by Jim Gordon
BEULAH V JEPARIT RAINBOW
In an absorbing game, a very competitive Jeparit Rainbow were over run in the second term to go down to Beulah by six goals. This was a much better effort by the Lakers who were so disappointing against Hopetoun two week’s ago.
Jeparit Rainbow coach Luke Werner was pleased with the team’s effort, but felt that poor decision making and skill errors eventually let the Lakers down.
The Lakers stuck with the Blues for the first quarter, but in effect it was this first quarter that was ultimately the difference between the two sides. Beulah was able to hold the Lakers in this term before making better use of the breeze themselves in the second term.
The defence of the Lakers provided them with almost all of their best players. Beulah’s David King was held to two goals as was Peter Lehmann. Daniel Greig was solid at fullback and it was he who was able to limit the opportunities to King.
Other Laker defenders to do well were Heath Clugston and Luke Werner. These two alternated between half back and midfield and they were not only able to restrict the Beulah forwards, but they turned out to be two of Jeparit Rainbow’s best on the day.
Luke Byrne has been a very good pickup for Jeparit Rainbow. Byrne ran hard all day through the midfield and half forward. As a tall running player he can be hard to match up.
Young Tyler Edelsten returning from injury played a top game in defence taking some spectacular marks, and other youngsters Adam Schuman, Simon Clugston and Nathan Cocks all played well.
This improved form by the younger Jeparit Rainbow players is a good sign for the future development of the club.
A big loss for Jeparit Rainbow was Adam Roll injuring his knee in the second quarter. With their forward line under pressure, losing Roll from the full forward post was a loss they could not cover.
Jeparit Rainbow will draw many positives from this game. They went down, but did not give up at any stage. The final two quarters were even, but the damage had been done when the Blues kicked seven in that wind assisted second term to run out comfortable winners.
WALPEUP UNDERBOOL V HOPETOUN
Hopetoun was too good and ran out winners by 32 points over a Walpeup Underbool side still missing several of their star players. The Roos were gallant in defeat and even headed the Devils by three goals at the main break, but they couldn’t contain the two Hopetoun key forwards in a third term dominated by the Devils.
This was a big match for both teams. With Sea Lake Nandaly Tigers sitting at third and having the bye, one of these teams would go into fourth spot and the other would be out of the four. A win was critical for both.
In a closely contested first quarter, Kain Robins kicked three late goals to give the Devils the edge. The Roos had a handy lead by half time and they looked to have the match in their control until an eleven goal third quarter absolutely dominated by Robins swung the match back into Hopetoun’s favour.
It was no coincidence that the chances of Walpeup Underbool winning took a turn for the worst when Jeremy Rowe could not return after half time. He was dominating the first half across half back. Missing Rowe’s strength and run is proving more detrimental as each week goes by. Three week’s ago Rowe was best on ground for Mallee in their great win over North Central.
In a best on ground performanc Robins ended up with nine goals. He lead, presented, marked well and kicked beautifully. With Bryce Wellington kicking four, and Clint Castleman providing another target, the Hopetoun forward line turned out to be the difference between the two sides.
Putting Simon Cook into the ruck may have been a match winning move as he turned out to be one of Hopetoun’s best. Devon Mill tagged Luke Nathan out of the game in second half, although Nathan was still one of Walpeup Underbool’s best doing a lot of damage in the first half when the Roos were on top.
Quentin Willmott and Luke Puckle are playing very good, consistent football for Hopetoun and both Chris and Scott Heath are hitting their straps.
Two of Hopetoun’s younger brigade to once again do well were Zac Robins and Ben Reid. These two are consistently competitive against often bigger and usually much older opposition.
For Walpeup Underbool, Travis Latta was a welcome return to their side this week and kicked five of the Roo’s twelve goals. Matthew Brown put in another good performance continuing on from his fine form against Ouyen United the week before and best for Walpeup Underbool was Sam McDonald kicking two goals.
This was really a game of two halves. The Roos won the first half and Devils dominated the second half. When the Devils play good team footy with no passengers they are no doubt hard to stop and have the potential to mix it with the best. Consistency is critical
WOOMELANG LASCELLES V OUYEN UNITED
Ouyen United ran out easy winners against Woomelang Lascelles at Woomelang on Saturday. The first quarter was a lacklustre affair. The Cats were kicking with a stiff breeze, but the ball was in the Ouyen United forward line for long periods of time and then when the Cats did go forward, the Demon defenders were able to keep them at bay by playing tight, negating football.
Kicking with the wind in the first term, the Cats had to get away to a good start to have a hope against Ouyen United. They were in it for a while and managed to keep Ouyen United to only two goals for the term. The only problem was, Woomelang Lascelles weren’t scoring themselves.
United’s Andrew Jardine was the star early. He has made a big difference to United this year. As a defender he has it all, he can take a high mark, his body strength means that he can out bustle his opponent and when he gets the ball, he can kick it a mile, usually over the centre line and well into attack. At one stage in the second quarter Jardine was so far forward he had a shot on goal and was unlucky to miss.
Jardine teamed well with Kieran O’Shannessy and young Joshua Coats who has quickly developed into a strong attacking defender. Coates is not afraid to leave his man and run into space and the Demons like to look for him because he can run and carry the ball and uses his kicking to advantage.
The Cats wasted opportunities early and should have had more than a miserable one goal six behinds at quarter time. This was poor reward for some good play and they were never going to give the Demons anything to worry about unless they made the most of their chances to score goals.
In that first term Tim Hanns, Tony Mudge and Brody Adcock all kicked behinds that should have been goals. Their only goal came from Adcock who scored a beauty after a free from out on the half forward flank.
If the Cats wasted chances early, the Demons weren’t all that much better. It was just as well their defence were on the ball as time after time they had possession only to lose it, usually through an errant handball that was ill directed giving the opposition time to intercept and bottle up play. Handball that should have been sharp and decisive, tended to loop high into the air giving the Cats the opportunity to cover the lose man. The Demons were tentative, sometimes unsure and they often made poor decisions. The second term was different.
The Cats bounded out and began to play well in the second quarter. They even hit the front early in the term. Jason Radcliffe was giving them first use of the ball, Tony Mudge was everywhere and Jackson Quirk was mopping up across half back. But it didn’t last long and once United got their game going, it was a one way procession for the rest of the day.
The United forward line was the difference between the two sides. Sonny Lindsey ended up with nine goals, Brad Vallance kicked seven from centre half forward and Dom Leach chimed in with three.
United had a classy centre line feeding the ball in with regular monotony, and although Ratcliffe was able to win most of the taps in the centre and around the ground, the Demons were quickly able to arrest the advantage and take the ball away.
In reality, despite a brief patch at the beginning of the second quarter, Ouyen United were never going to lose this encounter at Woomelang.
Last Modified on 26/06/2011 12:56