Crushing wins, maiden victories and a come-from-behind classic

Saturday in Division 2 saw teams come with an early rush to set up big victories, others came back to earth with a thud while for one side Round 4 gave them their first win of the season.

At the top of the tree sit Brunswick, the only undefeated side remaining after an impressive 40 point win over Old Parade. Despite the inaccuracy in front of the sticks, Aaron Christensen found his way to five goals taking his season tally to 11 after the first month.

Rhyen Woods would be high up in the early votes for the club best and fairest after another best on ground performance while for the Paradians Anthony Cafari added three majors to his season tally of 10 as Ross Licciardi battled manfully all afternoon.

The impressive start to the year from Brunswick sees them averaging 122 points per game while only conceding 43.5 points per game, has them well on their way to stay within the top two all year with those numbers.

Speaking of top two, Division 2 this weekend will get an early taste of finals as they face off against second placed Ivanhoe AFC while Old Parade welcome West Brunswick to Garvey Oval.

On the Hoers, they made light work of Power House with 8 goals to 1 in the opening term. The margin extended beyond 100 points as the game unfolded as they finished with 39 scoring shots to 12.

A plethora of goalkickers came from Ivanhoe, James Course the top goalscorer with four. Three goals went the way of Wayne Schultz, Nicholas Ring, Billy Drake and James Lagreca. For Power House, it’s been a lean start to 2022, Jeremy Hill has been a shining light being named in the best for the third consecutive week after a two goal performance.

There’s a genuine opportunity coming this weekend as they host Yarra Old Grammarians at Ross Gregory Oval with both sides gunning for their first win of the year.

Yarra Old were held to one goal for three quarters against Manningham Cobras as they picked up their first set of 4 points in 2022 with a 33 point win. A total of 10.25 were kicked by both sides in the contest with Anthony Raso, Ethan Brandon-Jones and Michael Muller all kicking two goals each for the Cobras.

After a couple of heavy losses in Round’s one and two, they’ve fought on in the last fortnight and found some reward for effort. Will they continue their form as they travel out to Aquinas this weekend?

Aquinas started the year in a blaze of glory but were taught a football lesson from MHSOB, a 33 point quarter time lead extended to 59 by half time with the final margin finishing at 90 points.

Ashan Wijayakumara is back to his goalkicking best with six majors in the contest, which places him third on the sharpshooters list. Lachie Dowling helped the cause with four goals of his own as Steven Edmonds ran rampant in a best on ground display.

Jacob Costello followed up his two goals last week for Aquinas with another three in front of the sticks. It wouldn’t be at all surprising if they come away learning more about themselves from those four quarters and a completely different looking team come the return bout later this year.

The final game of the round was the tightest with West Brunswick storming home to come from behind against Bulleen Templestowe.

Trailing all day, and by 16 points at the final change, the Magpies turned up the turbo kicking 6 goals to 1 in a final quarter blitz to win by 15 points.

Billy Irving and Ellis Hayes-Hills kicked four goals each as part of the victory while Jack Cowell finished with four for the Ants. Will Dillon has been impressive in the early part of the season for West Brunswick being named the best player on the ground.

At 2-2 for Bulleen, they’ve been around the mark in every game so far and will be ruing this as one that got away. It’s a far cry from where they’ve come from 12 months ago, the next fortnight against Brunswick and MHSOB gives them a great opportunity to throw caution to the wind and get a gauge on just how far they’ve come against two of the strongest teams in Division 2.