Eleven rounds behind us and five matches remain in the home and away season and still the interest grows in our competition. Birchip-Watchem has made a strong challenge for the fourth spot with a convincing fifty five points win over the Boort Magpies. The Bulls win now see them sit equal on points with Boort and they look to have the better run home playing just two sides above them and Boort has the three top sides in their remaining games. Top side Wycheproof-Narraport dished out a football lesson to second placed Charlton getting the four points by over ten goals. In this game leading goal kicker for the league Corey Jones put on his own show kicking ten goals for the Demons. It was a good day for full forwards with Jones kicking ten, Sea Lake Nandaly Tigers Simon Weekley and Donald’s Seamus Young kicking eight and Saints full forward Nick Coghlan kicking five of his side’s seven goals. In other games Donald put paid to any slim chance the Saints may have had of reaching the finals as they turned in a solid performance to defeat St Arnaud by seventy one points at Lord Nelson Park. In the final game, Sea Lake Nandaly Tigers had a thirty one point win over the Wedderburn Redbacks to keep their finals hopes alive for now. Wedderburn for the second week in a row kicked were well off target which didn’t help their chances of recording back to back wins.
Charlton v Wycheproof-Narraport
In the contest between the top two sides the Demons sent an early message to the Navy Blues that they were keen to keep their winning streak intact as they got out to a three goal lead by quarter time. Charlton were trying desperately to stick with the league leaders but were only allowed limited chances in their forward line. The backline of the Demons was solid as they have been in recent weeks and when they got the ball forward of the centre the Demons forwards got in and got the job done.
In the second term nothing much changed with the Demons adding six goals for the quarter and restricting Charlton to just the two goals. Corey Jones was dominating up forward and whatever the Navies tried to do to stop him it wasn’t working and if they were able to retain him momentarily the likes of James Coatsworth, Ricky Allan and Andrew Mead would chime in to keep the scoreboard ticking over and they led the Navies by forty one points at the main stoppage in play.
Hoping for a better effort after half time the Charlton side was keen to get back into the game and set about reducing the Demons lead to give them a shot at victory. Wycheproof-Narraport was not keen to allow the Navy Blues any chance at claiming the four points and they continued on with their form of the first half to again outscore Charlton. Charlton’s key players in Kyriakides, Sait and Sandiford tried everything to gain a breakthrough for the Navies only to see the ball rebound back to where they had sent it. Nicolson for Charlton and Howgate for the Demons were having a great duel in the ruck contests as they continuously challenged to deliver the Sherrin to their side’s advantage. The Demons won the quarter and extended their lead out to forty six points by the three quarter time break and was in a strong position to go on and record a big win over the second placed Charlton.
In the final term the Demons didn’t allow Charlton any chance and added a further seven goals to the Navies four to run out big winners by over ten goals. This was not the result Charlton was hoping for in front of their home crowd while the win to the Demons continues their winning run to eleven and are yet to lower their colours and look to be in a strong position to finish in one of the top two spots come finals time. Corey Jones with ten goals was named as the Demons best in what was a good team effort and others to gain a mention as better players included Boe Bish, Ricky Allan, Dane McLennan, Jason Coles and Kieran Prestidge. For the Navy Blues, Jye Sandiford was named as their best with Kieran Sait, Tim Nicolson, Ben Walklate, Luke Kyriakides and Aaron Walklate.
Final scores Wycheproof-Narraport Demons 22-11=143 defeated Charlton Navy Blues 11-13=79
Birchip-Watchem v Boort
This game was an important game to both sides, Boort went into the contest four points clear of the Bulls and the Bulls were keen to give it their best shot and gave a strong indication in the first term as they posted six goals to Boort’s one goal and was to establish a handy lead of thirty three points at quarter time. The Bulls have been delivering some more consistent form in recent weeks and coming off a narrow loss to the league’s leading side last week in the Demons, they felt with the inclusion of Dale Hinkley combining with their improving form, would give them a good chance to draw level on points with Boort and to get away to a start like they did were well on target to achieve their goal. Boort were a bit lost in the opening term, as the scoreboard indicated and needed to get back on track in the remaining three quarters.
In the second quarter Boort was able to restrict the Bulls to just the one goal and while that side of the task was a good sign they were still unable to kick a score to get them right back in the contest.
Jacob Noonan down back for the Bulls was turning the Magpies back on many occasions and with Boort only able to break through to score two goals for the term they would be still a fair bit in arrears at the half time break. With the Bulls only scoring the one goal in the quarter they were still able to go to the long break with a lead of over four goals.
Looking to set up a strong lead in the third term, the Bulls looked on target with Brendan George giving the Bulls a target up forward as he added two goals for the quarter to bring his tally for the game to five and other goals in the term going to Sam Allan and Daniel Ratcliffe to again stretch the Bulls lead over the Magpies who were unable to add to their goal tally in this quarter to go to three quarter time trailing the Bulls by forty nine points and with the side playing poorly the game looked well out of reach and the pressure of retaining their fourth place on the ladder was on the line with the Bulls breathing down on them.
With the game gone the Magpies were looking to recover some pride and were hoping to build their score-line to one a little more respectable than it was at the start of the term.
Both sides found it hard to add to their tallies in this quarter with only two goals being scored, one apiece. Birchip-Watchem could have been in with a chance of making up some vital percentage in this term but poor kicking didn’t help their cause as they kicked six points, but were still able to record a fifty five point win. At present Boort holds fourth on a small percentage advantage of around four percent over the Bulls but will need to kick better scores than they did in this game to hold onto that spot. If the Bulls was able to kick a little straighter then maybe the two team’s ladder positions may have been reversed. Brendan George was named the Bulls best just ahead of Jake Noonan with Michael Monteith, Lochie Sirett, Tom Carland and Sean Hogan also named in their best. Boort’s Jarrod Fitzpatrick was named as their best player with Jack Baker, Riley Lehmann, Brodie Leonard-Shannon, Joe Kane and Jordan Bleicher also rating mentions.
Final scores Birchip-Watchem Bulls 12-12 84 defeated Boort 4-5=29
Wedderburn v Sea Lake Nandaly Tigers
Wedderburn entered this game coming off a surprise win over Donald last week and the Tigers were coming off a loss to Charlton and were looking to get back on the winners list allowing them to keep in touch with the top four sides and a possible finals berth.
Sea Lake through Simon Weekley was the first to register a major score and this was followed by another goal to the Tigers from the boot of Brad Collins. Wedderburn pushed the ball forward in the opening term but could only register minor scores and went to the first break in play trailing by seventeen points.
The second term did not produce much scoring from either side with only two goals being scored between the two sides. Wedderburn’s goal was kicked by Jake Hernan and Simon Weekly kicked the Tigers goal to give him three to half time in what was a low scoring game which had the Tigers leading by three goals at the main stoppage. The Tigers did look the better of the two teams and only for some good defensive work from the Redbacks they could have gone in at half time with a bigger lead.
After the long break the Tigers was able to move the ball freely into their forward line resulting in them kicking five unanswered goal s. Wedderburn added just the one goal and that came late in the quarter when Danny Benaim kicked the Redbacks second goal for the match. Simon Weekley was on target and had kicked six goals to this point. Brad Collins was giving good support and had posted two goals for the Tigers. In this quarter the Wedderburn backline was under enormous pressure as the Tigers pushed the ball forward on a regular basis. To their credit the Redbacks kept to their task under the Tigers forwards pressure and were able to clear the ball out on a few occasions only to see it sent back by the Tigers Backs and midfield. At the final break the Tigers had established a forty point lead over the Redbacks and were in a good position to build on some much needed percentage.
In the final term the Redbacks played their best football for the match and was able to outscore the Tigers to reduce their winning margin back to thirty one points. Simon Weekley was the Tigers key forward and finished the game with eight goals and also named as their best player. Luke Martin at Half Back turned in a great game as did Matt Elliott with Jason Collins, Billy McInnes and Mikal Bloom also being named amongst their best players. Wedderburn’s best was Ben DeAraugo, Jordan Hargreaves, Nathan Holt, Corey Lowry, Robbie Tonkin and Adam Postle also featured in the Redbacks awards and Danny Benaim was their leading goal kicker with three.
Final scores Sea Lake Nandaly Tigers 12-10= 82 defeated Wedderburn 6-15=51
St Arnaud v Donald
St Arnaud coming off a three point win the week before was looking to continue that winning form and the Donald side coming off a surprise result against the Wedderburn Redbacks last week were out to repair the damage of that loss. In an even first term both sides had their share of the play and only a goal separated the two sides at the end of the first quarter with the Royal Blues holding that advantage.
Donald picked up the pace in the next term adding six goals to the Saints three goals. Seamus Young was the key focal point for the Donald side as he built on his tally that would reach eight by the end of the day. At the other end it was Nick Coghlan who was keeping the Saints in touch with the Royals and only for his efforts and that of James McNamee the deficit at the long break may have been greater than the twenty two points.
In the third quarter the Donald side really opened up the game as they slammed on a further seven goals and restricted the Saints to just the one goal and open up a ten goal lead by three quarter time. This was not the result the Saints needed but after a dismal week last week it was just the result that the Royal Blues needed. Donald needed a good win to get them back on track and they were delivering the result that the coach demanded and heading to the final huddle full of confidence Donald was looking to build a big winning score over the Saints on their home ground.
St Arnaud was not able to make any headway in reducing the Royals big lead and they could only manage the one goal in the final term and only their second in the final half of the game. Donald kicked three more goals to stretch their lead out to seventy one points at full time and with Charlton losing to the Demons they would reclaim second spot on the leagues ladder. Seamus Young with eight goals was named best and his brother Ross was next in line with Nick Garner, Brody Haddow, Charlie Murrie and Brayden Tonkin also being named in the better players. For the Saints James McNamee was named best, Torin Petrie, Gav Vassallo, Nick Coghlan, Caleb Bloomer and Billy Williams also rated mentions.
Final scores Donald 19-10=124 defeated St Arnaud 7-11=53
Next week’s matches
Donald v Birchip-Watchem
Wedderburn v St Arnaud
Sea Lake Nandaly Tigers v Wycheproof-Narraport
Boort v Charlton
Last Modified on 14/08/2016 18:26