Nicholas James Lawyers Men’s Match Report: Essendon Royals thrash Moreland City to deliver instant bounce-back
Some games arrive with a question already pinned to them. Friday at Cross Keys was one of those. After the flat night at Keilor Park a week earlier, the only thing anyone at this club really wanted to know was which version of the Royals would walk out under the lights. Forty-five minutes in, the question still had no answer.
Ninety minutes in, the answer was the loudest possible one.
Essendon Royals 3, Moreland City 1. The taste of last Friday properly washed out.
The first half was not the story it might have been. Both sides probed without ever quite biting. Moreland, bottom of the table and playing the kind of stubborn football that has kept them in matches all year, made themselves difficult to break down. Andre Russo barely had to dust the gloves off. Half time arrived at nil-nil and the question still hanging.
Mick Ferrante’s group came out of the sheds a different proposition. The press climbed. The width opened up. The patience that had marked the first forty-five turned into something more urgent.
The breakthrough arrived on fifty, and it belonged to the man whose job it has been to provide them all season.
Jordan Adeyemi got on the end of a Royals move that had been building from the back, took his moment cleanly, and got the scoreboard off the duck. Goal number ten for the season for our number ten. The kind of strike that settles a room.
Ten minutes later, the cushion arrived. Zac Kocankovski with the second on sixty, a strike that turned a tight night into a comfortable one. The yellow card he picked up later did not take the gloss off it. Two-nil and Cross Keys lifted properly.
Moreland refused to lie down. Carter Ramsay, on as a sub from the Moreland bench, found his name on the sheet on seventy-nine to pull one back and give the closing minutes a little more flavour than they needed to have. For a brief stretch the away end stirred. Two-one. Eleven minutes left. The kind of stretch where teams have lost their footing this season.
We did not lose ours. Josh Markovski, the kind of forward who scores ugly goals and pretty ones with the same straight face, made sure of it on eighty-eight. Three-one, and the night was put to bed.
There was depth in the second half that did not go unnoticed. Takumi Niwa on at sixty-five for Marcus Kotronis, Christian Pollifrone on at seventy-six for Dean Clarke, Phillip Riccobene on at eighty-one for Vince Lia. The bench did the work the bench is supposed to do, came on with the legs the starters had spent, and kept the foot down.
Bradley Norton and Vincent Nicoletti held the line at the back. James Tieri and Anthony Trajkoski did the running in the channels. Andre Russo had to make one save of note when Ramsay struck, and was otherwise a spectator to the work in front of him.
The bigger picture is now a kinder one.
Twenty-one points on the board, the response game delivered, and the home record at Cross Keys stretched to six wins from seven attempts in the league this year. The result lifts the Royals onto the podium, third on the table, level on points with Bayside Argonauts in fourth and ahead on goal difference.
Around the grounds did the rest of the work for us. Bayside went down nil-two at home to Springvale White Eagles on Saturday afternoon, the kind of result that splits a chase pack and gives the Royals a touch more daylight on goal difference than the bare points column reflects.
Last Friday left a taste. This one washed it out. The version of the Royals we wanted to see was the one that walked off Cross Keys on Friday night.
Round 14 brings Nunawading City to Cross Keys. Holding third runs through home nights like this.