A great first quarter from the North Ballarat Rebels put paid to any thoughts of an upset by the Northern Knights in their TAC game at Austar Arena on Saturday.
A strong cross wind took out the high marking and reduced the game to one of strength and man on man contests all over the ground.
This suited the Rebels as Taite Radley and Tyler George cut the Knights defence to pieces with five goals between them in the opening ten minutes.
Daniel Ross Smith, Oliver Tate and Josh Free were outstanding in defence for North Ballarat as the home side controlled the game and a goal from Will Young just before the break topped off a great opening.
Northern had difficulty in the conditions as North Ballarat continued to dominate play through Nicholas Suban, Tate and George which resulted in goals to Young, Suban and Radley as the rock solid defence kept the visitors scoreless during the second term.
Chris Maple emphasized the need for the backline to maintain their work rate for the third term as percentages were going to dictate ladder positions with only one more game before the finals.
The windy conditions made scoring difficult as the game was played on the southern defensive side of the ground and it took until midway into the quarter before Suban broke through the Knights defence to goal.
The Knights then played their best football for the day with four goals in ten minutes as they found some space up forward and used the ball to advantage as the Rebels appeared to drop their intensity at the contest.
The final quarter saw the Rebels shut down Northerns ball winners to again keep them scoreless as a fifth goal to Radley in his best display with the club added to clever snap shots from Andrew Hooper and Tim Ruffles to run out easy winners.
North Ballarat Rebels 15.11 (101) d Northern Knights 5.5 (35)
Best: Tyler George, Oliver Tate, Nicholas Suban, Daniel Ross-Smith, Taite Radley, Josh Free.
Goals: Taite Radley 5, Tyler George 4, Nicholas Suban 2, Will Young 2, Andrew Hooper 1, Tim Ruffles 1
Last Modified on 08/02/2009 15:35