The $1000 Draw Photos are (finally) up. Check em out.
Photographed by Snowy.

Congratulations to Rick And Rich, the joint (soft) winners of the money.

Most of the players had their official club photo taken on Saturday, if you’re not on this list make sure you come and see Sammi before you head onto the ground at the next home game.

Player sponsorships are $100, so get your friends / employers / family on board and get your sponsorship dough in.

Seniors

Result

Goals
SKC: Arvanitis 3, Dobric, Azzopardi, Bruno, Dumesny
CLAY: McIntyre 2, Polson 2, Gallagher 2, Bailey, Nevitt, X.Deayton, C.Deayton, Bauer

Best
SKC: Hopkins, Reiseger, Arvanitis
CLAY: X.Deayton, Rajic, Bauer

Galant in defeat, the St. Kilda City boys took it right up to last years premiers. Going in very much underdogs and again taking our time to get going and it was tight tusstle in the first half. Strong winds favoured one side of the ground for most of the game and had we utilised all of our scoring shots we probably would have come out victors. Still, a good effort with a few key players out of the side. We will look for some swift vengeance when we take them on at their ground later in the year.

Reserves

Result

Goals
SKC: Stamatakos 3, Dagher 2, Garcia, Hamilton, Marostica, Shrimpton, Walker
CLAY: Noblett 4, DeGeorge 2, Olaman 2, Plozza 2, Lazarakis, Lewis, McKay, Smith, Sullivan, Wiegard, Evangelista

Best
SKC: Shrimpton, Anskaitis, Garcia
CLAY: Mudge, Noblett, Goodes

After a dismall first half, not even managing a score during the first term, and then only piling on a few before half time things weren’t looking good for the reserves. But as always a swift kick in the rooms by the Hammer helped the boys regain their composure and they came out to fight in the second half with a renewed vigour and a vow not to be shat on at home. Beating the clays in the final term the boys left the ground unashamed out-scoring the Clays in the final term. Had they showed the same fight in the first half the score would be quite different. It must be said that one of the highlights was Mick Marostica’s goal and post-goal celebrations. Despite the score he was doing his bit for morale.

Artwork by Rodney Clarke.

Seniors

St Kilda City 12-7-79 Def Mordialloc 5-6-36

St Kilda City prevailed by 43 points over an undermanned Mordialloc at Ben Kavanagh Reserve. The Saints started slowly as the bloods were giving everything they had to try and keep us at bay, and after a lackluster first half our boys had their nose in front but it wasn’t the display of dominance that we needed to bolster those percentage points.

In the second half though, we proved too much for the home side as we started to hit our straps and boot some majors edging away from the competition to a comfortable win, and the first of the season for the senior side.

Mark “Dorothy” Tasiyan was back to his best with a dominant display. He received great support from Dobbers and new recruit Arvo who started to make his mark in the 2nd half and snagged three goals, as did Rampaging Rhino Pitcher .

Reserves

St Kilda City 28-20-188 Def Mordialloc 0-0-0

The ressies completed an absolute Mauling of the under-prepared Mordialloc. Smashing them all over the ground and scoring with ease. The defenders did their bit when it went down that end of the ground and always rebounded successfully. A great effort by a side that still has some good players out. To keep the home side scoreless was a massive task and one that the boys revelled in post-match.

Reserves

St Kilda City 14-6-90 Def Chelsea Heights 9-7-61

The reserves came out strong, leading all day. The skills were smooth and the goals came consistently. With a flurry of scoring in the latter half of the game from both sides things got frantic, but the boys always managed to keep their nose in front to see out a win in the first round of the season.

Unfurling the flag

Johnny had a few choice words to say as the unfurling of last year’s premiership flag wa unfurled at the ground before the seniors game. The ceremony went like clockwork, it was a well executed event, seems all the rehearsals paid off in the end, the only thing that was missing was a well timed gust of wind to really shake the cobwebs out of the premiership momento. Then it was on with the game.

Seniors

Chelsea Heights 12-6-78 Def St Kilda City 11-3-69

With almost 1/2 a new team going into this game the senior team took a little while to get the flow going and hit their straps. The backline was hammered for the first couple of quarters and we just couldn’t get a consistent possession in the forward 50 to have a solid shot on goal. Meanwhile the Chelsea Heights boys seemed to have a good forward structure and although no one player banged a bunch of goals in, their forwards were varied and consistent. The backline battled gallantly through the first half.

At half time our pride was on the line, the home ground crowd becconning a win from the boys and with a good senior side that could very well do it, we were down but 6 goals but staying positive. All it was going to take was for a few forward movements to gel.

The second half of the game was a different story. The midfield started to take good possessions and in a game rife with unpiring inconsistency it was a bit hit and miss whether you were going to ever give or get a free but they started to swing our way. We got a few lucky ones in the middle and also had a few good take aways, the boots started to hit all the right targets including the goals and an upset was brewwing. The City boys pulled back the deficit from 30 points to just 6 and goals were being scored all over the ground in quick succession. The final quarter was a thriller, but in the end it was just a bit too little, too late for the Saints and Chelsea Heights came out on top after getting enough of a head start in the first half to get over the line. Although we came away with a loss the signs are promising and now the senior team is a lot more in tune with each other on the field. With each game we grow more unified and before long we’ll be a force to be reckoned with. Next week will be a different story altogether.