Eagle eyes on victory

By Mark Gullick
ALL EYES were on Glover Reserve as the undefeated Devon Meadows hosted Cranbourne.
The Eagles won the highly anticipated match by 28 points.
The massive crowd saw Cranbourne’s Leigh Holt kick the first goal of the game after two minutes. The Eagles continually attacked, but missed several opportunities.
It took until over the halfway mark of the quarter for The Panthers to mount their first meaningful forward attack, which resulted in a behind. Justin Hill soon scored their first goal after a mistake by the Cranbourne defence. He quickly kicked his second and when Billy Hayes goaled, Devon Meadows had raced to an early lead.
Cranbourne scored two late goals and an even second term saw Cranbourne with a 13-point advantage at the long break.
Up until half-time, the match was a dour, physical event. In the third term, the skill level improved and there were several impressive passages of play. Each team kicked three goals for the term, although neither team scored goals consecutively.
Cranbourne kicked four goals to two in the final term. Cranbourne coach Doug Koop was happy with the win, despite his team not playing near their best.
“They are always pretty tough to beat down there,” he said. “I spoke to (Panthers coach Steve) O’Brien after the game and we both agreed that both sides can play a lot better footy, but sometimes that’s how games pan out. I’m sure there was a fair bit of hype, certainly from their point of view. They were sitting on top of the ladder and undefeated so the hype, sometimes that has a bit of an effect.
Koop was pleased with his defenders and the pressure his players placed on their opponents, but disappointed with how they kicked for goal.
Devon Meadows coach Steve O’Brien was disappointed with his team’s first loss of the year. “We just played a pretty poor game,” he said. “Our skill execution was deplorable. I think they’re the yardstick and we came up short. The scoreboard probably flattered us a bit. I thought we were totally outplayed. We had a couple of guys down on their previous form and maybe got a little bit ahead of ourselves. It was a fantastic crowd and I’m just disappointed we didn’t bring our A-game.”
DOVETON caused the biggest upset of the year when they flogged Pakenham by 58 points.
The Doves were unstoppable in the opening term and by quarter-time led by 27 points. The match evened in the second term in general play and on the scoreboard. After half-time, Doveton continued its spectacular play and piled on nine goals to one. By the conclusion of the match, they finished with the extraordinarily accurate 23.3 to Pakenham’s 12.11.
Doveton coach Mark Ladgrove was rapt with the win.
It was the first quarter that set up the big win for the Doves.
“We have done that previously for a quarter or a half, we put three good quarters together and the match was over by three quarter-time.
“We were a little concerned at half-time, thinking we’d done this before but dropped away and the boys were realising that too. We really dug deep in the third and we played our best football for the year.”
Peter Pullen was sensational at centre half-forward for Doveton. He and Ryan Hendy both kicked five goals.
NARRE WARREN held its spot in the top five with a solid 31-point win over Hampton Park.
“It’s never easy to go there and win a game of footy,” Narre Warren coach Matt Shinners said. “(Hampton Park) certainly rise to the occasion and play well but at the end of the day to win by five goals is a good win, but we’ve certainly got a few things to work on.”
The game was tight in the first half and characterised by poor kicking for goal and stop-start football around the ground.
“We had our fair share of footy in the first half, we just couldn’t capitalise on the amount of ball we had,” Shinners said.
Narre Warren kicked 12 goals to 10 after half-time to comfortably take the win.
It was another frustrating performance by Hampton Park.
“We were good for three quarters,” Hampton Park coach Josh Taylor said. “In the third quarter they slowed the tempo of the game and kicked eight goals. I know it’s all there. If we can string it together for four quarters then we’ll shake a few sides.”
BERWICK defeated a determined Tooradin team by 33 points at Edwin Flack Reserve.
Tooradin played its best game of the year and were within striking distance until the final term.
The Wickers kicked four goals to nil in that period to clinch the game.
Berwick coach Glenn Dale was happy with his team’s performance, especially considering how young the team was. “The team we had in was a very inexperienced team,” he said. “We played five Under 18s in the team and the average age of the team was just under 22. We’re heading in the right direction.”
Andrew Stent was Berwick’s best player. Billy Carlyle (five goals), Andrew Tuck, forward Shane Findlayson (four goals) and Paul Vanschilt were prominent. Coach Dale was very impressed with youngster Luke Sheppard.
For Tooradin, coach Chad Liddell played his best game for the year and finished with five goals. Michael Hobbs, Beau Miller, Adam Splatt and Ben Disney were all busy around the gro8und.
IN THE other match, Beaconsfield defeated ROC 18.9 to 11.5.