By Jonty Ralphsmith
As Hampton Park discovered on Saturday…beating Caulfield at Koornang Park is among the toughest assignments in Southern League Division Two footy.
Not only are you coming up against a strong opposition – you’re doing it against a team who understands their ground so well.
With so much traffic in the narrow confines, the field between the arcs often descends into a mud-heap at this point of the season, which adds another layer of complexity.
The only route to attack efficiently is via the wings.
That’s the way Hampton Park tried to pick their way through against the Bears on the weekend.
It worked for a quarter, but they weren’t able to recreate the fluid ball movement thereafter.
To be successful, Hampton Park needed to link up and use their leg-speed to send it inside 50 quickly when there were even numbers ahead of the footy.
The Redbacks’ ability to chain possession post clearance and use it effectively sparked them early and allowed Nathan Carver to act as a focal point, while Declan Brunnell and Trent Thomas were energetic at the fall of the footy.
The Spiders’ still led by a goal at halftime before slipping too far behind in the third quarter.
The structure broke down and skill execution disintegrated.
Caulfield got repeat inside 50s as Spider kicks missed targets, the pressure at fever-pitch.
The lack of height Hampton Park had further put them on the back foot.
Coach Hayden Stanton put some slick users behind the footy for a period in the third quarter, but with the two outside lanes being effectively the only way forward, Caulfield simply clogged numbers in the area.
No-one was able to compete in the air for Hampton Park, leading to the cycle of Caulfield intercepting, and sling-shotting it back in.
While they found space inside 50 in the first quarter when they had nine scoring shots, the visitors had just 13 more scores for the game.
There were still times after the first break where they advanced it forward from stoppage to equal numbers ahead of the footy, but the way Caulfield set up its defence and their ability to split even in the middle made scoring tougher.
Hampton Park’s loss at the venue comes after Doveton beat Caulfield on the same deck the previous week, by 47 points.
Small forward Cam Williamson kicked five goals, with the win set up by a stronger performance in the midfield and conversion of opportunities as they were able to play a forward-half game.
