By DANIEL MOSCA - Division 2 Seniors
THE Yarraville Seddon Eagles regained first place on the ladder after sending a message to the North Footscray Red Devils to the tune of 38-points on Saturday.
In a rematch between two of the league's elite teams, the visiting Eagles turned out perhaps their most impressive performance of the season, booting accurately and smothering the Red Devil's attack throughout the day.
The two teams last met in round 8, a match in which Yarraville Seddon relinquished first place to North Footscray after blowing a number of chances in front of goal and letting the Red Devils dictate the tempo.
They more than made up for it on Saturday, booting an accurate 16.7 and bottling up North Footscray whenever they got their hands on the footy.
After a mostly tightly contested first quarter in which the Red Devils took a 2-point lead into the first break and held strong through most of the second quarter, the visiting Eagles broke the game open late in the first half after rattling off five straight goals in the last seven minutes.
The 5- goal flurry by the visitors was kick-started by Mason Angove, who cut North Footscray's lead to 5-points after goaling from just inside-50. Less than a minute later, Angove found forward Scott Krakouer 10 metres out who marked and goaled to give the Eagles the lead for good.
Despite conceding a goal early in the second half from a 50-metre penalty, the Eagles wasted no time displaying their dominance over North Footscray for the rest of the contest. They kicked eight of the next 12 goals while working their game plan and applying tantalising pressure on the home side.
North Footscray will be forced to go back to the drawing board after being outclassed by the visitors all day and struggling to deal with their forward line pressure.
Yarraville Seddon, meanwhile, played calm and poised football.
Perhaps their most impressive display came midway through the second quarter. After conceding a behind, the Eagles went coast-to-coast through Chris Topalidis, who broke the lines and played on from off half-back. The Eagles went down the boundary line and into their forward 50 quickly before finding forward Andrew Panow in the goal square who played on and goaled to extend their lead to 25-points.
The Eagles then banged on 6 goals in the final term to come out 38-point victors and reclaim top spot in the standings.
The loss was just North Footscray's second of the season, yet they dropped from first to third after Caroline Springs also leapfrogged them after their win over Manor Lakes.
Last Modified on 18/07/2016 11:50