Weekly Times | MOST coaches would curse if their player turned the ball over to the opposition in a tense moment of a qualifying final.
But when Healesville’s Casey Adams did just that against Monbulk on Saturday, all coach Bryan Cole could do was laugh.
Warburton’s Mac Sparke Oval was a heavy mud heap and rain all afternoon meant conditions were so heavy players from both sides were unrecognisable, covered from head to toe in mud.
“Casey told me ‘I bloody passed the ball then next minute it was coming back the other way’ and that’s how we knew it was a Monbulk player,’’ Cole laughed.
“In the end you couldn’t move the ball or tell who was who. We gave up doing stats, our KPI’s, at halftime. It was hopeless.”
The Bloods prevailed by one point, 6.4 (40) to 6.3 (39), after Hawk Michael Langworthy sprayed a shot on goal out of bounds with just seconds to go.
Cole said the trying conditions meant it was near-on impossible to move the ball.
“We knew it would be bad but it rained all day and game plans went out the window,’’ he said.
“I’ve seen mud like that but not quite as bad. You just had to surround the ball. It was more like rugby than football.
“The only good part was that we won a final, it was devastating for Monbulk because they lost a game that wasn’t a game.’’
Originally published as ‘More like rugby than football’
