Old Yarra flex their muscles in top four clash with Whitefriars

The Division 2 Men’s ladder leaders showed why they are one of the teams to beat in 2025, while Canterbury continued their mid-season surge.

The much-anticipated rematch between Old Yarra Cobras and Whitefriars turned out to be a one-sided affair, with the top-of-the-table Cobras running out 87-point winners. Old Yarra set the tone early, kicking seven goals to none in the first quarter, and a further six in each of the following two quarters to lead by 89 points at the final change.

Friars coach Lucas Matthews his team couldn’t compete with the Cobras’ physicality. “They moved the ball really well, and were set up well to stop what we were trying to do. We’d try to shift them sideways, and they ran over the top of us,” he said.

Old Yarra coach Nathan Monaco was pleased with his side’s performance, especially moving the ball forward. Jackson Lesko’s five goal performance saw him claim the Tom Bell Medal as the best player on the ground. Bell, a former captain, designed the guernsey worn by Old Yarra with Chris Hume.

“He’s mature headed, and is a clearance machine,” Monaco said of Bell. “He probably gets the best defensive mid going to him week in week out, but it doesn’t phase him. [Bell] is such a big part of the club, and does great work with the Indigenous community. We’re really lucky that we’ve got someone like him.”

Canterbury took another important step towards avoiding the drop back to Division 3, defeating Hawthorn by 76 points at Rathmines Road Reserve and winning their third consecutive game. The Cobras jumped out of the blocks with seven goals in the first 15 minutes, which left Mark Murray’s men trying to play catch-up for the rest of the day.

“There was a pretty strong wind, and [Canterbury] just took advantage of that. They were able to get it out of the centre too easily and that put our backline under pressure,” the Hawthorn coach said. “But I thought we battled hard. From quarter time we really focused on being strong over the ball and that evened things up a bit – they didn’t get as much free-flowing ball through the middle of the ground as they did in the first 20 minutes.”

Cobras coach Steve Brown said the Hawks’ pressure made scoring harder in the third quarter, with Canterbury adding 3.13, but was pleased with the continued development of young forward Ryder Daffy. Daffy bagged his second five-goal haul in his three matches, taking him to 14 goals for the season.

“He’s just so agile,” Murray said of the Xavier College product. “He’s got a few tricks up his sleeve and was able to turn around really quickly. If he gets some good service from the midfield, he’ll be a real handful in that forward line for them.”

It was a game of two halves between West Brunswick and MHSOB at Ransford Oval, with the Magpies dominating the first two quarters before the Unicorns came out firing after half time. The 37-point victory was a real eight-point game for the two teams, with West Brunswick keeping themselves lodged firmly in the top four while MHSOB remain a game and a half behind fourth placed Whitefriars.

“I have no idea what they’d said in the rooms, but they came out as an absolute army,” said West Brunswick coach Regan Tait. “Their defensive pressure was fantastic. There was not time when we had the football and there wasn’t one of them already swinging our jumper. They were on to what we were trying to do [in the first half] but we were able to hold on for the win.”

Unicorns coach Bernie Pretty said the pre-game and half-time message to the players was the same and that his side executed better after the main break, but by that point the damage had been done.

St Mary’s Salesian bounced back from their first loss since May with a 40-point win against South Melbourne Districts. The blustery conditions at Ferndale Park made for a topsy turvy match, with 20 of the 24 goals scored at one end of the ground.

The Bloods, kicking with the wind in the first quarter, led by 15 points at the first break – but could have had a bigger lead after managing only three goals from eight scoring shots. St Mary’s hit back in the second with six goals to two, before a four goal to one third quarter from South Melbourne saw the two teams level at three quarter time. The Saints kicked seven goals to one in the final quarter to claim their tenth win of the season.

Saints coach Clay Tait said it was challenging to essentially switch between attacking one quarter and defending the next depending on whether you were kicking with or against the wind, but felt his side played the premiership quarter perfectly.

“We went in at half time and spoke about neutralising the game in the third. And I thought we played a really smart quarter of footy. To keep them to four scoring shots in that quarter was really good; they just happened to be four goals.”

Bloods coach Nick Abbott was disappointed to see his side give up momentum – and a lead – in another game against a top four side, with South Melbourne falling to Old Yarra and Whitefriars over the previous fortnight.

St John’s overcame 10 changes from Round 11 and a three-game losing streakto defeat Aquinas by 37 points. JOC’s coach Tim Edwards felt his side’s early clearance dominance helped set the game up.

“Shannon Marsh and Ben Robinson played in the midfield all day because we were down a few, but battled away and were among the best. And we played a lot of the kids again, and they all played their role,” he said.

Bloods coach Craig Glennie said the Aquinas defence held up well for the majority of the game, with St John’s having 21 more inside 50’s, but was sad to see Jaycob Baxter go down to a hamstring injury the second quarter after his six-goal performance in Round 12. 

The 10 teams have a week off for the VAFA’s representative clashes before returning for the final stretch of the season. Round 13 action sees MHSOB travel to Ringwood to play Aquinas, while Whitefriars will look to regroup form their big loss against Old Yarra and get back on the winners list when they host St Mary’s Salesian. Elsewhere, Canterbury squares off against West Brunswick in what should be an entertaining match based on recent form, St John’s meet Old Yarra Cobras, and Hawthorn and South Melbourne Districts – two teams in desperate need of a win – do battle at the Lindsay Hasset Oval.