It was a bad day to be an Animal on Saturday as all four Emmaus St Leo’s team went down, despite some rare footy weather in blue skies and sun. The Thirds welcomed Whitefriars to Bennettswood Reserve, who left the home of the Animals 117-point winners, while elsewhere at Rathmines Road Reserve, Hawthorn dismantled two Emmaus St Leo’s outfits, with the reserves losing by 38 points, and the seniors 34 points. And at Lindsay Hassett Oval, the women’s team were beaten by AJAX, 104-0.
It’s unfortunately fast becoming the tale of the Emmaus St Leo’s women’s team, whose pressure and effort could not be faulted from the second quarter onwards despite zero scoreboard reward. A dismal first quarter start, where AJAX kicked 6 unanswered goals, resulted in a largely-justified-but-rare spray from head coach Roy Fenton which quite evidently did its job as his charges only allowed 3.3 to be kicked before the main break. While seven goals were kicked after half time, defensively, it was the fourth term where Emmaus St Leo’s stood up well, despite the consistent barrage for the whole game, limiting AJAX to just two goals.
First-year player Ebony Ratcliffe was named best-on for the Animals, while familiar names in Vic Holt and Mel Barlow joined her with Bridget Crowe and Lilly Hutchinson rounding out the six. Carla Varani joins an ever-growing list of injured players, after coming off the ground with an ankle injury and unable to bear any weight, later confirmed to be badly dislocated.
This weekend is a huge one for the Emmaus St Leo’s Football Club, whose annual ladies luncheon is set to surpass $100,000 in fundraising efforts over its 5 years, with 2021 being the 6th year, despite no official luncheon in 2020. It’s another triple header at Bennettswood Reserve on Saturday, but it’ll be all four teams running out in the pink jerseys, as the Thirds take on the Monash Blues away at Frearson Oval. The reserves and the seniors will welcome Richmond Central, as the women kick off proceedings in a must-win match against Power House, all at home. It’ll be a battle of last and second-last on the ladder and will be an arguably large answer as to the question where both teams are at five rounds into the 2021 season.