It has taken till round thirteen for the North Central to record our first drawn match and this drawn match happened at Sea Lake with the Sea Lake Nandaly Tigers and St Arnaud Saints being tied at the end of full time regardless of what the score board had indicated which favoured the Saints. When the official goal umpire cards were crossed checked the cards from the goal umpires had the scores as even.
At George Cartwright the Bulls had a big win over the Wedderburn Redbacks a much bigger margin than the four points in their earlier meeting this year. The Bulls got the points by over ninety points to help cement their position in the top for with only three matches to be played after next week’s second part of the split round where their biggest danger for the final spot in the top four in Boort travels to Wycheproof to take on the top of the table and undefeated Wycheproof-Narraport Demons. In the other round of our split round next week we have second placed Charlton take on third placed Donald at Charlton Park.
Birchip-Watchem v Wedderburn
The leagues most improved side in Birchip-Watchem had little trouble in getting the valuable four points in their game against the Wedderburn Redbacks. The Bulls carried on the recent form in the opening term to get an early break over the Redbacks who only managed to kick one point in the opening quarter. Birchip-Watchem had good contributors in the opening term with Brendan George booting the first two goals of the game and by quarter time they had established a twenty eight point lead.
In the second term the Bulls continued their dominance of the game and continually kept pushing the ball into their forward line and were gaining the required results. With six goals for the term and kicking the first ten goals, all unanswered before the Redbacks could post their first major score. Wedderburn Coach Danny Benaim was their lone goal scorer kicking two goals for the Redbacks well into Red-Time but they still trailed the Bulls by near double of the margin at the first break with the Bulls taking a fifty six point lead to the main break.
Holding a comfortable lead entering the third term the Bulls continued their good form with George and Wilson extending their lead before the Redbacks struck back with two goals of their own to match motors with the Bulls. The finished the quarter of well with a further three goals to make it five goals for the term and hold a seventy three point lead with a quarter to be played.
In a game where there was a high level of pressure from both sides, the Bulls needed to show that they were worthy of the fourth spot on the ladder and were keen to put on a good show for the large crowd gathered to celebrate the clubs past achievements and they done the crowd justice with three more goals and held the Redbacks to one goal and by full time they had extended that lead out to just under a hundred points. The Bulls who had good players in Wilson, George and Monteith will go to next week’s bye feeling pretty comfortable with their form of the past few weeks and what is ahead of them in the remaining rounds leading to the finals which they feel they will achieve in the remaining weeks. Wedderburn will also enjoy the break and in their next three weeks they would hope that they could record another win but the task ahead looks will fairly daunting.
Best players for the Birchip-Watchem Bulls: Jack Wilson four goals,, Brendan George 5 goals, Michael Monteith, Tom Carland, Spencer Allan and Joel Greaney. Best for the Redbacks: Corey Lowry, Daniel Gash, Hayden Polglase, Robbie Tonkin, Ben DeAraugo and Nathan Holt.
Final scores Birchip-Watchem Bulls 18-15=123 defeated Wedderburn 5-6=30.
Sea Lake Nandaly Tigers v St Arnaud Saints
Sea Lake got away to the perfect start over the Saints as they got out to a good start posting seven four first quarter goals and looked in a very handy position to take our the game. In this term the Saints could only manage the one major score and trailed by thirty three points at the first break in play.
In the second quarter the Saints was able to make some inroads into the Tigers strangle hold of the game in the first quarter. St Arnaud outscored the Tigers by four goals to one and put themselves back into the contest. Weekly and Doering were the focal points up front for the Tigers in the opening two quarter and for the Saints it was the veteran in Daniel Needs and power forward Nick Coghlan being the trump cards for the Saints. At the half time break the home side in the Tigers held a reduced lead from their first term lead of thirty three points back to twenty one points.
The premiership quarter didn’t see either side get the required break but the Tigers did win the quarter over the Saints whose efforts when going forward were not gaining the positive rewards the were hoping for. Sea Lake Nandaly were hoping to put the Saints out of the contest but had a hard job in doing so and while they did win the term by just six points to give them a twenty seven point lead at the last break in play and with the Saints trailing at every change the Tigers looked to be in a good position to take out the game but knowing the Saints finishing history of the past few weeks they could not feel secure of gaining the four points.
In the final term the Saints was first to score with a major to Coghlan and then they was able to post a second through Needs to pull the Tigers lead back to achievable number. The Tigers was having difficulty in breaking through the defence of the Saints who were combining well in turning back the Tigers forward moves. Vassallo and McNamee put the Saints back within a goal of the Tigers as the match really tightened up. With time running out the Tigers was hoping to hold on and time was in their favour and with the Saints being a little off target with some late shot probably not the desired results but according to the scoreboard it had done enough to scrap home by a single point but a check of the official goal cards had a different result with the scores tied at seventy five points apiece resulting in the first draw for the North Central season. The result of this match has put paid to any slim chance the Tigers had of playing finals and the Saints well their destiny was spelt out a couple of weeks ago.
Best for the Tigers: Mikal Bloom, Billy McInnes, Matt Elliott, Luke Martin and Brad and Jason Collins. The major goal scorers for Sea Lake Nandaly: Simon Weekly and Jordan Doering both with four goals. Best for the Saints: Rob Elliott, Discher, Vassallo, McNamee, Matt Goode and Nick Coghlan who was also kicked three goals with their highest goal kicker being Daniel Needs with four.
Final scores Sea Lake Nandaly Tigers 12-3=75 drew with St Arnaud Saints 11-9=75
Next week’s matches (Second week round 13 split round)
Charlton v Donald
Wycheproof-Narraport v Boort
Birchip-Watchem, Sea Lake Nandaly, St Arnaud and Wedderburn has the bye
Last Modified on 14/08/2016 18:27