By DAVID NAGEL
REIGNING champion Beaconsfield has one last chance to retain its coveted top-three position in the South East Football Netball League after a demoralising 86-point thrashing at the hands of Cranbourne on Saturday.
Beacy, who hasn’t defeated a serious premiership contender since round one, will need to return from Narre Warren this week with a win, or relinquish that crucial double-chance to the Magpies.
Beacy fought hard early against Cranbourne, but fell away badly after quarter time.
From the 21-minute mark of the first quarter to the 15-minute mark of the third, Cranbourne kicked 11 of the next 12 goals to open up a 52-point lead.
“There was a finals-like feel to the start of the game and that’s one of the things that I was most pleased with, that we were able to work through that stage of the match and come away with a good win,” Cranbourne coach Simon Goosey said.
Cranbourne’s front-half was awesome, Michael Theodoridis kicking six, Marc Holt five, while Curtis Barker slipped forward to slot four of his own. Taylor Joyce kicked four and Scott Meyer tried his heart out for the vanquished.
Pakenham produced its best brand of football in a long time to run out convincing 63-point winners over Tooradin at Toomuc Reserve.
The Lions trailed by eight points at half time, but a barnstorming nine-goal third quarter set them on the path to victory. Playing-coach Steve O’Bryan played a blinder, kicking five, while Daniel Fry’s four goals and great games from Troy Toussaint and Jake Smith were other highlights of the victory. Youngsters Nick Schumann and Kris Sabbatucci battled out the four quarters strongly for the Seagulls.
Narre Warren will head into this week’s huge clash with Beaconsfield on a high after slamming through 10 last-quarter goals against Hampton Park at Robert Booth Reserve.
The Magpies didn’t look like 112-point winners at half-time, leading by just 23 points, but released the brakes to record an impressive victory.
George Angelopoulos, Kerem Baskaya and Matt Lee kicked three each for the Magpies and Adam Jamieson slotted two for the Redbacks.
Berwick has finished off its home-and-away duties in style, heading into a last-round bye with a 65-point victory over Doveton under its belt.
The Wickers were erratic in the second and third terms, kicking 1.7 and then 3.9 for a two-quarter total of 4.16.
They finished in style however with an 8.2 to 0.1 final quarter to really put their mark on the contest and put the perfect exclamation mark on a great season.
“We really rate Doveton, and they’ve been in good form, so we were really happy with the way we played,” coach Rhys Nisbet said.
Ash Smith and Luke Nelson bagged four each for Berwick and Travis Davis kicked three for the Doves.
