Ginniderra Post: sleep restored, seniors on repeat, youth team fun, DPM Cup result??

[Ryan CRAIG]

The Post received a number of comments from concerned fans of this fan made media after the writer essentially had a whinge about too much overtime and not enough sleep, then tied it to the flagging performance of the Wildcats.

This publication is able to confirm that all contributors are now adequately rested and have been checked for any symptoms of Orange Contamination after last week's brush with the One Brain Cell. Scans confirm that background levels are back within nominal limits.

Now that's out of the way we can talk about the futebol.

Premiership Round 10
Holcombe Hotshots - Ginninderra Wildcats
Holcombe Park, in front of 49,787 fans

The Hotshots shot hot to the tune of a 3-0 win at home in this round 10 clash only marred by striker P_McGarvey coming off in pain in the middle of the second half shortly after coming on.

This is easily the worst Ginninderra performance this season, with just 3 shots and one on target. They were effectively squeezed out of the game and continue to grow increasingly frustrated, represented in giving away double the amount of fouls compared to their opponents and being outshot by a ratio of six to one.

F_Baresi danced past a Ginninderra player and sweetly hit one with the outside of his right foot to leave Martin disappointedly yelling at his defenders in just the 15th minute. It continued to be all one way traffic into the second goal where despite being the side doing the attacking, the Hotshots were still able to break the offside trap of Ginniderra for Smith to put it past an advancing but out of position Martin to convert. Martin looked resigned and making hand gestures at the defenders in front of him, his lips moving in some sort of colourful approximation of the phrase 'what the heck are you doing?'. At half-time most of the Ginninderra players were downcast and having slumped shoulders, their body language suggesting a side all out of ideas and hope right now.

The third goal was added shortly after the restart with Mabbutt again burning a defender and smacking it home. Some spirited protest from Wildcats captain U_Staff about a foul in the leadup was good to see, but after a VAR review the goal was to stand to the chagrin of our captain. It could have been a 4-0 loss had Modric's goal been allowed to stand, but the midfielder was offside so that was a small favour. The refeering was fine, we just haven't been good enough at any point this season and with only four points on the board after ten games this top flight adventure might be over.

H_Garriock was supposedly our best player, I don't mean any disrespect but simply put - no one was a best player for us in this game.

DPM Cup Second Round
Ginniderra Wildcats 3-2 Shurdington AFC
45,789 @ Valley Parade

So it's on a background then of this poor form in the league that we had a midweek game at Valley Parade in the Dave Phillips Memorial Cup second round. We'd drawn Shurdington AFC at home, if we'd had this tie last year I'd have been reasoanbly confident we can get the job down at home. But this is a side that just isn't firing at all and the collective body language in the group after the Holcombe game tells me we are down and out.

But in the first minute of the game!!!! U_Staff 'expertly' put a back pass into O_Martin's net I was ready to riot. Get him out of my club. Get Ryan Craig out of my club. Get all of these pretenders and wage theives out. They don't know anything about playing for the pride of Canberra, they're just overpaid foreign players (for the most part) blocking the development of young Australian players into premium footballers.

By the time the white hot incandescent rage had tempered to a red hot burning, we'd actually equalised and from open play! T_Gunk hit a curling effort past Larson to even things up just four minutes later and we kept trying to get at them with the Aussie special of pace and power rather than any sort of technique other than to be direct and see what happens. It was refreshing to see this sort of intent from the playing eleven who have often been tasked with trying to disrupt and catch out teams rather than being the ones asking the questions. A goal from deep for Pellegrino in the 29th and Gunk's second in the 32nd put Ginninderra in an unfamiliar place at half time: 3-1 up.

We came out in the second half much the same way the first half ended - trying to put them on the back foot and pin them back, which was working well enough for at least the first 10 minutes or so. Maracle gave away a free kick to Boardman who was isolated and probably playing for the foul in all fairness and Shurdington were able to smash the free kick in through the wall to make it 3-2. I felt the incandescent rage again, and wondered if I should go and see a doctor about it? Fans braced for an equaliser that fortunately didn't come, but the last 30 minutes of the match felt like we were hanging on not winning or controlling a lead. The late introduction of fresh legs in midfield and of the extra defender in Griess seemed to steady things up enough that we were able to run out 3-2 winners.

Winners. win·ners. the syllables sound strange to say out loud and feel odd to type but take any which way to try to kickstart our season I think? Or hope anyway.

Youth Division Round 7
Jacobs FC 2-3 Ginninderra Wildcats
Neutral venue

Jacobs FC went 2-0 up, starting off with an early goal to Burfeind in the 6th minute and it being 1-0 for a extended time. Then bang - four goals in the space of about 10 minutes and change. We equalised, then they got back out in frnt, then Steadman got his second playing from deep, and then all the pressure we put on paid dividends as Burnbaugh missed a header and cost his side the win.

Jacobs FC were probably the better side here but again we kept on with that direct pace and power approach and it paid off bigtime. They will be very diappointed with the result when they had so much of the ball and the movement of it, Secrist getting four key passes for them. Vonhoff again was safe hands despite conceding two - probably would have been more if not for him because our defense were getting played through quite a bit by a strong Jacobs side.

Our youth team is now 6th on the table and have Burntwood next. Degenerate gamblers are frothing at the mouth about the likelihood of a Kevin Keegan style attacking shootout between these two teams. Beats the sit back and break style a lot of teams have adopted in the youth second division!

Wrapping up

We have games against Baggies and Burntwood U21's this weekend. The Burntwood game should be fun but the Baggies one won't unless there is some drastic mid-midweek change in form amongst the squad where morale seems at rock bottom. Gunk has found the net though so hoping all that was needed was the team to see some rewards for the efforts and some goals to kick start another late season phoenix style recovery.