Wayne Carey acknowledges the crowd after kicking an amazing goal on Saturday. 68574 Picture: KRISTIAN SCOTT
By Liam Twomey
THE Wayne Carey show was cut short but the Maribyrnong Park juggernaut may just be warming up after defeating Avondale Heights by 72 points on Saturday.
The win was set up by a dominating first half for the Lions who had gone from top of the Essendon District Football League ladder to fifth in recent weeks.
A crowd of more than 5000 people formed a ring around the Maribyrnong ground keen to get a glimpse of one of the best AFL players of all time.
They didn’t have to wait long, with Carey into the game soon after the first bounce.
At the 15-minute mark of the first quarter he flew against two Avondale Heights defenders and spoilt the ball towards the boundary line. He then followed up his work by chasing down the ball and threading it through the goals from the boundary line.
The crowd was delighted and keen to see more spectacular skills but unfortunately that was all the Duck had in him.
Within a couple of minutes he had another shot for goal and injured his calf muscle. He was soon iced up, his day done all too early for the keen crowd.
Earlier in the day Carey attended a packed out pre-game luncheon where he said he had done everything he could to get his body right for the occasion.
“The preparation has been good. I’ve done about four or five weeks of training, football training that is. I’ve obviously done my own training on top of that, running and gym work so the body feels really good,” Carey said.
“To be honest I remembered back to when I played and the preparation has been pretty much the same.”
But that was the only thing that didn’t go to plan for the Lions who welcomed back eight regular players into their side from last week.
They kicked six first quarter goals to get the jump on their opponents and set up a 23 point quarter time lead.
The best was yet to come though as the domination continued in the second quarter. Maribyrnong Park kicked five goals in a blistering eight-minute period to blow Avondale Heights completely out of the game.
Maribyrnong Coach Craig Clinnick was impressed with his team’s start to the match.
“We have had a massive emphasis on our first quarter of footy,” Clinnick said.
“Our first half of footy today was as good as we have played all season.”
The second half continued to be dominated by the Lions who added another five goals to their tally in the runaway win.
Heath Ayres capped off another sensational game to be Maribyrnong’s best player.
“He is an amazing, inspirational leader who has never been challenged on what he can or can’t do or can or can’t deliver but Heath just lead from the front today and was outstanding,” Clinnick said.
Chris Stewart was the best of the Lions’ forwards, kicking four goals. He was well supported by Rory Atkins and Ayres who each kicked three.
Nine Maribyrnong Park players kicked goals in the 18.7 (115) to 7.11 (53) win.
“We’ve got Taylors Lakes next week and people may say you can pencil that in. That’s not how we operate around here. We have got to win that game, we need to prepare well, pick the best side we can pick and continue to build on this week.”
