Oakleigh had their streak ended on Saturday at Scammell Reserve in a heart stopper against bitter rivals Hampton Rovers. In a triple header where the U/19s and Reserves had Oakleigh 2-0 up for the day, the Seniors just failed to make it a clean sweep losing by a meagre 2 points. From the opening bell it was a hard, fast and tough encounter and no place for the faint hearted with both teams throwing everything into a contest that kept the large crowd enthralled until the final siren. Hampton opened the scoring and looked to be settling early before a Krusher counter attack wrested the advantage from them and Oakleigh went to the first change with a 5 point lead. The battle continued to seesaw throughout the second term, when one side appeared to be gaining ascendancy, the other would hit back and when the half-time siren sounded scores were locked together.

The Rovers bounced out of the blocks early in the third quarter and raced to a 3 goal lead with the Oaks looking a little ragged but then once again the tables were turned and Oakleigh took a 1 point lead into the final quarter. In a riveting last term, the Krushers managed to clear out to a 14 point lead and were looking like shutting the game down when Hampton struck back to head the Oaks by 9 points late in the quarter but the Krushers rallied again with a late goal and could have snatched a win had a marking contest on the goal line not seen the ball rushed through for a behind some 10 or so seconds from siren time. At games end the general feeling around the ground was “Wow, what a game!” and full marks go to both sides for way it was played and the umpires for an excellent job. Josh Paola booted 5 goals for Oakleigh with Steve Tolongs, Tim Scott and Stuart Wines adding 2 each. Pat Ioannidis, Pat DiSiervi and Luke Andreatta were in Oakleighs best.

The Reserves game was a relatively low scoring affair with only 4 goals posted to half-time, 3 of those were Oakleighs though and after the long break the Krushers upped the pace a bit and ran the Rovers ragged to canter home by 31 points. Jack Hind kicked 3 goals for the Krushers with Chris Lavery adding 2. Andrew Murray, Josh Revere and Zac Thiessens wer among the Oaks best players.

The U/19s were up early to open the days proceedings and were largely untroubled by Hampton as they romped home by 51 points in a great team effort by the young Krushers. Alex Seremelis owned the goal square booting 6 with James Grigoriou chipping in with 2 goals. Tim Michael, Scott Murray and Sam Ciavarella were all very good for Oakleigh.

Final Scores:

Seniors: Oakleigh 13.8.86 lt Hampton Rovers 12.16.88.

Goals: Josh Paola 5, Steve Tolongs 2, Tim Scott 2, Stuart Wines 2, James Hunt, Aisea Valentini.
Best: Pat Ioannidis, Pat Di Siervi, Luke Andreatta, Josh Paola, Stuart Wines, Keith Paisley.

Reserves: Oakleigh 10.8.68 def Hampton Rovers 5.7.37.

Goals: Jack Hind 3, Chris Lavery 2, Emmanuel Catalla, Adam Matthieson, Leroy Moeller, Jake Paola, Zac Thiessens.
Best: Andrew Murray, Jack Hind, Josh Revere, Zac Thiessens, Chris Lavery, James Faranda.

Under 19s: Oakl;eigh 12.10.82 def Hampton Rovers 3.9.27.

Goals: Alex Seremelis 6, James Grigoriou 2, Tim Michael, Matt Arahna, Ankush Malhotra, Tom Perrett.
Best: Alex Seremelis, Tim Michael, Scott Murray, Sam Ciavarella, Matt Arahna, Jake Benoiton.