On Sunday, the Northern Knights went on their first winning streak of the season after beating the Sandringham Dragons by six goals. It was a game full of lead and momentum changes and despite there being no wind to speak of most of the scoring was done at one end of the ground.
The Dragons got the early jump with a five goal first quarter, while the Knights could only manage two through Matt Kreuzer, who played most of the day at forward and Michael Hurley. Kreuzer was filling the hole left by the competitions leading goal scorer, Tim Bongetti, who injured his knee last week.
The second quarter saw the Knights hit their straps for the first time, as they kicked the first six goals from six different goal kickers. There was nowhere for the Dragons to go as the Knights were applying strong pressure around the contests and were in front position at the fall of the ball in their forward line. The desperation the Knights were showing was epitomised by a strong spoil from James Tantsis-Hall, which resulted in Kreuzer's third goal late in the quarter. Forward line pressure was again the key when Luke Stanton won a free and kicked a goal on the siren after chasing his opponent down to catch him holding the ball. This gave the Knights a four goal half time lead after being three goals down at the first break.
Kreuzer and Hurley were the tall timber up forward giving the Dragons plenty of headaches, while Veszpremi and captain, Jack Grimes were good contributors in the midfield supplying the forward line with plenty of ball and chipping in with goals of their own.
The third quarter saw the Dragons kicking to the scoring end (I stress, there was no breeze to speak of though) and it was much the same result as the first quarter with the Dragons kicking five goals to the Knights' two. Jaryd Robertson was giving the Dragons a strong marking target up forward and kicked two goals for the quarter, while the Knights only goals came from some fancy footwork through traffic from Pat Veszpremi and a sensational one handed mark from Hurley. The Knights squandered many opportunities in front of goals and were a lot looser with their possession in the third, yet they still held a nine point lead.
Knights coach, Paul Satterley urged his troops to lift their work rate in the final quarter and pointed out that that's exactly where the Dragons had managed to establish ascendancy in the first and third quarters. When Robertson marked and goaled for the Dragons early in the final term it was game on and soon after scores were level. From that point on it was all Knights as they piled on four consecutive goals Nyaburu Kelly, Steven Kelly, Hurley and Stanton. The pressure and work rate was much better and most of the quarter was played in the Knights' attacking half. The Dragons were left chasing tail, which created a lot of free Knights players and allowed them to run away with a six goal victory.
Despite the win, Satterley wasn't entirely enthused with the result. "It's a real credit for the boys to hold up today and you're always happy with the four points but this is a development competition and you want to see your players develop."
He was very complimentary of the games of Aaron Coen and Hamish Paynter, who were both largely used in defence. "Paynter always had touch on his opponent and didn't lose him. When we got the ball he was very good in transition." Coen was lauded for his courageous third quarter efforts, including one where he backed into a pack with no regard for his own safety to take a strong defensive mark.
Speaking of the Dragons work rate around the ball in the early stages of the game, particularly the third quarter Satterley pointed out that due to the big wraps on the Knights, "most teams are really pumped up for playing us and that allows us to improve on our deficiencies (by always being challenged)."
He also spoke of the frustrations in such an inconsistent game where the Knights dominated the second and final quarters but struggled in the first and third. "When they're on, they're on but we just need to develop more consistency in our playing group. For some players this game will be a wake up call and we need to make sure that we're able to play good football for all four quarters."
Northern Knights 19.17.131 def. Sandringham 14.11.95
Goals: Kreuzer, Hurley, Veszpremi 3, Meredith, N.Kelly, Stanton 2, S.Kelly, Grimes, Fitzgerald, Micevski 1
Best: Coen, Kreuzer, Paynter, Hurley, Veszpremi, Grimes
Last Modified on 30/03/2008 18:20