By Blair Burns
After a reality check against East Brighton in round two Narre Warren bounced back to record a morale-boosting 29-point Anzac Day victory over a challenging Port Melbourne side under lights at JL Murphy Reserve.
Despite being on the back foot and trailing by 21 points at half time, the Magpies responded in the second half, kicking 10 goals to two as they found their way back on the winners’ list.
The wet conditions didn’t stop the ball from moving quickly with 29 goals being scored; Narre Warren winning 17.13 (115) to 12.14 (86).
Magpies coach Steven Kidd was impressed with the response from his side.
“We were just glad to get the win, it was probably one of our best home and away wins for a few years,” he said.
“If we had have gone down on Friday night, it probably would’ve knocked the players’ confidence around a bit, but this gives them a bit of credit that they can compete against the better sides.
“The young guys in the team are probably learning what they need to do to be able to compete and what level of intensity they need to bring to be able to do that.”
It was clear from the outset that Port Melbourne played their smaller ground well, but it was in the midfield where the Colts really took control of the game.
The home side forced repeat entries inside 50 forcing the Narre Warren defenders to resort to dump kicks out of defence.
Kurt Mutimer was a notable absence for Narre Warren and his lack of presence was felt, particularly in the first half as ex-Melbourne footballer Michael Hibberd and Justin Taylor dominated the contested ball.
This allowed players like Charlie Clarke to get some great looks at goal, with the ex-Bulldog putting through an impressive snap for the first score of the game.
“When we rocked up, we were a little bit out of our comfort zone with what we are used to, in terms of the ground size and the metropolitan nature of the ground,” Kidd said.
“But they came out, (they are) big bodies and obviously dominated the first half … they were too good in the clearance and contest.”
The first goal for Narre Warren was important to settle a few nerves and get one against the grain with a nice passage of play, in what was the opening scene of the ‘Richo’ show.
It started with a long kick from defence as Mitchell Tonna gathered the ball cleanly, copped one high which wasn’t called, before finding his ruckman Hayden Dwyer streaming past who went long and direct.
Jake Richardson took the chest mark just outside the square and went back to slot his first of the game, and the Magpies’ first.
He soon had his second major from a set shot after Riley Siwes laced him out on the lead, and then his third with a classy checkside from the left pocket, the big man was on fire with three early goals.
Dwyer was dominating the ruck battle and some crucial umpiring decisions had went the way of Narre Warren, but Hibberd and Taylor were controlling the narrative from the engine room.
The second quarter began and Port Melbourne picked up where they left off with their star Clarke in fine form, kicking a goal on both the left and right early in the term before Richardson replied with his fourth.
The Colts were firing shots at goal as Narre Warren tried to keep itself in the game with the half time scores 71-50.
Something had to change and Kidd decided to move some magnets around, which was a move that really paid off.
“We gave the players some ideas about what they could do better rather than what we were doing wrong and we made a couple of positional changes,” Kidd said.
“We moved Pete Gentile to half back and put Jesse Davies on the ball, and just asked the guys to focus on the contested ball and win it when it was their turn, and to the guys’ credit, that’s what we did.
“With the conditions the way they were, we wanted to try and get the ball in quick and we did that a bit better after half time.”
Narre Warren’s pressure had lifted, the ball use was better; players were sticking tackles and the side had found better structure behind the ball.
Tom Toner’s burst from stoppage and half-back was hugely influential, Siwes was a bull in the contest, and captain Joel Zietsman was rarely beaten, despite the tough task on Hibberd who had drifted forward.
Goals to Toner, Hamish West and Jett Kearney saw the Magpies wrestle back momentum, as well as the margin, trailing by three points at the final break.
Toner broke away from Justin Taylor at the next centre bounce with elite burst, ran his distance and went for home as fans began to erupt, only for the ball to smash into the left post for a minor score.
Shortly after, a Colts defender kicked a clearing ball out of defence along the boundary line, but the ball hit a tree branch and fell short into Jimmy Dwyer’s lap as the umpire shouted “play on”.
The youngster kicked the ball inside 50 and found Howe on the chest, narrowly beating the siren, but he couldn’t convert and the Colts had been spared a couple of late daggers.
The Magpies held Port Melbourne to just 0.3 for the quarter, while scoring 3.3 themselves.
“The message (at three-quarter time) was to keep doing what we are doing and the dam wall will break, we played a really good third quarter,” Kidd said.
“Our defenders were proactive rather than reactive and we put that message through, to win the contested ball and work harder in there … and we were able to run away with it.”
The last quarter was one-way traffic as Narre Warren kicked seven goals to two, as the side claimed its second win of the season.
Davies only had 14 disposals but impacted the contest every time he got the ball, while Gentile (24 disposals, five marks) took the sting out of the game in defence.
Corey Bader gave his all around the stoppage with seven tackles, while Siwes (30 disposals, four tackles) had a game for the ages.
“We are still trying to find a midfield balance so I think we can probably run more guys through there, Riley Siwes probably had his best game for the club, Jesse Davies was also good in there,” Kidd said.
“Our forward pressure was huge and the backline probably needed that little bit of confidence to take the game on a little bit, they’ve probably been a bit conservative in the first few weeks.”
Richardson (20 disposals, six goals, five tackles, 12 hitouts) was best on ground for Narre Warren, playing a bit deeper, with Howe moving into a higher forward role.
Dwyer (13 disposals, one goal, 56 hitouts) was brilliant all night and Toner (20 disposals, two goals) provided the spark.
For Port Melbourne, Taylor (35 disposals, nine tackles), Hibberd (31 disposals, two goals), Clarke (26 disposals, three goals) and Robbie McComb (33 disposals, five tackles) were all ball magnets.
In other games across Division 1, Cranbourne has fallen to a 0-3 start to the season after East Brighton took the Eagles down by 48 points.
Captain Zak Roscoe and Kyle Lanham (two goals each) worked hard, but Alex Keath dominated for the Vampires with three goals.
The road to finals now looks a bit bumpier for Cranbourne who will need to turn the tides and get a win against Murrumbeena this weekend.
There was no shortage of stars for Cheltenham as the reigning premiers thumped Bentleigh by 41 points with Austin Johnson leading the way with 33 disposals and five goals.
Teammates Jack Lonie (35 disposals and three goals) and Sam Hayes (30 disposals, one goal, 12 marks) also had huge outings for the Rosellas.
St Pauls McKinnon continued its unbeaten run as it knocked off Murrumbeena by 51 points, with Will McCartney (33 disposals, one goal) and Matthew O’Brien (27 disposals, two goals) leading the way in a strong team performance.
SOUTHERN DIVISION 1
PORT MELBOURNE 5.5 10.11 10.14 12.14 (86)
NARRE WARREN 4.3 7.8 10.11 17.13 (115)
PORT MELBOURNE GOALS: Charlie Clarke, Riley Stafford 3, Michael Hibberd, Rikki Newton 2, Tyler Bell, Amani Karauria-Lunt.
BEST: Tyler Bell, Jordan Maloney, Rikki Newton, Tyler Jones, Charlie Clarke, Riley Stafford.
NARRE WARREN GOALS: Jake Richardson 6, Will Howe, Tom Toner, Hamish West 2, Jesse Davies, Hayden Dwyer, Jett Kearney, Brayden Sharp, Riley Siwes.
BEST: Jake Richardson, Riley Siwes, Hayden Dwyer, Joel Zietsman, Mitchell Tonna, Tom Toner.
CRANBOURNE 1.4 4.9 4.9 5.12 (42)
EAST BRIGHTON 3.2 6.3 13.5 14.6 (90)
CRANBOURNE GOALS: Kyle Lanham, Zak Roscoe 2, Callum Pola.
BEST: N/A.
EAST BRIGHTON GOALS: Alex Keath 3, Sean Downie, Declan Joyce-Lawford, Jacob Sandman 2, Blake Cochrane, Kyle Cooper, Michael Giles, Thomas Lamb.
BEST: Alex Keath, Sean Downie, Henry McLorinan, Kyle Cooper, Andrew Denoon, Tom Bracher.
OTHER GAMES – Rd 3: Dingley 13.9 (87) def Springvale Districts 10.12 (72), Cheltenham 17.8 (110) def Bentleigh 10.9 (69), St Pauls McKinnon 14.12 (96) def Murrumbeena 6.9 (45).
LADDER: East Brighton, Dingley, St Pauls McKinnon 12, Cheltenham, Narre Warren 8, Bentleigh, Port Melbourne 4, Cranbourne, Springvale Districts, Murrumbeena 0.
FIXTURE – Rd 4: Dingley (2) v East Brighton (1), Cheltenham (4) v Narre Warren (5), Bentleigh (6) v Port Melbourne (7), St Pauls McKinnon (3) v Springvale Districts (9), Murrumbeena (10) v Cranbourne (8).
