First Division - Eastern Football League

THE EASTERN FOOTBALLER
7
UPPER GULLY MOVE
INTO TOP FOUR
Upper Ferntree Gully moved into the top four in Division
Three last weekend by recording a hard-fought 15-point
victory against South Croydon at Cheong Park, but will be
sweating on the fitness of key forward Grant Noonan, who
left the field with a knee injury as they push towards a
possible finals berth, as SHAUN KELLY reports.
Noonan, who currently sits second on the Division Three
goalkicking ladder with 51 goals after a four-goal
performance against the Doggies, injured his knee in the
dying minutes of last Saturday’s clash after he came
crashing down after an innocuous-looking lead from fullforward,
and could be in doubt for the rest of the home-andaway
season. This is a worst-case scenario outcome, but
after regaining a place in the Four for the first time since
Round 2, Upper Gully can ill-afford to be without their key
forward, as they face the three teams above them on the
ladder in the final six rounds, as well as fellow finals
aspirants Nunawading and Mooroolbark.
When asked about Noonan’s injury after the game, Upper
Gully coach Tim Edwards was unsure as to the extent of
Noonan’s injury. “We’ll have a look tomorrow [Sunday] and
see how it pulls up”, Edwards said. “I’ve got no doubt he’ll
do all the wrong things in the meantime”, noting Noonan’s
propensity for enjoying himself away from the football field,
“but we can’t diagnose anything properly until tomorrow”.
Noonan was a crucial figure up forward for Upper Gully last
week, kicking four first-half goals and kick-starting what
turned out to be a fantastic display of Division Three football,
with all the characteristics of a match between two sides
fighting for one spot in the final Four. The game had
everything – high-flying aerialists, goals that defied belief,
some hard, rugged football and fantastic individual
performances. South Croydon’s Jamie Preston, after a
tumultuous week that had the EFL buzzing with rumours and
innuendo about his departure from the Kennel, re-affirmed his
faith to the South Croydon Football Club with seven goals
from full-forward, including three in a third-quarter
comeback from the Doggies that saw them hit the lead in
time-on after being 26 points down at the four-minute mark of
the quarter.
Upper Gully, and in particular Noonan, started like a house
afire in the first quarter. Noonan kicked Upper Gully’s
first three goals, and in doing so reaching the 50-goal
barrier, but South Croydon stayed with them all the way,
kicking six straight goals for the quarter to take a threepoint
lead into quarter-time. They had lost the services of
captain Gavin Smith though, who limped from the field
mid-way through the quarter, and the second quarter didn’t
provide them with much relief on the injury front, as
ruckman Lucas Davies went down with a leg injury, and
dangerous midfielder/forward Ben Osbourne strained a
hamstring not long after using Matthew Artridge as a stepladder
to pull down the mark of the day. This was starting
to show on the scoreboard as well, as Upper Gully took the
lead early in the quarter and didn’t look back, on their way
to five goals to the Doggies two for the quarter, and a
twenty-point half-time lead.
After kicking the opening goal of the third quarter through
opportunistic rover Jason Banes, Upper Gully saw nothing
but a red, white and blue avalanche for the rest of the quarter.
Gavin Smith re-entered the fray early in the third quarter in
attempt to lift his team-mates into action, and his presence
inspired the young Doggies to claw their way back into the
game. Noticeably affected by his leg injury, Smith dragged
himself down to the goalsquare, where he complimented the
efforts of Preston and Nick McConnell by kicking two goals
that lifted the large crowd at Cheong Park, and orchestrating
a comeback that saw the Doggies hit the front after Preston’s
third goal of the quarter, and sixth of the match, at the twentysix
minute mark, before Upper Gully’s Ben Hoath marked
and goaled on the siren to cut the Doggies lead to a single
point at the last break.
It was Upper Gully who drew first blood in the final quarter,
as Hoath kicked goal number four only two minutes in to
regain the lead for Upper Gully. This was duly extended by a
running Tate Hickleton, who accepted a pass from Brad
Weinert after a chain of handballs in the Upper Gully forward
line. The Doggies wouldn’t give up though, and when Lucas
Paul capitalized on a defensive error by the Upper Gully
backmen, and found Preston in the goalsquare for his seventh
goal of the day, they had pegged the lead back again to within
a kick. That was to be as close as South Croydon would get
though, as Tim Watts capped off a magnificent performance
for Upper Gully with a goal in the fifteenth minute of the
quarter, and Ben Hoath kicked his fifth goal, ensuring that
Upper Gully would move into fourth spot on the ladder as the
final siren sounded with them fifteen points clear of a gallant
South Croydon.
Upper Gully coach Tim Edwards was ecstatic in the rooms
after the game as he addressed his players. “[Today’s result]
just shows you if we stick at our game plan, it works”, he
said in an inspiring post-match address. “I’m so proud of
the way you fought it out together today”. Grant Noonan sat
in the corner of the club-rooms, but the huge grin on his face
was matched by the size of the ice-pack on his knee. The
next few weeks will show the true character of the Upper
Ferntree Gully Football Club, as they face their toughest
challenges for the season in an attempt to return to the upper
echelon of Division Three, and may have to do so without
their star full-forward.