By Marcus Uhe
Rowville emerged one of the major winners from a colossus weekend of fixtures in the Eastern Football Netball League’s Premier Division, coming from behind to defeat Doncaster East by the barest of margins in a thriller at home.
With scores tied at 81 apiece, a skied, floating snap over his shoulder from captain Anthony Brolic drifted over the outstretched arms of the Doncaster East defenders to register a crucial minor score, before the siren sounded at Seebeck Oval as the Lions were plotting the ball’s return to the field of play.
The Hawks had trailed for the entire contest, including by as much as 34 points in the second term, and entered the final quarter with an 11-point deficit in what was a potential finals preview between two of the competition’s elite sides.
Slippery conditions added a layer of difficulty to ball-handling in an already tense and pressure-packed environment around the football, as winning the contest took-on ever more of a premium.
Callum Verrell reduced the deficit to just three points with a goal on the run after four minutes, the closest the two sides had been since the first quarter, injecting life into the crowd on the outskirts of the Tirhatuan Wetlands.
The Hawks’ fleet of quick ball users then swiftly moved the ball from end-to-end to present Lachlan Wynd with the opportunity to take the lead with a trademark galloping set shot, to which he duly obliged, handing his side a two-point buffer.
Tensions rose for the next 10 minutes as the ball bounced between the arcs with neither side managing to snap the anxiety with a major.
A series of stoppages in the Lions’ forward 50 tightened the screws on the contest once again, before Rowville were able to surge the ball forward, switch play and find space on the far boundary.
As cool as you’ll see under such circumstances, Jake Arundell gathered a lose ball under the scoreboard, stepped-around a defender and with a check-sided-snap, extended the lead to six points, with skill that belied the conditions at ground-level.
But the visitors immediately answered back from the next centre-bounce, goaling from the clearance to level the scores in the 18th minute.
The Hawks’ run and ability to defend in numbers held them in good stead down the stretch of the match, making life difficult for the Lions’ forwards to score when the ball entered their attacking half of the ground.
Defence led to the decisive goal of the game too, as Lachlan McDonald read the cues on a Lions kick-out to intercept and goal on the run to put the Hawks back ahead by seven points with 10 minutes remaining.
It was too early to flood numbers behind the ball or to try to kill the contest, and the Lions used the remaining time to their advantage, tying the scores once again in the 30th minute.
McDonald won a crucial freekick at the following centre-bounce to pump his side into attack, but desperate defending from both sides meant it was one of few remaining clean possessions for the remainder of the contest.
The ball found its way into the pocket and eventually over the boundary to be thrown back into play, leading to Brolic’s game-winning point and subsequent emotional scenes, as players on the Rowville bench charged the field after the final siren to embrace victorious teammates.
In a unique set of circumstances which saw three games pitting six finals aspirants against one-another, the Hawks moved a game clear of the vanquished Doncaster East and Noble Park, in fifth and sixth place respectively, with five games remaining until finals action.
Where the Hawks came home with a wet sail to rein-in an 11-point lead, Noble Park was on the other side of the coin, relinquishing one in a costly 10-point loss to East Ringwood on the road.
Missed opportunities will haunt the Bulls, who kicked 6.14 (50) to the Kangaroos’ 9.6 (60) in a loss that could prove disastrous later in the season when finals seedings are determined.
The Bulls finished the game in the same manner they started, kicking 0.6 in both the first and last terms despite having much of the possession, compared to East Ringwood’s 1.0.
While finally able to convert in the second, the Bulls trailed by five points at the half despite having taken five more shots at goal, the home side a ruthless 5.0 to Noble Park’s 3.7
Where they were able to mitigate the consequences of the early misses in the opening stages of the contest, the final term was a different matter, as the Kangaroos kicked the final four goals of the match to hop home.
Chris Horton-Milne, Ben Marson and Nathan Noblett kicked one behind each to open the final term before East Ringwood was able to score from a kick-out following the Noblett miss, cutting the lead to six.
Shortly after, the scores were tied after East Ringwood manufactured a clever goal from a forward 50 stoppage.
Misses to Kevin Kean, Liam Scott and Lachlan McDonnell kept the door ajar for the home side, and two goals in the final three minutes of play saw them take the opportunity with both hands.
Riet Pal was rundown at fullback and penalised holding the ball, a chance the ‘Roos pouched, before nailing the sealer with a long set shot from the following centre clearance to go 10 points clear.
The midfield trio of Horton-Milne, Jackson Sketcher and Jackson Casey continue to pull their weight for the Bulls as the side’s leading performers, while Marson and Noblett each kicked two goals.
Had the Bulls won, they would have moved a game clear of Doncaster East into fifth place, but the missed chances sees them remain just hanging-on to the top six.
Berwick, meanwhile, made a significant step in its quest to remain in the competition’s Premier Division in 2024 by thrashing a fellow relegation-battling side in Doncaster by 86 points.
Doncaster kicked two goals in the opening 12 minutes of play but managed just four behinds for the remainder of the game, as Berwick offered its best offensive and defensive performance of the season, winning 15.13 107 to 2.5 17.
Travis Tuck kicked two goals in his first game since round nine to be one of the best in navy blue, alongside fellow senior heads in Ashton Williamson, Tom Brennan and Jesse Cirulis.
In the context of their future in the top flight, their fifth win sees them kick four wins clear of bottom-placed Doncaster with five matches remaining, leaving the Sharks likely to be one of the two sides relegated to Division One.
