In a high standard game played in very warm conditions at Alan Garden Reserve tonight, Tyntynder proved to be far too strong for arch rival Swan Hill in recording a 37 point victory.
The win kept Tyntynder’s unbeaten record intact during the 2010 Night Series and cemented their position in the Grand Final of the series, which will be conducted next Friday 26th March.
The game commenced in a very strange fashion with the Tyntynder players obviously being confused as to what end they were kicking in the opening half.
Well at least the forwards and the backs were confused as all 12 players took up their positions at the incorrect end of the ground.
When the ball was bounced, the Swans immediately went into attack as the Dogs players looked to the bench for assistance.
During the mayhem that followed in the next couple minutes which resulted in the forwards dashing to the correct end of the ground to take up their positions as the defenders undertook the change in the opposite direction, the Swans were able to score the opening goal of the game.
With the ball back in the centre, the Dogs players were finally in their correct positions and ready to commence the game.
And commence they did in grand style as they dominated the remainder of the first half to have the game all wrapped up by half time.
Their opening goal was a result of fine play from James Morrison who handballed to the elusive Ryan Devereux whose shot never looked like missing.
Dean Pound was in everything around the ground and his excellent hand off to a running Paul Munro resulted in Luke O’Toole marking and kicking truly.
Pound was again involved with his outstanding pick up and handball to coach Simon Bunyan who handballed to Lachie Gilbert for another six pointer.
The Dogs defence was working hard with Mark O’Bryen, in his first game back at the club, being extremely prominent.
Two strong marks to Pound, both within kicking range, resulted in near misses, proving that the big man was indeed human.
Excellent running from Brett Conway to find Bunyan who hit O’Toole lace out resulted in O’Toole kicking his second and the Dogs fourth just before the half time siren.
With a comfortable 16 point lead at the break, the Dogs chose to rest Pound in the second half but this had little impact on the scoreboard as the younger players really stepped up.
Zac Denham, James Morrison, Matt Willox, Brock Storer and Bryce Delmenico were some of the younger players prominent early in the second half.
Devereux to O’Toole resulting in a strong mark and OToole’s third, was just the start to the second half coach Bunyan would have been seeking.
Reece Collins was starting find plenty of the ball and his long kick towards the 50 metre line resulted in Zac Denham gathering his own crumbs, nicely evading two opponents and kicking his first from 45 out.
Strong play in defence by Kyle Symons, onto a running Brock Storer, to Artie Merritt, to Reece Collins who again kicked long where Denham roved the pack beautifully to slot a neat handball to Bunyan for a great team goal.
The Swans were becoming rattled and a 50 metre penalty to Lachie Gilbert saw his kick sail deep into the goal square where Luke O’Toole took another strong mark.
But somehow O’Toole managed to hit the post from point blank range, his only mistake in an outstanding performance.
Collins continued to drive the Dogs forward, his pass from near the centre finding Sean Sennar who played on and kicked his first from 30 metre out on a slight angle.
The running Denham was still in everything as he found O’Toole who marked strongly on the 50 metre line.
The resulting kick dropped about a metre short but resulted in the mark of the night being taken by Reece Collins who turned around to kick the final goal of the match.
Final scores being Tyntynder 9-4-58 defeating Swan Hill 2-9-21
Goalkickers: Luke O’Toole (3), Simon Bunyan, Ryan Devereux, Lachie Gilbert, Sean Sennar, Zac Denham and Reece Collins (1)
Best players in a very even team effort were Luke O’Toole, Zac Denham, Mark O’Bryen, Jame Morrison and Dean Pound
Last Modified on 19/03/2010 23:05