St Arnaud v Donald
In what turned out to be a reasonably high scoring game the Saints got the points over a Donald side that put up a very respectable performance. Donald’s lead up to the season recruits wise didn’t appear to be going anywhere but with a lot of local’s committing to the cause the Royal Blues performance would have pleased their supporters, but the Saints with a few new faces got their season off to a good start.
In the first term both sides matched motors for the majority of the quarter but the Saints got the vital break late in the quarter and led by 17-points at the first break.
In the second quarter the St Arnaud team started to gel together better and were able take their lead out to a comfortable 57 points at the main break.
Donald again were able to kick three goals for the quarter but was starting to look down the barrel at a large defeat. Needs returned to his original club and was in the thick of things up forward and would finishthe day with a bag of six goals. Newcomer Brown was showing that he will be a player to watch in the coming weeks, as did Bloomer who showed glimpses of brilliance in the lead up to half time. Donald had their shining light in Young, who would match the effort of St Arnaud’s Needs to finish with 6-goals for the day.
After the main break the Saints took control and added a further five majors to extend their lead before the Royal Blues rallied to reduce the margin back to 53 points at the final break. Cunningham started to get a fair bit of the footy and kicked a couple of goals in this term and the Saints were looking the goods. Haddow was in everything for Donald and a couple of his efforts were rewarded with goals and the Donald side were looking to build on his good work. With a big deficit in front of the Donald side they went to the huddle looking to address the issue and hopefully restrict any further damage.
The last quarter turned out to be the most even quarter for the game with both sides reaping the rewards of their mid fields good play. St Arnaud won the quarter and got the four points on offer but Donald was not disgraced as they gave it their best shot and certainly gained the respect of their more fancied opposition.
Final Score: St Arnaud 22.22= 154 def Donald 15-4= 94
Best for St Arnaud: J.Priest, Lachlan Cunningham, N. Brown, C. Bloomer, J. Wray, N. Baldwin.
Major Goal scorers, D. Needs 6, N. Browne 4, L. Cunningham 3,
Best for Donald: B. Haddow, S. Young, B. Gilmour, A. Grant and R. Harberger.
Major goal scorers, S. Young 6 S. Goldsmith 3, A. Hall 2
Wedderburn v Boort
Prior to the start of the Wedderburn v Boort clash, Board Member Dean Perryman performed the unfurling of the 2013 premiership flag in recognition of the Redbacks winning the 2013 premiership, their third in as many years. Both sides entered the first round with some new faces and the expectations from both camps were high for the coming season. Wedderburn got away to a good start with Nathan Holt snapping a great goal for the Redbacks. New recruit Cam Milward answered for the Boort side and the rest of the term was fairly even with Wedderburn going on to hold a slender 5-point lead at the first change.
In the second term both sides were hard at the ball and it was no placed for those with a faint heart. Wedderburn dominated the first half of the term pushing out to a five goal lead, but dropped their guard and let the Magpies back in to only trail by two goals at the half time stoppage.
The third term virtually mirrored the previous term with the Redbacks kicking out to a good lead before letting the Boort side back into the contest. Easton up front for Boort was holding his own and had contributed five goals to his sides tally at the other end 2013 Leading Goal kicker had added seven to his total and he was well supported by Herdman who was again showing why he is so highly rated by all opposition. At the three quarter time break Wedderburn had increased their lead out to 19-points but Boort were well within reach of taking out this contest.
In the last quarter the Redbacks broke the shackles to add a further six goals to their first three quarters tally and kept the Boort Magpies to just the two goals. Barnes added two goals in the final quarter to bring his tally to nine goals for the day; Herdman was brilliant and also added four goals for the Redbacks, while Easton for Boort finished the day with five goals. Over the course of the day there was many highlights and there was plenty of spirit shown by both sides. Boort may have gone down by 41-points at the end of play but their on-field commitment was very encouraging to those dedicated Magpie supporters. Boort will go on to win more games than they lose by the seasons end if they can build on their performance of the first round against the reigning premiers they will be in the mix at finalstime.
Wedderburn for that matter looked very impressive and will be hoping to get the desired result for the majority of the season and gain valuable points to get them another shot at bringing home the Halfhide Cup.
Final Scores Wedderburn 20.15 def Boort 13-16
Best for Wedderburn: B. Herdman, S. Barnes, D. Benaim, M. Lloyd, A. Postle, N. Bell.
Major goal scorers, S. Barnes 9, B. Herdman 4
Best for Boort: C. Millward, C. Hatcher, J. Dehne, J. Keeble, N. Gooding, A. White.
Major goal scorers, R. Easton 5, J. Dehne 2.
Next week we have three matches for our round two games prior to the Easter Break.
Wycheproof – Narraport v Wedderburn
Birchip-Watchem v St Arnaud
Boort v Charlton
Donald has the Bye
Last Modified on 07/04/2014 14:47