Saturday 16th April 2011 at 2.30pm @ McLaren
McLaren 20.14 (134) def Goolwa/Port Elliot Magpies 8.17 (65)
Goal Kickers: J. Greenbank 5, J. Houston 4, C. Scholar 2, C. Kohnke 2, E. Williams 2, J. Littlefield 2, S. Laffin , J. Cowling , T. Booth
Best Players: D. Loots, H. Lambert, J. Greenbank, N. Riley, C. Scholar, J. Littlefield
McLaren’s previous game against Yankalilla had Goolwa favourites coming into Saturdays clash at McLaren Vale. McLaren started quickly with Greenbank, Houston, Littlefield and Cowling taking marks in the forward line and giving McLaren a 31 point first quarter, with Goolwa making their first score at the 20 minute mark.
Strong downfield play gives Wilson Goolwa’s first. Goolwa starts to find the ball late in the first quarter without troubling the score board. 50 meter free from McLaren gives Goolwa their second goal. McLaren’s mid field start getting on top with great defensive pressure but a silly free kick from McLaren gives Goolwa their third and at quarter time McLaren leads by 12 points.
Lambert, Greenbank and Loots start winning a lot of the ball early in the second but Goolwa’s back line stops them from capitalising. Good play by Goolwa brings first for the second quarter and closes the margin to 6 points. A real arm wrestle starts with both teams unable to score until Goolwa’s defence gives Jones an opportunity at goal. Another miss proves costly and with Houston taking a pack mark at other end to put through his second this relieved the pressure of Goolwa’s hard running.
Goolwa fights back with Dunbar taking an easy mark and converting to close the margin to 40 points. Interception of kick out by Semple sets Littlefield up for his first goal followed closely by opportunist goals by Greenbank and Laffin. When Goolwa missed another opportunity late in the second this helps McLaren to go in to half time with a 38 point lead.
Start of third is no different with Littlefield kicking his second, and first of the third quarter. With Kohnke scoring shortly after McLaren blows lead out to 50 points. Loots’s pressure on Goolwa’s mid field gets Scholar free to kick his first and when Greenbank and Houston kick one each Goolwa find it hard to get hands on the ball. Goolwa, through Turner, kicks true and stops McLaren’s run of goals. Good work from McKinlay and his fellow midfielders follows but Goolwa is still unable to capitalise on great ball movement. Littlefield, through hard running, sets Kohnke up for goal late in the third which gives McLaren a 68 point lead late in the last.
The start of the fourth has both mid fields nullifying each other until good work from Gill gets Scholar free to kick his second. McKinlay creates good opportunity for Goolwa to kick a goal, unfortunately missing to the left is not an ideal finish. Goolwa’s next two consecutive scores are points which don’t help change the margin. A great tap on by Mickan frees Jones to kick goal for Goolwa late in fourth. Kahl has a shot on goal which goes left and when Goolwa kicks another late in the fourth it caps off some hard running by Evans and Whiterod. With Booth kicking the last goal for the day, McLaren finishes strongly sealing a 69 point win. Final score 20 14 to 8 17.
As written by Jimmy Williams
Last Modified on 16/05/2011 11:19