West Gambier hosted Casterton for their last home game for the year, looking for a comfortable win leading in to their second successive finals campaign.
The weather played it's part with periods of sunshine allowing good conditions to play football, however the game started in a scrappy manner and Casterton kicked the first goal early in the match. West's radar was again on the fritz with the Roos matching Casterton's total without kicking a goal, however it came good later in the quarter for West to finish with 3.6 against 1.1.
The radar again went bung after quarter time West kicking 8.8 for the term however some gettable shots at goal were missed. The usual suspects were again prolific around the football, with Luke Davey, Tom Holmes, Brad Wilson and Josh Ransom getting plenty of touches. After a solid few weeks, Joel Carter was having a field day, with the ball seemingly "on a string". And Jarrad Ryan was beginning to show that he was going to have a goal-kicking day out, having a number of goals to his name by the major break.
After the break, West came out and made the visitors pay when the radar came good. West kicked 9 goals 1 to blow the Casterton side out of the contest well and truly. Ryan again kicked a number of goals on his way to a season high of 10 goals for the match. At the other end Steve Wenman was back into his more accustomed defensive role, controlling the run of play out of the defensive area to great effect. Tory Weaver again improved his output for his new club, running up and down the wing getting numerous touches.
With the last quarter just a formality and play out of time, it brought about the customary blue that always seems to occur when playing Casterton. With most players involved it brought the crowd back to life, but with little damage inflicted the players settled down. But then usual suspect Howard began taking up issue with Josh Ransom who quite willingly argued the toss, the result of which both could have an early shower being yellow-carded.
At the end of the day the West boys ran out convincing winners, maintaining top spot on the ladder. Next week sees a significant challenge against third placed South. A win will see the West boys have a week off in the first round of finals, but a loss will probably see a return fixture against South in the Qualifying Final a week later.
The Reserves registered a strong win against a depleted Casterton side to cement a finals berth for the first time in a long period of time. John Barnes again put in a stellar effort to be a strng contender for the B&F, captain Tom Dolan put body on the line again, and Brett Sutherland was strong with 5 goals after a good performance in the seniors last week. Josh Schapel was again in amongst the goals, kicking seven to be near the top of the goal kicking table.
The Under 18's were up against a strong side who are travelling along in second spot on the ladder. Once again they proved to be competitive early in the contest but couldn't maintain the consistency of effort as the game wore on, eventually being beaten convincingly. Whoever has Sam Robson in the player auction will be rubbing their hands together, as he was again named as best player and would be red-hot favourite for the B&F later in the year.
Last Modified on 15/08/2011 21:36