Tara Murray
Hillside couldn’t repeat the heroics of the first week of finals, knocked out of the Essendon District Football League division 1 finals on Sunday.
Facing Rupertswood in the battle of the Sharks, it was the Hillside variety that took the early control and led at quarter time.
Rupertswood kicked six goals to nil in the second quarter to take control of the game and had it for the rest of the game.
Rupertswood progressed through to the preliminary final with a (114)-6.8 (44) win.
Sharks coach Charlie Denaro said they were beaten by a better team on the day.
“We knew we were going to have a hard game,” he said. “We were a little bit worried we had spent too many tickets last week but we still believed in our boys.
“We came out in the first quarter and thought, yep we’re on and a couple of things we looked at worked pretty well.
“As Rupo tends to do it to us, another 6 goal to zero quarter and they blew us away. We went in at half time knowing we had a job to do.
“We tried and gave ourselves some good looks in the third quarter, we couldn’t capitalise and in the end they outplayed us in all facets.”
Hillside suffered a setback before the game with Zak Wunhym ruled out after tweaking his hamstring on Thursday night at training.
It left Hillside a midfielder down, but gave 17-year-old Riley Way his senior debut.
Denaro said after quarter time Rupertswood just played good football.
“I think the goals that they kicked they were no flash in the pan, no boundary stuff, some really good basic football stuff and they worked hard for each other,” he said.
“They beat us on the inside and they got us on the outside… Rupo is a really high scoring team and if they can get a run on, they can do some serious damage.”
The Sharks had their chances in the third quarter and won the inside 50 count for the day but weren’t able to convert.
Denaro said they had to work hard for their inside 50s as Rupertswood continued to run hard all day.
Josh Covelli kicked two goals for Hillside, with Koby Young and Ryan Schiavone named their best.
For Denaro, who was coaching the club for the last time, he walks away a happy man knowing the club is in a better place than when he started.
“We made and I personally made some hard calls two or so years ago,” he said. “We needed to move on some people from the club and that is what we did and the committee was incredibly strong and we copped a bit of backlash and we had 20-25 players walk out.
“We brought in a group of guys that really wanted to be part of something special. They are only just starting. We had a 17-year-old make his debut, three 18 year olds and two 19 year olds and they are walk up starts
“The club is in a good spot and it was fantastic to be able to win our first finals in division 1 final, onwards and up from here.”
Denaro said he would still be involved in the club on the junior side.
