The Northern Knights, led by a seven goal haul from Tim Bongetti have got back on the winners list after a close encounter with the Sandringham Dragons. The Dragons showed plenty of fight to almost snatch victory kicking into the breeze in the final quarter but the Knights held off to win by four points.
The return of Patrick Veszpremi was a fantastic boost to the team and his limited game time didn't stop him from kicking three goals and being named in the Best Players.
Sandringham got the early jump as rain fell heavily by kicking the first three goals of the game before Bongetti kicked the Knights only two of the first term.
A four goal second quarter to the Knights saw them hold a seven point lead at the main break, which meant that they were in for a battle.
It was a strong response from the Knights in the third term and they opened up a three goal lead at quarter time, with Bongetti getting right amongst the goals with Veszpremi and Kreuzer adding support in that regard.
Sandringham's work was cut out for it in the final quarter kicking into a stiff breeze, but they battled manfully to get within a goal - though one of their goals was a kick after the siren to see the Knights get away with a four point win.
Knights Region Manager, Peter Kennedy had plenty of praise for the Dragons. "They came at us and kept coming to their credit. Their attack on the ball was better than ours today.
We turned the ball over a bit too much today and there were too many balls not won at ground level. We only had four different goal kickers, which is a bit lower than normal. Bongetti was very good up forward though.
Michael Hurley was outstanding at centre half back and Patty Veszpremi was very good in his first game back since Round 9.
"We had some guys coming back into the team (Veszpremi and Nathan Thomas from injury and David Zaharakis and Luke Stanton from school football commitments) and they will all be better for the run.
"Next game we'll get Trent Cotchin and Cristian Sanfilippo back so our team will start to settle a bit. It's a big three weeks to finish the season and we need to win them all if we want to finish in the Top 4."
Next week is a general bye in the TAC Cup competition, but from Round 16 onwards the Knights will have a full squad to pick from (barring injuries) as private school football commitments have finished for the year. Pece Micevski, James Tantsis-Hall, Adam Woodhams and Aaron Coen all have slightly longer stints on the injury list, while Jack Grimes, Brad Hanchette, Matthew Quinton, Steven Kelly and Matt Spagnolo will all be eyeing a Round 16 return given they have an extra week to be ready for that game against the Dandenong Stingrays at Shepley Oval, Dandenong.
Northern Knights 13.8.86 def. Sandringham Dragons 12.10.82
Goals: Bongetti 7, Veszpremi 3, Kreuzer 2, Stanton
Best: Hurley, Bongetti, Meredith, Veszpremi, Power, Paynter
Last Modified on 30/03/2008 18:16