Left and below: Players from Devon Meadows and Cranbourne observe a minute’s silence before their clash at the Racecourse oval lastSaturday. By Brad Kingsbury
THE spirit of the Anzacs was the driving force in Cranbourne’s first victory of the season when it took apart Devon Meadows to win by 111 points at the racecourse oval on Saturday.
“We set ourselves for it,” said Cranbourne coach Brett McMaster. “It’s an important day and we were determined not to let ourselves down like we did in round one.”
After a minute’s silence in memory of fallen services men and women, the home side took to the field with intent and, despite only holding a two-goal lead at quarter-time, had an edge in size and strength that the young Panthers could not match.
Cranbourne included big centre half-forward Troy Tharle-Adams, who missed selection with the Dandenong Stingrays and Stuart Morrish, who came back from the Casey Scorpions.
That gave McMaster two extra talls and enabled him to stretch the Panthers in their key positions, while allowing players such as Leigh Holt, Aaron Pike, Ash Adams and himself licence to run from half-back and create opportunities.
After an even battle at the start of the second term Cranbourne slipped up a gear and banged on six unanswered goals to take a match-winning 52-point lead at half-time.
Devon Meadows coach Wayne Briggs moved his magnets to fill holes in the second half but he was unable to cover all the Cranbourne playmakers and the home side went on to boot another 13 goals to four in a one-sided affair after the long break.
McMaster led his team brilliantly, earning best-afield honours, while Luke Martin, Callum Lester and Tharle-Adams also figured in the votes.
“We needed to bounce back,” McMaster said. “There were not too many things wrong with the whole day. In this competition it’s important to be positive from the start otherwise you will get beaten and be chasing your opposition all day.”
Andrew Cotton and David Grose tried hard for the Panthers but Briggs conceded that his side had a long road ahead in its quest to match the league’s best.
“If you are on your game and play to your ability you are always a chance to win the game but we were flat and we were flogged,” he said. “As the day went on nothing went right for us, which is often the case when you’re getting done.”
“We’ve been training long and hard and that may have been a mistake in hindsight, but we move on now.”
“We need to freshen up and try to get the confidence levels up again. We can accept losing games but it’s the brand of football you play that tells the story in the end.”
