The Collingwood Victorian Wheelchair Football League (VWFL) team and the Community Wheelchair Football League (CWFL) team both had extortionary wins against Essendon in Round 12 at the Boroondara Sports Complex on Sunday.
Collingwood’s VWFL team started on a high, slotting four straight goals in the first quarter, compared to the Bombers one.
Coming into the quarter time break, Coach Andrew Paddle reinforced the importance of this type of start and how significant it would be for the team being able to hold their position on the ladder.
In his pre-match briefing, Paddles stated that the team needed to be patient when creating scoring opportunities and that rushing to score wasn’t the objective. Evidently, this approach was proving successful for the Pies.
Collingwood didn’t take their foot off the gas in the second quarter, scoring five more goals before half time and placing them in the lead by 44 points.
The message at half time was to change nothing and keep the pressure up as it had worked so perfectly in the first half. The team took this exact approach and continued to score enough points throughout the remainder of the match to take the win.
Collingwood’s Captain Ben Jankovski and teammate Anthony Perito were a force in the forward half scoring a combined 13 goals. While the defensive pressure from Will Crooks and Arnold Razon were dominant in the back half.
The ruck work of Martyn Ford was impressive, winning several major clearances in the middle.
Collingwood’s senior team is now looking forward to a well-earned break before heading into their last game of the regular season before finals.
COMMUNITY WHEELCHAIR TEAM
Winning by an impressive 56 points and managing to keep Essendon goalless after the first quarter, the Collingwood CWFL team had the strongest win of their season on Sunday.
Leading into the match, the Pies had only five available players. This wasn’t ideal and meant the team had to conserve their energy and use it wisely in order to play well in all four quarters.
The message from Coach Andrew Paddle was to work for each other by putting blocks on the opposition and making space in the forward line for scoring opportunities.
The key standouts on the day were Andrew Paddle and Jack Elliott combining well in the forward line and scoring 9 goals between the two of them.
Aaron Cutajar and Vincent Falcome were also outstanding putting the defensive pressure on the Essendon forwards to create errors and turnovers.
This result was immense for the Pies which will leave them sitting in second position with one round left to play before finals.
Upcoming matches for both teams are as follows:
Collingwood VWFL – Sunday, August 27th against St Kilda starting at 11am at RSEA Park
Collingwood CWFL – Sunday, August 27th against St Kilda Community team starting at 11am at RSEA Park
VWFL TEAM RESULTS
Collingwood: 4.0 9.3 11.4 14.6 (90)
Essendon: 1.1 2.1 6.2 7.4 (46)
Goals:
Collingwood: Jankovski 7, Perito 6, Hawkins.
Essendon: Team Stats 4, Logan 3.
CWFL TEAM RESULTS
Collingwood: 1.3 2.3 6.8 9.10 (64)
Essendon: 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.2 (8)
Goals:
Collingwood: Paddle 5, Elliott 4.
Essendon: Taylor.
