Oak Park

[lebron]

Oak Park beat Albion by 10 goals on the weekend and once again had a solid team effort. They have been moving the ball well and their midfield has depth.

OP are looking good and people who think they will slide down the ladder because they lost afew players are in for a real surprise. They have good juniors and have recruited well. Oak Park will be there again, come the business end of the season.

Tom German has been a stand out and someone to look out for this season.

[julianlarkins]

On the face of it overcoming Essendon Douttas Stars (EDS) should be a fairly regulation task for last year’s grand finalists. At the start of the season most punters had Oak Park in the finals again and EDS struggling to avoid relegation. But there were some indicators to suggest that Oakers may have a fight on their hands. Douttas in their first two rounds only narrowly lost to Pascoe Vale and held their own against finals contender Aberfeldie. While Oak Park have not yet captured the form that saw them storm into last year’s grand final to lose by 2 points to Strathmore. In addition, Oak Park has lost their coach and a few gun players in the off-season including Higgs, Lord, Sciliano and Frankie Raso to name a few. That is a large chunk of their midfield and a star centre-half backman in Lord all gone before the season started. Jessie Smith, the former Blues listed player, was not playing either though he is still on their list. The form of Oakers has been sketchy too. In pre-season they beat Eastern League grand finalist Scoresby by a few goals and in round 1 comfortably beat Keilor. Yet last week they were 5 goals down at three quarter time against newly promoted Pascoe Vale only to come and snatch victory in the last term. Regardless of the form though most people expected a comfortable margin for Oakers at home.

The first term Oakers were kicking with a 2-3 goal breeze to the city end but it was Douttas who looked livelier. A great finish on the run from their gun midfielder Mark Lynch lifted the Stars who were matching the run of Oakers while also holding them accountable by playing one on one football. Man mountain Michael Hooper was Oak Park’s most dangerous forward in the first term, however the work of Josh McDonald, Ben Western and Josh Gribben down back ensured the Stars held a small lead at the first break, a great result against the wind.

During his quarter time address Douttas’ Coach Marcus Barham demanded his chargers continued to run the ball and make sure they play one on one football, but it was Oakers who showed exactly why they are rated so highly, piling on 7 goals into the breeze in the second quarter. Lively forward Andrew Smith kicked three in five minutes while the experience of Adrian Mastropasqua in the ruck was telling with the big man providing a goal and clever taps to give his side an advantage in the middle. It was just as well because it was during the second quarter that Oak Park’s other ruckman Aaron Lerm copped a tough, but fair, bump from Luke Hodgkin, leaving the big man seeing stars to end his game prematurely. Oakers’ gun rover Luke Ryan also started to get himself into the game chiming in with a hard fought goal. Douttas refused to go away though and found a reliable avenue to goal that they dearly missed last week against Abers – former Port Magpies player Jordan Barham. Douttas had the tall target they so desperately needed and a couple of goals from Barham along with support from Mitch Day ensured the Stars were still in touching distance at half time.

The third quarter saw Douttas put in an awesome display of pressure on their opponents, continually tackling the ball carrier to cause turnovers. The Stars may lack some experience and the superstar players of other clubs, but their fitness, determination and running play is equal or better than most. Mark Lynch continued to provide them with polish through the middle and he was ably supported by a collection of pint sized helpers who attacked their opponents ferociously. Justin Kahlefeldt, David Lynch, Jarrod and Luke Hodgkin, Riley Lucin and Brad Langtry all worked tirelessly to drag Douttas back into the game and for once the Stars actually got reward for effort as Mitch Day slammed home quick fire goals to have EDS leading by 10 points late in the third term. A free-kick off the ball allowed Oak Park to swing momentum back in their favour with the result a point blank goal to Chris Murch. A timely captain’s goal to Alex Gleeson and a couple more skilful finishes from Luke Ryan gave Oakers a two goal cushion going into the last quarter. The key players for Oakers, Jack Pascu, Gleeson and Luke Ryan, had all lifted just when Douttas had threatened to take control.

The last quarter saw Oak Park lock the ball down in the stoppages and play the game on their terms. Ben Considine kicked crucial goals to keep Oakers’ in front and a bad miss from Douttas all but sealed their fate. Douttas tried right to the end with backman Luke Svarc and Josh Gribben taking strong marks and yet again Mark Lynch driving their midfield. The young ruckman wearing number 60 for the Stars tried hard right to the end and looks like he could become a very handy player after holding his own against a much more experienced opponent. Douttas may wonder how they lost the game given they had so much of the play and an equal number of scoring opportunities. It was the experience and class of Oakers that got them across the line, players like Pascu and Luke Ryan dragging their team to victory. A bit more know-how from Douttas would have been enough to get victory – at vital stages during the game a clumsy free-kick or failure to kill a marking contest really hurt them. If not for a 10 minute spell during the second term and a 5 minute period late in the third term then the game was theirs. But that is what good teams like Oak Park do, they win even when they are not playing at their best. Overall, it was another fantastic game of exciting EDFL footy which saw Douttas take a huge step forward. If EDS play like that every week then they will finish with 7 or 8 wins and should comfortably beat Craigieburn next week going on results.

FINAL SCORE:

Oak Park - 16.12 -108

Essendon Doutta Stars - 13.15 – 93

BEST PLAYERS:

OP – Luke Ryan, Pascu, Mastropasqua, Hogan, Wittmer, Considine

ESD – Mark Lynch, Kahlefeldt, Day, Luke Hodgkin, David Lynch, Gribben, no.60

[dashingwingman]

I saw Alex Gleeson again was BOG and kicked 5 goals to give Oak Park a win. He is in fine form.

Any keilor people or oak park people see the match ?

[Brad T]

Can anybody tell us what is happening at Oak Park FC at the moment?

Do they have many injuries? Just such a huge turnaround in the past month!

[bricksta]

My Understanding is that they have lost a few guys to overseas trips???
If so, very ordinary on those players...if you commit to playing a season then do your trip at the end of the year, or dont ask for money for the time you do play.

[lebron]

Agree = OP have dropped off in the last month with some dissapointing results but I believe only 2 players have gone overseas. Yes they are good players but this is not the sole reason for their slide. I have been told that: At times they have played indiscipline football and players not sticking to the game plan. For a team that played so well last year and just fell short on GF day, the boys need to turn their season around very quickly or could miss the finals!

[lebron]

For mine, Oak Park have been the most disappointing team in A grade in 2012. They were fantastic last year, just falling short on the big stage but at the moment they look a shadow of their formal self.

I was told they had 12 reserve players to choose from last weekend and 2 senior players were told their services are no longer required?

Does anyone know what has happened down there?

They have put in some horrible performances lately.

[housecat]

just on here to clear a little up, %100 right lebron that the last half of the season has been more then disappointing, clearly our second worst season in A grade in recent memory, the other being the year we were relegated. Have definately had some problems with some players this year in regards to effort and commitment on the footy field and the track but will not delve any further into that out of respect to both parties..... simple fact of the matter is that we have played 48 people in the 1st's this year with a very large number of them being debutants. between injuries, people going O/S, departures, off field incidents and the pure disappointment of last years results against Strathmore i'd like to think it has been pretty hard to get a consistent performance out of the group at any stage of this year.
As evidenced in the first half of the year our best was still pretty decent footy and had us in the four at the turn but a horrible run of games and form has meant that we haven't been able to even look a little up to standard.... but make no mistake, the club has money at hand given we haven't had to pay some players due to injuries etc and we will be having another dig in the market, nearly all on the list are committed to next year and going fwd this year will make us stronger, i wont be expecting it to be turned around straight away as that would be folly, but i think the footy club has a history of punching above it's weight and i expect we will again once there is a bit of stability restored ;D
Make no mistake there is no One person to be blamed for what has happened this year, it's just unfortunate that it has happened all at the one time, but getting games into young blokes has it's advantages as evidenced by doutta's and expect some fresh new faces to be running around in the one's next year hopefully helping us push back towards the top, god only knows that with Airport West likely to come up next year the bottem half of the table will be a dog fight, so there will need to be investment.
Heres hoping we can come out and show a little bit on the weekend and then enjoy some well deserved rest looking towards next season
Also just on a side note, when Strathmore came to visit last weekend out of both grand final teams last year we had only 9 blokes that had played in either team out on the field, that is 9 blokes out of the 44 that got us to the last game of the year in the previous season, i would have thought that that would effect most clubs chances of repeating previous results

[matthew]

I have to give a great wrap up for retiring EDFL star Ray "Razor Harrison for Oak Park this week.

Ray has been a very good, consistant player over a long period of time.

A light, built wingman who had incredible pace and fantastic goal kicking. Became a dangerous forward with his great vertical leap.

Played football over the years for Jacana, Avondale Hts and Oak Park FC's including Premierships with Avondale Hts and Oak Park.

He also made EDFL Teams of the Year, Played in the A Grade Rep team in 2008 and won club B & F's.

Well done to Ray Harrison on a fantastic career.

[lebron]

Can someone from Oak Park shed some light on what happened on the weekend?

I heard there was some in house fighting on their trip away "Practise match" and afew players, including German want out?

[kingtrupo11]

Mar 27, 2013 10:02:09 GMT 10 lebron said:

Can someone from Oak Park shed some light on what happened on the weekend?

I heard there was some in house fighting on their trip away "Practise match" and afew players, including German want out?

Riff Raff!!!!!!!!!!!

[Freak]

Rhys Bloomfield likely to become a playing-assistant at Oak Park next season.