By Gary Stocks

When eight teams ran out on Saturday to represent the North Beach Football Club and seven of them won it’s a pretty good day for the Beach.

Five senior teams and both colts got over the line with varying degrees of excitement and dominance.

So, for the most part, the social hall was rocking on Saturday night. Justifiably, there were some enthusiastic post-mortems being played out. Recollections of on-field heroics, some of them embellished.

For the odd men out, however, Saturday night wasn’t a lot of fun. No heroics, no memorable moments to speak of. And, unfortunately, the vanquished on this day were the club’s flag bearers, who did not carry the responsibility in the true North Beach tradition.

As victories were celebrated at Charles Riley Reserve, at Quinns and even at City Beach in the precursors to the main game, the O’Rourke Realty A-Grade team was overwhelmed by West Coast.

After leading by a goal at quarter-time, the Beach meekly surrendered and was eventually humbled by a 64-point defeat. There was no hunger for the contest, no pride in the jumper and precious little even in their own individual benchmarks.

In a word, it was insipid. Even embarrassing and coach David Hynes was devastated.

There were a couple of shining lights. The efforts of youngsters Tim Edwards, Christian Angelev and Jay Allison-Green were among them, while Kyle Cranley worked hard at centre half-forward, Cody Enders was in the thick of it through the midfield and Jamie Sajich was solid down back.

It was a pity that the A-Grade did not measure up because it was otherwise a stellar day for the club.

In the earlier games at City Beach Oval, the Lifenet A-Reserves and the Plasterwise Phil Scott Colts shook off determined opponents to win comfortably on the final siren.

It took the A-Reserves a little time to get full reward for their performance, kicking just three goals in the first half, but when they started to convert weight of possession into scoreboard pressure they were exceptional – eventually winning 14.9 (93) to 2.3 (15).

Some of the football was simply breath-taking, particularly four consecutive centre clearances where Dion Cownie was on the receiving end of some exquisite ruck work from Tom DeCourtenay and Tim Langsford and then drilled the ball to leading forwards. They duly converted, the ball was taken back to the centre and it was repeated like Groundhog Day.

Brennen Irvine, Mitch Cameron, Andy Langsford and Adam Duff were also influential.

The Plasterwise Colts, after an unusually slow start, also found their mojo after half-time, eventually winning by 34 points. Darby McCarthy, Liam Manov, Dylan Campbell, Peter Hoitis, Alex Coleman and Jeff Dwyer were the main catalysts in turning the game on its head.

At Charles Riley Reserve, the Hybrid Linings D1-Grade was far too strong for Mt Lawley, cantering to a 154-point rout.

There were winners in every position on the ground, but Ben Clark, Aaron Miller, Alex Luck and Ryan Hart were sublime, while Jacob Griffiths kicked seven goals and relished the opportunity to feed off youngsters Liam Ellis, Jamie Tonus and Lindsay Lawler.

Set up by the brilliance of the back six, who controlled the game from the outset, the Beach did not lose in any individual position.

That came on the back of a less dominant, but still authorative display from the Coast to Coast Imports D1-Reserves who despatched Mt Lawley 17.6 (108) to 6.1 (37).

After an even first term, the Beach blew the Hawks off the park thereafter, kicking 13 goals to three on the back of a superb midfield, led by John Turner, and the defensive rebound of Luke Spies and Michael Collins.

Tim van Der Kraats made the most of the supply and was unstoppable with seven goals.

The Red Hill Brett Jones Colts were also in a destructive mood, eclipsing Collegians with a powerful four-quarter performance – 9.9 (63) to 4.2 (26).

Built around the ferocity of their tackling pressure, the Beach were never seriously threatened with the class of Toby Edwards, Mitchell Grey, Caleb Gill and Callan Dunje a decisive factor while Josh Cameron capitalised with four goals.

Perhaps the best, or hardest fought win, came against Quinns when the Express Bins D2-Grade came from behind to score a thrilling eight-point win.

The opposition might claim that had it not been for goal-front inaccuracy the game could have been put to bed with the Beach hanging to a thread and trailing 3.0 to 3.7 at the major change.

But the Beach hung tough, kicked five goals to two in the second half and deserved to leave with four points. Key factors in the triumph were Rob McComiskie, Xavier Williamson and Tony Mirabile.

The Fusion D2-Reserves made a statement from the outset, kicking six goals in the opening term while holding Quinns scoreless and the outcome was virtually sealed at that point. The Beach eventually won 18.11 (119) to 6.6 (42) in another convincing display.

Damian Gardiner and Nelson Kennedy were stand-outs for the Beach.

Results
O’Rourke Realty A-Grade
West Coast         1.6         7.8         12.10     16.14     110
North Beach       2.6         4.10       4.14      5.16     46
Goals – North Beach: Cranley 2; Ekert, Edwards, Irvine.
Best – North Beach: Edwards, Cranley, Enders, Symonds, Sajich.
Lifenet A-Reserves
North Beach       0.4         3.6         7.7         14.9       93
West Coast         1.1            1.3         2.3         2.3       15
Goals – North Beach: Adler 4; Cameron, Cownie, B Irvine 2; Hall, T Langsford, Manners, Brown.
Best – North Beach: A Langsford, Cownie, B Irvine, Cameron, DeCourtenay, Duff.
Plasterwise Phil Scott Colts
North Beach       1.5         2.6         6.8         10.11     71
West Coast         0.2         3.4         3.4         5.7       37
Goals – North Beach: McColgan, Manov 3; Tickner 2; Rhodes, Hughes.
Best – North Beach: McCarthy, Manov, Campbell, Hoitis, Coleman, J Dwyer.
Hybrid Linings D1-Grade
North Beach       7.1         14.3       20.4       26.7       163
Mt Lawley           1.2          1.3           1.3        1.3           9
Goals – North Beach: Griffiths 7; Ellis, Tonus, Lawler 3; Miller, Veitch 2; Duckworth, R Dwyer, Hogg, Hooper, O’Donoghue, Zehnder.
Best – North Beach: Clark, Miller, Luck, Hart, Griffiths, Lawler.
Coast to Coast Imports D1-Reserves
North Beach       4.1         8.3         12.3       17.6       108
Mt Lawley           3.1         3.1           4.3         6.1          37
Goals – North Beach: van Der Kraats 7; Bramley 3; Halley, D Wilson 2; Csar, Heap, Spies.
Best – North Beach: van Der Kraats, Temm, Turner, Spies, M Collins.
Red Hill Brett Jones Colts
North Beach       2.3         7.3         8.7         9.9         63
Collegians           1.0         2.2         2.2         4.2         26
Goals – North Beach: J Cameron 4; Duncan 2; Acott, Quinn, Ugle.
Best – North Beach: Edwards, Grey, Gill, Dunje.
Express Bins D2-Grade
North Beach       1.0         3.0         5.2         8.4         52
Quinns                  1.1         3.7         4.13       5.14       44
Goals – North Beach: N Smith 2; Pike, Hay-Hendry, S Brown, J Ryan, McComiskie, P Cavanagh.
Best – North Beach: McComiskie, Nguyen, Mirabile, Williamson, Pike.
Fusion D2-Reserves
North Beach       6.1         8.3         12.8       18.11     119
Quinns                  0.0         4.2         6.5          6.6       42
Goals – North Beach: Gardiner 4; McDonald, Kennedy 3; Rollo, Ferreri, Pedley, Walsh, Winterton, Oldfield, Carrello.
Best – North Beach: Kennedy, Bowden, Gardiner, Farrell.