Big scores and big wins in Round 11

Mitch Dyer

Round 11 action saw some of the biggest scores in Division 1 Men’s, and with a few players missing heading into the season of European holidays and prime time for the flu, things are only going to get more interesting over the next few weeks.

Let’s kick things off with Old Peninsula taking on the inform Kew outfit, a matchup that was rather one sided throughout the afternoon.  The men from Kew got away to a flying start, taking advantage of the inaccuracy from the Peninsula boys with 6 minors to open the first quarter.  From there, it went into cruise control from this high-powered forward line as Kew began to kick away with ease and run out eventual 31 point winners, with Cooper Lord on debut kicking 3 big ones to steer his side home and continue their momentum for a first place finish in the division.

Moving on to the next match up and let me tell you, this was an absolute thumping from Therry Penola, chalking up their biggest win and biggest score of the year against Whitefriars.  This team is such an interesting one because their potential, as we can see here, is sky high – and they put it all on display on Saturday afternoon, booting 21 majors for the afternoon, steam rolling Whitefriars by 86 points, with 6 big ones from Kane O’Halloran – putting to bed any hope or glimmer of ambition for Whitefriars to maybe make a push to contend for the final spot in this top 4 outfit.

Now, if we are going to talk about demolition and steam rolling teams, then we have to talk about the game that produced the highest score of the year in the matchup between PEGS and St Marys Salesian.  PEGS are the best team in the comp on their day and this was the definition of it being your big day, piling on 31.23 against the bottom of the ladder St Marys Salesian, with a notable 8 different multiple goal scorers.  This was always going to be a large deficit, but I did not expect PEGS to eclipse the 200 point margin.  This was an impressive display of why they are the in-form team of the competition, and they certainly wasted no time in flexing their muscles and showing that.

The matchup between Old Camberwell and Prahran Assumption had huge ramifications for the race into the top 4, with one side really putting themselves back into the conversation of a chance to appear in the finals at year’s end.  It certainly was not the start to the year Camberwell would have wanted, but they are the team that just won’t go away, making a push here against a side who sits just one spot above on the ladder in 5th.  The game was never really in the balance with Old Camberwell, and in particular Sam Murphy digging deep to will the team over the line by 29 points to keep themselves in the conversation of the finals push.

The final game of the round was another mid-table matchup between Oakleigh and Glen Eira.  Oakleigh currently sits fourth on the table, and with their big forward Aaron Cloke kicking bag after bag, I tipped that this outfit would run away victors at days end, however I was proven wrong!  Glen Eira came out of the blocks slowly, but with 5+ goals in the second and fourth terms, they were able to control the game with ease and run out 59-point victors over a top 4 side, which again has major repercussions for these teams trying to vie for that fourth and final spot at years end.