The Man at the Canteen - Boronia

Due to time constraints I was not able to sample any of the food on offer at either Westvale or Cairnlea this weekend, particularly disappointing for myself was reading the twitter updates after the matches and seeing that Cairnlea had 'old school' shish kebab on the menu! Oh well, another time perhaps.

On Sunday however I made my first ever trip to Boronia Soccer Club for the local derby between Boronia and Bayswater. I don't normally get to eat at these matches due to my own participation, but today after the match I was able to sample some of the local food.

As it was an important day for these two clubs Boronia had put on a family day which not only involved the visit of the Bayswater Womens, Reserves and Seniors, but also coincided with the visit of Montrose Soccer Club for a Bayside Div 2, Legends and Junior Fixture.

Boronia started off the day winning the Womens Fixture 3-1 and followed that up with the Reserves also getting up, this time 2-1. Bayswater did notch a win in the main match with their Seniors beating Boronia comfortably 4-1.

However, not all the action was on the pitch, off the park under Boronias expansive verandah the webber was on cooking up a few magnificent roasts for after the matches had concluded!

Served up for the players and fans was a magnificent Lamb & Pork Roast with a coleslaw and baked potatoes. After putting a bit of everything on my plate, I grabbed a few slices of bread and once I inhaled the potato I crammed the rest into a sandwich, threw my plate like a frisbee into the nearest bin and positioned myself on some grass so people couldn't see the mess spilling out from the overloaded bread and landing at my feet. Of course it was absolutely superb.

Now to wash down that absolute feast of food, Boronia again supplied. Their bar is stocked with the best line up of beers I have seen in the Bayside League. As well as the usual local beers, they also had good stock of Grolsch, Stella Artois, Sail & Anchor, Coldstream Cider & Kilkenny. If my memory was better I could name more.

For those that know me, I will always try a beer I have never had before and two bottles from Hopper Whitman immediately caught my eye, The Amber Ale and The Nut Brown Ale both and both went down very well.

All up it was a great day at Boronia, a very hospitable club.

On The Road Again

As we are getting down to the pointy end of the season, I will be picking out the do or die, promotion clinching and great escape matches to go to, this week by stroke of luck I managed to get two in.

In what could possibly be my last trip west for this season, I had singled out the return match of a game I attended earlier in the year, that of Cairnlea and North Sunshine Eagles. On paper it clearly stood out from all the rest. Traditional and local rivals, Cairnlea were on top of the ladder before this match and coming off a defeat last week to Yarraville and looking to make amends for their 4-2 loss at North Sunshine in Round 8. North Sunshine on perhaps 'Mission Impossible', 5 points behind Cairnlea before the match, but with 2 games in hand and an appeal to be heard with the FFV which may still see them lose points or be expelled from the league.

I was a bit stretched for time, with my daughters last game of netball for the year due to finish at 2:00pm, I had tentatively penciled in 2nd placed Westvales match against Geelong only a few kilometres away if I could get in the area within an hour, unlikely I thought.

By some sort of miracle, we happened to get away from Netball a bit earlier than usual, made great time down Alexandra Pde and I managed to walk in the gate at McKenchie Reserve just as the match was kicking off.

Westvale were playing their match on the back park for reasons unknown to me. The main park didn't look unplayable, but it wasn't in the best shape either.

As soon as I was setup and ready to go Westvale took the lead, with their big number 11 cooly slotting home 1 on 1 with the keeper. There was not many clear cut chances in the half with most of the entertainment coming from the animated Westvale keeper. As half time neared, I quietly packed up and moved onto Cairnlea.

On arrival at the relatively new Cairnlea Park, I was greeted by the largest crowd I had seen at non VPL match all year. Both sets of supporters lined the fence on the clubhouse side of the ground with good numbers on the opposite side and behind the goals as well. I learnt that North Sunshine were leading 1-0 at the break so anticipating Cairnlea to come out firing I positioned myself in their attacking half.

It was an absorbing match, North Sunshine were pressuring the ball well and didn't give Cairnlea the time or space to get forward, frustrating them. Most of the action was happening on the other side of the ground so I made the decision to switch sides, which also meant taking shots into the sun.

As I was sneaking behind the goals North Sunshine won a corner, I cheekily asked one of the Sunshine supporters behind the fence which one of their players was going to score from the set play, he replied "The big number 9", I focused on him at the back post and waited for the kick. A Cairnlea defender cut out the kick, but as I was looking to see where the ball had gone it fell to the big number 9 who buried the shot and reeled away in celebration.

The supporters behind me, delighted that they had guessed correctly asked "did you get the shot?" I replied a bit disappointed that I had not, but even if I had I think there would of been too many bodies in the way.

Cairnlea huffed and puffed and tried to get a goal back, but the closest they came was an indirect free kick for a backpass, which North Sunshine scrambled away and another free kick from their captain from a fair way out which was floated into the box and looked to have caught the keeper out as it came back off the cross bar and was cleared away.

It finished 2-0, North Sunshine were worthy winners from what I saw and hopefully they can get another win on Monday night at the Tribunal to keep their improbable dream alive.

On another note, it was great to be recognised by a few in the crowd at Cairnlea, it is nice to hear there is people looking at the photos and appreciating them.

Images from both matches can be found on this website and on my Facebook Page.

First Impressions - Chaplin Reserve

I have never been to Sunshine George Cross's Chaplin Reserve before and I was fortunate to get my chance when the planned fixture I was going to photograph between Avondale Heights and Sydenham Park was moved to the venue presumably due to Avondale's Ground being unplayable.

Sunshine George Cross are probably one of the more recognisable names in Victorian football and have a rich history which includes a stint in the old National League and being able to walk onto a ground with such history was a bit of a buzz.

In hindsight I am glad I left my earlier match before half time, as at the moment, Chaplin Reserve has been surrounded by works due to the construction of the Regional Link Rail Link which has taken up some of the land which I assume was once part of the reserve and in turn made parking an absolute nightmare.

On arrival I was greeted with double parking on both sides of the packed entrance and only a small gap to travel down to the car park at the far end, I travelled down the narrow track, behind the pavilion as far as I could, but a person parked in the middle of the road had blocked the entrance to the small strip of vacant land behind the far goal, so I had to reverse the all the way back out to the road, as there was no room to turn around. I eventually found a spot in a nearby street about 500 meters away from the ground.

The ground itself and the buildings is very old and now thanks to the surrounding work very tightly packed in with the only standing room on the clubroom side of the ground and a small space behind the goal at the Anderson Road end.

The playing area is surrounded by high fences (chin high on me) which I imagine wouldn't be very appealing to the spectators and too high for me to be able to quickly jump over with my camera bag, so I had to find another way to access the pitch.

I walked past a recently built media box (which I assume was put in place as a Premier League requirement and now looks to be used as a VIP box) and towards the main pavilion where I could see a gate and a few marshals. The clubrooms were smaller than I expected them to be for a ground which did host regular NSL games in the 80's, but the change facilities were an even bigger surprise.

*EDIT - After doing some further research, the new media box is because of a fire which destroyed the previous media box in December 2011.

Portable change rooms hosted the home team and referees, while the away team had to settle for part of a converted shed! I was really shocked and these facilities don't look like short term temporary solutions, both had been standing there for a fair while as evident by the plants growing up the wall of the portables. I can only imagine what travelling NSL teams thought of playing there back in the day.

It is very hard for me to imagine the place hosting a few thousand people for a home game against clubs like Adelaide City or Sydney United, or even a local derby against Melbourne Croatia or Footscray JUST (for all I know, the ground could of been completely different back then as well, please feel free to correct me it that is the case).

But as the game went on, you got the sense of how intimidating such a place would of been back then and there was a certain character about the place which grew on me. It is something you simply don't get to experience as a spectator at the newer venues and the open reserves.

I hope George Cross will somehow benefit from the works being done to the rail line or at the very least will get some of the land back which is being used to aid the construction so they can better accommodate supporters as it really is a neat little suburban ground.

The Man at the Canteen - Keilor Park

This week I made the long trek west again and into the unknown quantity of Keilor Park Soccer Club.

For those that like a bit of plane spotting while watching local Football, Keilor Park should be on top of your list of favourite destinations. Situated directly below the flight path for planes landing on the main runway at Tulla, it is quite spectacular and unique to see the jumbos flying so close to the ground, particularly for someone from the other side of town who is used to the distant buzzing of twin props going to and from Tooradin Airport.

The club itself has a fantastic setup, based at the back of a reserve which includes a council depot, AFL/Cricket, Baseball, Basketball & Athletics facilities the soccer club boasts five full size pitches (six if you count the middle of the Athletics track) and two of those grounds are synthetic.

The clubrooms are a sight as well, it's great to see a club with so much history having it proudly on display for all visitors to see. It was quite impressive.

Onto the Canteen which is situated inside the clubrooms. Having a quick glance at 'Today's Menu' it had all the usual fare, but I was after the big ticket item which was the burger with the lot.

It took a few minutes to make, but that isn't a complaint when it is made to order and of course the wait was worth it, the burger was very similar to your typical corner fish 'n chip shop type of burger, with Bacon and Egg being included as "The Lot" alongside the mandatory Lettuce, Tomato, Onion and Cheese.

After I ordered I noticed a second menu stuck to the wall on the side of the Canteen which also offered Steak Rolls and Chevapi Rolls, but thankfully I didn't regret my decision.