AAFC Carnival Report

AAFC CARNIVAL REPORT

The U23 AAFC Championship held in Adelaide last weekend saw a return to the carnival format last employed in 1994 and there was high drama from beginning to end. Player counts, controversial umpiring decisions, eleventh hour list changes and many other off-field issues crowded the agenda. And to top it all, there was the Chile ash that tipped the exit plans of the two eastern seaboard teams into turmoil. But there was football too, and after the Opening Ceremony on Thursday morning, the action began. The preliminary round robin tournament featured games of two fifteen minute halves plus time-on.

GAME 1: Victoria drew South Australia first up and before the damp afternoon easterly bit, the Big V had smashed Croweater dreams of the Cup returning to the trophy cabinet at Thebarton. With Jonno Nash and Jack Hellier running rampant in the middle and Jake Gotch and Cam Jones in exceptional touch around the sticks, Victoria stunned the South Australian team, silencing the parochial crowd that had been dreaming of “Kick a Vic”. When the locals moved the ball forward, Al Austin and Scott Sherwen were impassable. Mark Collins was strong at the contest and his booming left foot always a weapon. The winning margin sent a shudder through the other camps. “Big, fast, skilful” were words bandied about by veteran carnival observers from across the border, while there was no shortage of travelling fans in blue and white scarves ready to add another all-important adjective: “amateur”.

	HALF-TIME	FULL-TIME
VICTORIA	7.1	12.2 (74)
SOUTH AUSTRALIA	1.2	1.3 (9)

Goals: J Gotch 4, C Jones 4, S Dunell, H Croft, T McKinley

Best: J Nash, M Collins, J Hellier, C Jones, J Gotch, T McKinley

GAME 2: Western Australia, which had trained as a squad for ten weeks and played two practice matches, was a heavy favourite against the Tasmanian lineup, which had been selected from three different competitions. Things didn’t go to plan, as the Apple Islanders looked likely winners a few minutes from full-time. However, they failed to capitalise on two forward entries, and heartbreak followed as the Sandgropers received a questionable free kick in front of goal and snatched the win. WA 4.5 (29) d TAS 4.3 (27)

GAME 3: South Australia returned to the field to tackle the Westerners. After a first half that produced just one goal, it was anyone’s game, but early in the second, WA called a count as SA’s nineteenth player attempted to scurry from the field. While the protest yielded the Black Swans no scoreboard advantage, from then on there was no doubt they would win. For the Croweaters, the carnival was well and truly over. WA 3.5.23 d SA 0.2 (2)

GAME 4: First up Friday was Victoria’s clash with Tasmania, who made no apologies about its intent to exert more physical pressure on the Vics than had the South Aussies. The big Thebarton Oval seemed smaller all of a sudden as players threw themselves to the contest. The bustling Collins was hard at it again, Hiwad Shakaib strong in the ruck, Sam “Death to Flying Things” Dunell unbeatable in the forward line. Again, the skipper Jack Hellier threw his body in with abandon and the Tassie physical pressure was at times a little overdone, with two players sent off to the sin bin for their indiscretions. Still, the Taswegians had limited the damage.

	HALF-TIME	FULL-TIME
VICTORIA	3.4	6,7 (43)
TASMANIA	0	1.1 (7)

Best: M Collins, T McKinley, S Sherwen, S Dunell, J Hellier, H Shakaib.

Goals: C. Jones 2, J Gotch, S Dunell, S Williams, H Croft.

GAME 5: South Australia took to the fray again, hoping to restore some pride against Tasmania, which had never won an U23 game. Denied so cruelly the day before, they left nothing to chance this time and the home team crashed to another defeat. There was little else other than reputation riding on the contest, as the results from the Carnival’s first four games meant that this game and the one that followed would be played again under the full format on Championship Sunday. TAS 6.3 (39) d SA 4.6 (30)

GAME 6: The final tilt on Friday was a game of cat and mouse, as both Victorian coach Mick Dwyer and his WA counterpart threw their teams around, hoping to keep a few aces up their sleeves for Sunday. It was a low scoring affair, as the late afternoon easterly blew again. Austin was again strong in defence, Nash, Hellier and Collins strong around the ball. The two objectives were to win and to get through relatively unscathed. The Vics accomplished both, and would have their full complement of twenty-four players ready on Sunday.

	HALF-TIME	FULL-TIME
VICTORIA	2.1	3.4 (22)
WESTERN AUSTRALIA	0.1	2.3 (15)

Goals: A Delmonte, C Jones, J Hellier

Best: A Austin, J Nash, J Hellier, M Collins, H Shakaib, S Dunell.

The consolation plate on Sunday brought out the local crowd, expectant or at least hopeful of a turnaround in Croweater fortunes. The day’s break had decimated the SA team even more than the two days of competition, and they were forced to call for reinforcements from beyond their squad. This initiative had quite a number of AAFC officials scratching their heads. In any case, these call-up players had immediate impact and South Australia bolted away in the third quarter and never looked in trouble thereafter. SA 18.11 (119) d TAS 13.9 (87)

Only Victoria’s inaccuracy around the sticks prevented the crowd leaving at half-time. WA took a lead momentarily in the second term, but the Big V players thereafter peppered the goals. Sam Dunell again killed everything that that flew near him, skipper Jack Hellier saved his best for the big one, Tom McKinley and Tom O’Sullivan were livewires. The third term saw the Vics straighten up and they raced away from a Sandgroper that had hung tough but was in the end outclassed. The song was sung with gusto by a team that came together quickly and at times produced brilliant football.

VICTORIA	3.6	3.14	10.17	14.20 (104)
WESTERN AUSTRALIA	2.1	4.1	4.1	5.4 (34)

Goals: C Jones 5, T McKinley 3, A Delmonte 2, S Williams, S Dunell, D Scheetz, D Lucas

Best: J Hellier, S Dunell, M Dean, L Crozier, T McKinley, C Jones, S Sherwen, T O’Sullivan

South Australia, despite its on-field performance, was a magnificent host and full credit to SAAFL CEO Mark Shadiac and his staff for their hospitality, cooperation and organisation. The Carnival was held to celebrate SA’s centenary, but it now seems likely that the carnival format will be a feature in the years ahead.

VICTORIA – CHAMPIONS OF AUSTRALIA 2011

Jack Hellier (c) Dan Garside, Hiwad Shakaib (St Bede’s/Mentone Tigers); Jonno Nash (vc) Sam Dunell(Old Melburnians); Harry Croft (vc) (Collegians); Dean Scheetz, Tom O’Sullivan (Caulfield Grammarians) Mark Collins,Jake Gotch, Sam Williams (De La Salle); Trent Carlson (Marcellin); Dion Lucas (Oakleigh); Luke Crozier, Cam Jones (Old Carey); Adrian Delmonte (Old Ivanhoe); Thomas McKinley, Scott Sherwen (Old Scotch); Luke Pacconi (Old Trinity); Karl Wissell (St Kevin’s);Alastair Austin,Jeremy Mugavin, Charles Shaw (University Blues); Matthew Dean (Werribee Districts)

COACH: Mick Dwyer ASSISTANTS: Greg Siwes/Luke Beveridge/Jeremy Bourke TEAM MANAGER: John Raffle TRAINER: Rachael Cowdell RUNNER: Luke Wintle DOCTOR: George Janko PHYSIOS Neeraj Kochhar/Michael Basley DIRECTOR OF REP FOOTBALL: Michael Hazell TIMEKEEPER John Robinso

AWARDS:

Carnival Best and Fairest: Jack Hellier

Grand Final BOG: Jack Hellier

Spirit of the Big V: Jack Hellier

All-Australians: (Quota of 7) Jack Hellier (capt), Jonno Nash, Cam Jones, Harry Croft, Mark Collins, Sam Dunell, Hiwad Shakaib.

Umpire of the Carnival: Russell Davidson

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