The Eltham faithful was nervous in the build up to Saturday as the A-grade has been skating through the end of the season getting by on exceptional individual plays but were clearly in need of getting back to their prior form. The game started like many of the last several weeks with lots of tough stuff, hard-running and tackling with the opposition ticking over the scoreboard first. Wyndham's kicker showed his exceptional skill with a tough penalty conversion and the early 3-0 lead. This sparked the boys and right away they responded with a team effort moving the ball off some tough running and attacking the larger side with pace. Dan H. smashed his way up the pitch and set a great ruck. Azza gave the quick ball to Dolzie who absorbed more defenders and another quick recycle saw Tony dive over for the first try and the 7-3 lead, which E-town would not relinquish.

The good guys got their tails up and Isaac somehow slipped and stepped his way through multiple defenders and the forwards piled into the ruck. Azza popped to Big Jim who was motoring off the edge of the ruck. It was awesome to watch the big second rower draw the defence and give a perfect, quick pass to Rick in space. The electric #12 did the rest accelerating through four defenders for the try, 12-3.

The end of the half was marred by a scary moment regarding a Wyndham forward who was feared to have sustained a serious neck injury. The half was called a few minutes early and there was an extensive break in play. The teams kept things in perspective as player safety was paramount. Thanks to the medical staff volunteers from both teams and the Ambo's who came to help out. Luckily, reports are that there was no neck injury...however, the player did sustain a concussion, which is serious in it's own right and will just take time to heal. Here's to both a speedy and full recovery.

After the break, it was the hard work of the forwards that got things going. Great swarming defence with excellent structure from numbers 1-8, all committed to stopping the Rhino attack. Olly was leading the communication at the breakdown and organizing defence around the rucks. There were tough tackles from every player, but a particular shout out to Sam and Mike W. each of them just made tackles all day. In addition, Mikey got in the head of his opposite number who couldn't seem to figure out why he couldn't smash the Eltham's little big man.

The boys got it going when Dan H. made a great steal at the breakdown. The Wyndham forwards were beating him like a rented mule, but Dan ignored the abuse and made the steal anyway. Two quick phases later the ball went out to Tony and as the Wyndham defence crashed in trying to take away the pass...he chipped wide and dropped the ball right into Isaac's hands. Isaac drew the final defender and put Marika into space for the final 20 metres and the 19-3 lead after Tony slotted the difficult conversion.

Wyndham fought hard for every inch and gave nothing easy. Using a team style, though Eltham kept the pressure on the bad guys while on offense and never gave them a sniff of the try zone throughout the game. The one time they got close to the E-town 22m line, James made a steal and then a quick break up the middle of the pitch. I was busy thinking about how great it was going to be writing up the big man's 75 meter try. However, the Wyndham #14 ran him down quicker than a Cheetah chasing a Gazelle with broken leg. Eltham, however, swarmed the breakdown and the jailbreak was on with Eltham players running left, right and centre which eventually saw Isaac get it over the line for the 24-3 lead.

A couple of penalties were added for good measure and the final score of 30-3. Well done boys and heal up during the week off. See you all in the Grand final against either the Kiwi-Hawthorn or Wyndham. Well done boys.