After this week’s round of matches we have the first side to lock in a finals position and that being St Arnaud who has locked in the double chance with their defeat over Wedderburn in convincing fashion. Birchip-Watchem who has won their last three matches are in second position with the Bulls only having one game to go, that being next week against Charlton as the Bulls have the bye in the final round. Even if the Bulls get the points over Charlton next week it will not guarantee them the double chance and a loss could prove costly with Charlton and Donald also sharing the same points as Birchip-Watchem. Donald, currently in third and Charlton fourth both need to win their remaining two matches to improve their current standings on the leagues ladder. Wycheproof-Narraport sit in fifth spot and a finals berth looks doomed as the sides above them just need to win one of their remaining two games to lock the Demons out of the finals race. Hopefully after next round the final makeup of our finals teams may be a little clearer but that will depend on the results of a couple of important games in next week’s second last round of home and away season.
Donald v Boort
The opening term between the Royal Blues and Magpies was fairly even with the young Magpies sticking with their more fancied opposition. At the first break the magpies trailed by just ten points and were performing quite well against a strong contender for the Halfhide Cup.
In the second quarter Donald broke away kicking five goals and seven points and restricted Boort to just the one goal and the margin to Donald at halfway had got out to forty points. Young for Donald was doing a fair bit of damage up forward and if his kicking and his fellow forwards had found the big sticks rather than the points they half time lead would have and should have been greater than forty points.
Boort faired a bit better in the third quarter with three goals for the term but the Royal Blues were able outscore the Magpies again to lead by fifty two points at the last break. Darcy Harrison was a key factor for the Donald side and his young teammate in Jordan Bath was getting his fair share of the Sherrin. Boort’s Shaun Pearce was the key scorer for the Magpies and Cam Chalmers was again in good form.
With the game well out of reach for Boort they did not chuck the towel in as the pressed forward to finish the game off with four last quarter goals to outscore Donald. Pearce was their leading goal kicker with five of the Magpies eleven goals in what would turn out to be their highest score for the year. Donald obviously eased off a little in the final period and was able to come out of the game 48-point winners. While the Royal Blues would have liked
to have won by a bigger margin to help their percentage the win still gives them a strong chance of getting the double chance. Young had a good day in front of the big sticks finishing the day with eight goals. Darcy Harrison was named as Donald’s best Jordan Bath, Glenn Wyatt, Charles Murrie, Seamus Young and Brody Haddow were named as better players for the Royal Blues. Boort’s Cam Chalmers was named their best and Joe Kane, Jack Smith, Jesse Thorp, Dion Robertson and Shaun Pearce with five goals were amongst their better players.
Final scores Donald 17-18=120 def Boort 11-6=72
St Arnaud v Wedderburn
Wedderburn got the better start of the two sides with Postle kicking the first goal of the game after a couple of minutes of play. From here both sides found scoring hard to come by and it took until half way into the quarter before there was another major score and that was to Wedderburn when Ben DeAraugo snapped truly. St Arnaud who had only managed just minor scores finally got a goal on the board through Needs. From the restart Needs again found himself lining up for his second and again he made no mistake as the Saints started to get their game going and they finished the quarter off with two more goals to lead by twelve points at quarter time.
In the second term the Saints continued to pepper the goals as they posted five more goals to give them nine unanswered goals as they kicked out to a handy lead late in the quarter. Wedderburn were able to reduce the lead of the Saints when they managed to kick the last two goals of the half to go to half time trailing by 35-points.
St Arnaud came out from the halftime break determined to put the game out of the reach of the Redbacks and for the second time in the game they were able to post nine unanswered goals to set up a big lead heading to the last break. Wedderburn as they did in the second quarter kicked the last two goals of the term but went to the break 85-points in areas. McNamee was leading from the front to be clearly the Saints best player, Wedderburn’s best to this point was onballer Nathan Holt.
The last quarter just seen the two sides play out time, St Arnaud done the better of the scoring with three goals and late in the term the Redbacks kicked their only goal for the term. The final margin favouring the Saints was 91-points as they head towards a well-earned rest with the bye this coming week, the win over the Redbacks has locked the Saints into the double chance as they lead the comp two games and percentage clear of their closest rival. McNamee was named BOG and had good support from Andrew Jesse, Jesse Bloomer, Nathan Coghlan and Daniel Needs with six goals. Wedderburn’s best was Nathan Holt, Adam Postle, Brett Strange and Jacob DeAraugo was also named as better players.
Final scores St Arnaud 21-16= 142 def Wedderburn 7-9=51
Wycheproof-Narraport v Birchip-Watchem
Wycheproof-Narraport bounced out of the blocks in their game against Birchip-Watchem to post early goals and looked like they were sending a message to the Bulls that the Demons were not out of the finals race as they took a handy three goal lead to the first break.
In the second term the Bulls found that recent form as they set about reducing the lead of the Demons and this they were able to do and quickly erased the Demons lead and their finals campaign was back on track. Six goals to one in favour of the Bulls, seen the visitors go to half time leading by fourteen points a thirty plus point turnaround. The Demons who had shown the Bulls a clean set of heels in the first term were just the opposite in this quarter and they would need to regroup over the long break or their finals chances.
The long break didn’t do the home side any favours as the Bulls came out determined to build on the second quarter effort and they were able to achieve their goal kicking a further five goals and held the Demons to just the one major. The Bulls had established a winning margin by three quarter time and that lead being 37-points and things were looking fairly gloomy for the Demons finals chances.
Birchip-Watchem with only one game to go in the home and away rounds needed to put their case for a finals berth out there and they run the game right out to get home by 43-points. Castellano who has had a good year for the Bulls was again named as their best player and also kicked four goals in a good display; Dale Hinkley who has also had a stellar season was again named in their best players with Delaney, Cusack, Barnard and Sean Hogan also featuring in their best player awards. The Demon faithful would have been a bit disappointed with the effort of their side especially with the way they played in the opening term. Wycheproof-Narraport who only managed three goals in the final three quarters will need to win their remaining two matches and rely on other result to give them a slim chance to play finals. Better players for the Demons were Trevor Rumbold, Jesse and Rolly White, Dec Lourey, Rob Binks and Joe Coatsworth.
Final scores Birchip-Watchem 14-8=92 def Wycheproof-Narraport 7-7=49
Next week
Wedderburn v Donald
Boort v Wycheproof-Narraport
Birchip-Watchem v Charlton
St Arnaud Bye
Last Modified on 31/08/2015 16:31