A fine winter’s day greeted us on Saturday with our AusKickers enjoying their final run around the Mentone Recreation Reserve for 2015, with the BBQ fired up and trophies being hand out to each participant.
Slowly our stream of volunteers rolled in to set up for the final luncheon for season 2015 with eager anticipation of two strong performances from the Seniors and Reserves against AJAX.
However there were issues behind the scenes due to the withdrawal of players with soreness from the previous week’s match on the heavy Parkdale ground leaving the 2’s with only 18 players to start the match.
Meanwhile, the Under 19’s were travelling to Collegians for their Round 17 match and came away with a solid win. This was a particular pleasing victory as four players also put their hand up to head back to Brindisi Street at the conclusion of their match to fill the bench for the 2’s.
Sam Bacca BOG, Kieren Arthur, Josh Fisher, Max Milwood, Ryan Mravljak, Lachlan Palfrey were in the best for the Under’s.
The Reserves put in a fantastic performance running out 96 point winners with Lewis Stutterd best on ground with Mark Geschke, Dale Foley, Ben Hubeek, Brenton Schubert and Josh Heron in the best players.
During this game, the G H Soppert pavilion was chock-o-block to hear our Board Member and Western Bulldogs coach Luke Beveridge talk about our 2006 Premiership win over AJAX, the 3 flags in a row and was very generous in his time with a Q & A’s session on all matters AFL
Luke also took time to speak on girls / womens footy and the anticipated growth in coming years, something our club is passionate in perusing.
2.00pm came around quickly and the Seniors bounced back from the previous week’s ‘just do enough’ effort to win over Parkdale to move straight into top gear and place the result in no doubt by quarter time.
It was a beautiful thing to watch the Tigers combine right across the ground. Jaryd Robertson was clearly best on ground with Simon Richards, Dan Garside, Tom Garside, Luke Velluto and Tom McMahon who was called up at the mid-morning to play in the 1’s and perform in the ruck against a much taller opponent.
The Seniors also won by 96 points and next week take on Old Brighton at the Beach Road Oval.
But to place a great day into perspective, Saturday night at the Kingston City Hall was the icing on the cake with our sensational ‘Women of St Bedes / Mentone Tigers’ and their team of volunteers, Jack Vawdrey’s family and friends put on a night to remember as our club community rallied around him to raise much needed funds for his “Road to Recovery’
There are many thanks you to be handed out for this event and they will be suitably mentioned later on in the Annual Report but to all who contributed thank you.
Many thanks to the City of Kingston who waived the hire fee for the hall.
It was a very moving evening, a great outcome and a great night.
It was an amazing day throughout the club from the AusKick volunteers, the house and kitchen volunteers for the lunch, the canteen helpers and our off the field volunteers who support the players week in, week out, and to back up with a huge effort for Jack Vawdrey just shows us what a special place our Tiger community has become.