EDFL 2021: Tullamarine’s Steve Vocale dominates in best-afield display

One of the stars of EDFL Division 1 dominated in Round 2, with his experienced coach rating the performance one of the best he’d seen.

Steve Vocale has started 2021 in red-hot form. Picture: Andy Brownbill

A statistician was not tracking the explosive Steve Vocale on Saturday.

But Tullamarine coach David Connell estimated his star midfielder racked up at least 40 possessions against Airport West.

Throw in five goals, and it’s clear Vocale’s display will go down as one of the best individual efforts of the 2021 Essendon District Football League Division 1 season, which is only two rounds old.

Experienced mentor Connell, who has previously steered Westmeadows, Yarraville-Seddon and Albanvale, described it as “one of the better individual performances that I’ve coached in the last decade”.

Vocale was the leading goalkicker in a match which featured 34 majors despite spending just “15-20 per cent” of the fixture in the attacking half.

His Demons ultimately prevailed by 25 points, 19.15 (129) to 15.14 (104).

“From memory he kicked all of his goals out of the midfield,” Connell said of Vocale.

“If you looked at the best five or six goals for the day, he probably would have had four of them.

“I think three of them were from centre bounces, where he got a centre clearance and ran around three or four blokes, had two or three bounces and kicked goals.

“I think I said to (assistant coach) Ben Chapman after the game that I wasn’t sure if the umpires could give six votes to the one player. It was a pretty special performance, that’s for sure.”

Steve Vocale gets a kick away against West Coburg in Round 1. Picture: Steve Tanner

Vocale arrived at Tullamarine in 2018 and produced a standout season as he was rewarded with a spot on a wing in the Team of the Year.

He made five senior appearances the following year before departing for an overseas holiday in May, which ruled him out for the remainder of the campaign.

Vocale has started this season in red-hot form, also earning a mention in the best in the Demons’ opening-round win over West Coburg.

He is a key member of a strong engine room alongside the likes of Anthony Prestia, Anthony Liberatore and 2019 club best-and-fairest winner Dean Bartrop.

“(Vocale) did leave a bit of a hole in 2019, probably more so around his speed and stuff like that that we just lost,” Connell said.

“In 2019 we were probably already a bit one-paced and then losing him, which we knew about at the start of the year, hurt.

“He did a massive a pre-season before the 2020 season and we were really excited about where he would take his footy in 2020.

“He’s got a lot stronger, he’s probably physically a lot bigger than he was in 2018. He’s been in the gym and bulked up a bit, but he hasn’t lost his explosiveness out of a stoppage. He’s very elusive and strong in the body now, so he’s difficult to tackle as well.”

Tullamarine and East Keilor, who are the only undefeated teams in Division 1, will meet this weekend in a blockbuster clash at Leo Dineen Reserve.

The Cougars created most of the headlines over the off-season and have assembled a star-studded squad, but the home side has reason to enter the match with confidence.

“You don’t win a flag or lose a flag in Round 3. That’s probably the important thing to note,” Connell said.

“But I think it’s important for us to come up against East Keilor and just know where we stand.

“If we can match them and beat them, then, great, we’re on the right track.

“If we match them and don’t quite get over the line, we can see what we need to tinker.

“If we’re just not near enough, we need to know now so we can change it a few things.

“But we’re optimistic. We’re certainly not going in there thinking we can’t win. It’s our home ground and we’re definitely approaching it that they need to come and beat us, not the other way around.”