This week the Ballarat lads travelled down the highway to Warrnambool where we took on a winless Sandringham Dragons who were coming off a heavy loss to the Geelong Falcons. Before the game Coach, Glenn Wilkins stressed to the team not to take the Dragons lightly because they would be determined to post their first win and to "share and care" which was evident throughout the game.The first quarter saw us pull out to a 5 goal to 1 lead largely thanks to the midfield run of Josh Free and Andrew Hooper who were racking up possessions all around the ground and also the strong marking and goal kicking of Lucas Cook who was back in the side this week after AIS commitments.
The second quarter started well with the Rebels kicking early goals through hard running and teamwork. During the latter part of the quarter we dropped our intensity and
Sandringham started to get on top around the ground although they didn't capitalise on their opportunities only kicking 1 goal for the term which meant we took a 8 goal to 2 lead into half time. At half time Wilks questioned us of trying to be too cute with the footy by over handballing at times and that we should go long and direct in the second half to give our forwards more opportunity.
The third quarter was a hard contest as
Sandringham lifted their intensity and created more stoppages but the boys still managed to keep them scoreless for the term due to a great effort from the backline who were giving nothing away.
The last term was a very good one for the Rebels where we kicked away with Kevin Bourke providing good midfield run and Marcus Darmody going forward late and kicking 2 goals. The dragons managed a few late goals but we eventually ran out winners by 98 points which leaves us in a good position at 4-1.
Next week we travel to
Melbourne to take on the
Eastern Ranges who have had a great start to the year and will be a very tough match. Good luck to all the Vic Country lads for next week and well done to Ben Peters on his first game back from injury.
Last Modified on 11/05/2009 13:59