Nathan “Nato” Milner gets the ball away in the ANZAC Legends and All Stars Match – and writes the match review.
Coach of the 2013 All Stars team, Nathan Milner, reviews the Legends Vs All Stars match that was played immediately prior to the ANZAC Friendship Match in Vung Tau.
It was the day we had been waiting for all year; the ANZAC footy match down in Vung Tau.
Mr Paul did a fantastic job organising the teams of the much anticipated All Stars vs Legends Match. We had people flying in from everywhere to take part, young and old, fast and slow, skinny and… everyone was up for what was a ripper game.
Hewie coaching the Legends and myself (Nato) coaching the All Stars, we were here for a fun, friendly game but, like always, we were going to play hard. With 15 players for each team on the field to start off with and only one on the bench, it was going to be a tough, tiring game.
First quarter started well for the first 2 minutes but as the ball left the umpire’s hand and lifted into the air, disaster struck with Ross (the only ruckman for the Legends) popping his shoulder out scraping him for the rest of the game. If that wasn’t enough National President Fabbo, also playing for the Legends, copped a hit in the eye in the first few minutes.
Each side fought hard learning each others ability and playing styles as well as more importantly each others names. Matt from Hanoi turned it on from the get go in the middle getting the ball straight down to Veteran players Adam and Kyle (effective even when injured (some might argue even more effective) in the forward line giving the All Stars a solid start.
Second quarter started with All Stars up by a few but the loss of one of our key players, Thien, who had a killer 1st quarter gave room for returned Super-star Quy to turn it up with the Legends improvised ruckman, Sean Milner. They worked together to get the ball out of the centre and into the Legends forward line. Quy not only playing center all day but pushing into the forward when his team needed him racked up a decent 4 goals for the day. One of the highlights of the match was forward woman Laura, (I dare say was the first woman to ever play the ANZAC in Vietnam) who racked up at least 10 possessions and with the encouragement and guidance of her teammates made a significant impact in the game.
But even with the Legends legendary forward line, the All Stars backmen with the likes of Mighty, fly-in Tim and Kane were too strong and time and time again stopped the full on attack of the Legends. Not to mention big British Dave getting in the drop spot for the ball every time. Club treasurer (aka goal sneak) Rowan kicked a pearler half way through the second quarter, showing that his weeks of watching us train had paid off.
The third quarter was where the All Stars really turned it on and lived up to their name. Getting the ball down to Adam, Ross and Kyle where they mopped up all quarter. It didn’t help the Legends that they had a rugby player in their backline who would sometimes throw the ball instead of hand balling it, but good on him for playing and having a go. Mr Paul got into space more times then one and was the perfect option coming out of the backline moving forward.
The fourth quarter was when I made the tactical move to activate our super sub Rocket (umpire up until the that quarter), putting him straight on the ball which he dominated the whole quarter. Kane took the moment of the match when he single handedly took on three Legend players, broke a tackle, did a 360° and kicked a 50m goal. Hewie stepped it up in the last quarter to spur his team with some great link ups to Tim who moved into the frontline for the last quarter. But it was too little too late and the All Stars got over the line.
It was a fantastic game all round and played in the ANZAC spirit. Special thanks to the umpires Danny Armstrong and Rocket for their great work and to everyone involved in making it a memorable day.
‘Til next year…
