By Paul Coshott
Photo’s by Sharon Cowley
Saturday’s sunshine saw the Busselton Lions 11’s host Dunsborough Power at Churchill Park.
The Lion’s have been concentrating on their use of space and movement off the ball, learning to provide multiple options to the ball carrier. Their performances this season have shown steady improvement and Saturday was no exception.
The Lion’s started strongly, with good possession through the middle of the park. Wide mids, Lily and Ruby kept busy chasing every ball and providing great options for Hayden and Poppy looking to put the ball down the line. The four mids worked well, showing some fantastic link up with Elise up top. A number of attempts saw a strong Dunsborough keeper protect his net very well.
Busso’s defense again held strong, with Seth, Bryce and Luca providing strong cover for Jack in goals. But some good play from the Power saw Dunsborough open the scoring with some good passing and an accurate shot that found the back of the net.
A great run from Hayden through the middle of the park, saw an excellent individual goal after a number of successful 1v1’s found the center mid 1 on 1 with the Power keeper.
The second half saw the Busselton defence tighten even more, with Jarvis showing some intelligent decisions playing out from the back, making the Power forwards job very difficult. Sam and Bryce worked well together, blunting the Dunsborough attack, time and again. The Lion’s were also finding it hard to find the back of the net, despite some great build up play offering up some decent chances.
Lily and Indie continued to work extremely hard out wide with more great link up with the center mids and forwards. Dunsborough managed a couple of late goals, before the Lion’s pegged one back after some fantastic football saw five of their players involved in the goal.
Special mention must go to Jack, the Lion’s keeper. Dunsborough kept the goalie busy, with Jack standing tall and working hard throughout.
Player of the Match though had to be Poppy, who worked extremely hard all game, never slowing and chasing every ball. Her intensity was backed up with an awesome showing of skill and determination.
The Lion’s travel to Dunsborough next week to take on the Barbarians.