post for a behind. Alex Goldsmith mops up a Grassy kick in but James Dornauf for Grassy smothers it off the boot and Grassy go forward. The ground is slippery. Justin Summers with a cross body snap from the pocket sees it through for another North goal to see them up at quarter time by 14 points.
The sun appears from behind a cloud for the second quarter to start, and the sideways rain has eased. Grassy come out with more aggression and ferocity in the second quarter, but it’s North that get the first score with a behind.
Button takes a nice mark with his body in front of Dornauf and gets a bullet kick of straight into Vellekoop who takes a shot which is marked on the line by Jeremy Summers who goes back for an easy goal against the wind, and this was the only goal scored against the wind for the whole game. One thing reliable about today’s weather is that it’s going to change, and no sooner have I written about the sun than it dissolves into a grey cloud that spreads across the oval.
Tyler Rhodes, unmanned, runs into an open goal for Grassy’s first goal of the game.
Shortly after Forrest lines up for another one from 40 out, kicks in short where Reed nearly takes the mark but the ball spills over for a throw in.
Rainbow is good in defence, but Reed looks like he’s out for blood and pumps one in from near 50m for a Grassy goal. The sideways rain returns which sees balls go through hands and players rolling over the top of others. North goes into half time 1 points up.
Grassy open the start of the third with a point. Reed wins a foot race and gets it off to Forrest, who then gives it off and gets it back to see it through for a behind.
Alex Goldsmith receives a free at centre half back and kicks to a waiting Vellekoop with a strong mark, but on release Keeley affects a turnover, the ball heading back Grassy’s way.
There is an epidemic of persistent spot fires around the field, which leads to the steady escalation of pressure, a furnace chamber just waiting to be depressurized. Vellekoop in his best game of the season receives from Jeremy summers 20m out from goal, and his kicking does not disappoint.
Nathan Jackson with a free, centres to Vellekoop in front who goals. Grassy, preferring to sneak up, get another behind. Cruz Osborne for Grassy, leads, in front gets a nice mark for Grassy on a gentle angle but the breeze gets the kick for a behind.
Taylor turns over the kick in immediately into Rhodes for another Grassy shot on goal which goes across the face and nearly marked by Forrest but instead it results in a ball up right in front of Grassy goal.
The contest sees the ball shots out and Rainbow clears the area moments before the third quarter siren sound with North up by 11 points.
It is marginally dryer at the start of the last quarter and there is plenty of contest for the ball with some bigger kicks and surer hands. Pressure around the ball from both sides is immaculate, Osborne on two is under a lot of pressure in the Grassy forward line. Hudson and Osborne put on some good forward pressure, before Justin Summers catches Rhodes with the ball for a North turnover. There is man on man battles the field long, each intense, most evenly matched, Hudson wins it from pack.
Brady Rhodes who is mown down by a double Summers team gets the ball off to Hudson who quickly snaps for a Grassy goal.
One straight kick in it. Blomfield in the back line for Grassy takes it out of the North forward area off the deck. Justin Summers under pressure finds a new gear through the centre but so does Keeley. Hunter at full back for North, tidy’s up time after time – most of the play has been in Grassy’s forward line for the final term but goals are hard to come by.
Riley Badenoch on Reed in the Grassy forward line is a quick and physical match up. North try to slow the play down but go forward to a sea of yellow and brown.
Dornauf for Grassy running unmanned in Grassy’s forward runs into an open goal to kick Grassy in front for the first time. North push forward, Button kicks, across the front of goal to a contest which sees the ball hits the post to level the score. Jackson Taylor from right in front of the Grassy dug out fires one forward, goal. Grassy a kick in front.
North go forward again, Reece and Wardlaw formidable. Justin Summers to Goldsmith, North go forward in what may be their last opportunity but is marked by Keeley and with a big kick drives it into Grassy’s forward line.
Scrappy play ensues before Dornauf for Grassy kicks it off the ground for another Grassy goal. Grassy gets it out of the centre again, it takes a while for the North cavalry to arrive back, and a stray kick gets out for a Grassy behind and you would think that is enough to seal the game.
A moment after kicking a point, Reedy, amongst of sea of exhausted backmen, gets a clean run into open goal to seal the game. The final siren goes and Grassy are making a habit of final quarter comebacks, reminiscent of Collingwood (Friday night notwithstanding), and with two games left in the season Grassy are being tested but thus far, in the latter part of the season, have not been out played in a final quarter.
The Bellevue Advisors best player in the juniors went to Harrison Lincoln and in the seniors, it went to Justin Summers.