Beaconsfield’s Kallan Burns fires off a handball just in time as Pakenham’s Corey Lenders bears down on him in the teams’ clash at Toomuc Reserve. Picture: Stewart Chambers.By Brad Kingsbury
CRANBOURNE scored a barnstorming 35-point win over a surprisingly lethargic KEYSBOROUGH at Casey Fields on Saturday, signalling that it has its eye firmly on playing finals this year.
With a deficit of four points at the final change, coach Doug Koop told his troops the game was there to be won and the time had come for the Cranbourne Football Club to stand up and it did.
After a low-scoring and even first quarter, Cranbourne started to run the ball into attack and peppered the goals, but missed vital shots.
Power Cranbourne forward Marc Holt was well held by William Gayfer and at half-time the Burra held a slender five-point lead.
Both sides came out intent on putting their stamp on the game after the long break with Eagles including Ryan Davey, Aaron Shedlock, Matt Fletcher and Robert Beadel raising their intensity.
Neither side could obtain a winning break and the Burra led by four points at three-quarter time, with the game up for grabs to the mentally fittest side.
That turned out to be Cranbourne with Brad Langley taking control out of the centre and the Eagles slamming on three goals in seven minutes, before Keysborough had made any meaningful forward thrust.
The game was iced by a James Bow bomb from 50 metres at the 13-minute mark that saw the Eagles’ lead out to 23 points and put paid to Keysborough’s challenge.
The Eagles dominated the final term, much to the pleasure of their vocal crowd, with Fletcher, Langley and Bow booting two goals each and seeing their side to a season-defining win.
While the loss of Shaun Witherden (foot) and Tyson King (knee) had thrown the Burra out of balance, the last quarter exposed a mental weakness under pressure and officials were bitterly disappointed with the lack of intensity.
Koop was impressed, but not surprised, by his side’s effort.
“I thought that we were the better side for most of the day, but to their credit Keysborough stayed in it. When you’ve got a side that’s undefeated there’s obviously some class about it and you have to expect them to keep coming,” he said.
“It was important for our blokes to keep them under scoreboard pressure and we did that well for most of the day.”
HAMPTON PARK inflicted DEVON MEADOWS with a withering 106-point belting at the Robert Booth Reserve.
The new-look Panthers were expected to push the home side to the limit, but were beaten in almost every department.
The inclusion of David Biagi after a stint in the SANFL was a bonus, but it was the work rate of Hampton Park big men including Scott Eastwood, Brendan Fredericks, Shane Moffatt and Mitch Whatman that initiated the momentum.
The visitors lacked penetration in attack and Scott Morrison was their only avenue to goal as Hampton Park continually ran the ball out of defence with far too little pressure.
The Redbacks turned a 19-point quarter-time lead into 41 points at half-time and then upped the ante again, booting 11 goals to two in the second half.
However more telling was the fact that the home side had 22 shots at goal after the main break to its opponent’s two.
Apart from Morrison’s great solo effort to kick all four of his side’s goals, there was little positive for the Panthers to take from the clash.
Redback spearhead Kevin McLean finished with seven goals and Moffatt kicked six, but on the downside lively playmaker Sean Nunan suffered what could be a season-ending knee injury.
DOVETON dealt TOORADIN a 104-point lesson at the Robinson Reserve.
It was an emotional afternoon for Doves coach Tom Hallinan as he fronted up against the side he led to the finals last season, but from the first bounce it was obvious to all that the 2008 Seagulls were a mere shadow of that free-flowing and free-scoring unit.
After a solid effort in the opening term, led by captain Adam Splatt and his deputy Michael Hobbs, Tooradin succumbed to the Doves’ superior and slicker ball skills, conceding 11 goals to one in the second quarter and trailing by 79 points at the main break.
The Doves shared the goalkicking duties around nicely with Ryan Hendy adding five majors to his season tally of 22 and 2008 debutant Peter Dye also booting five goals, with running defenders Daryl Thomas, Ricky Hayes and Nathan Wilson setting up play throughout the afternoon.
BERWICK spearhead George Gorozidis dominated his side’s 73-point win over ROC, steering through 12 goals to take his season tally to 40.
The Kangaroos fielded a competitive side laced with youth, but couldn’t match Berwick’s combination of youth and experience that saw Gorozidis’ performance complemented by the debut of two promising under-18s in Bill Carlisle and ruckman Ben De Rita.
The result was put out of the question early with Berwick opening the game hard and booting eight goals to one in the first quarter.
ROC was competitive after half-time, but there was little it could do to stem the tide and the Wickers still outscored their opponents in each quarter.
PAKENHAM retained the Highway Cup with a comprehensive 58-point domination of traditional rivals BEACONSFIELD at the Toomuc Reserve.
After a spirited start by the Eagles, the Lions lifted their work rate in the second quarter and put on a display of power running across the ground that had the good-sized crowd openly speculating that last year’s runners up almost certainly had improved enough to go one step further this year.
Daniel Fry booted five goals for the victors while Andrew Williams slotted four majors for the Eagles.
In Nepean league ROSEBUD had a 22-point victory over PEARCEDALE in the Panthers’ first real test against a legitimate Nepean League finalist.
The Blues kept their noses in front for the majority of the afternoon, thanks to a strong performance from interleague spearhead Ben Schultz who finished with six goals.
Former Frankston Dolphin Chris O’Dell was Pearcedale’s best player.
