Round 8 Division 1 Men’s Review

Kew (20.15 – 135) def Brunswick (2.5 – 17)

In a mid-table clash, Kew decisively defeated Brunswick by 118 points. A 10-goal to one lead gave Kew a substantial lead at the halftime break, and their firepower didn’t slow down from there. Six multiple goal scorers allowed Kew to stack up scoreboard pressure with 20 goals on the day, allowing Kew to get their fourth 100+ point game in the last five weeks. It was a disappointing change in result for Brunswick, who came into the match off the back of several good wins in the last month.

Brunswick will have another significant challenge next week when they face off against Prahran, as they continue to fight to keep their top two spot from Parkside, while Kew will be up against the Monash Blues in the last game before the season’s midpoint. Kew will be hoping to go into the second half of the season with a positive win-loss ratio, reliant on whether they get the win on the weekend.

Parkside (22.19 – 151) def Monash Blues (6.1 – 37)

Parkside is coming off a substantial 114-point win against the Monash Blues. They were already dominating by halftime, leading 76-12. The Blues did find some fight in the third quarter, scoring four goals to Parkside’s two. However, Parkside regained control in the final term, keeping Monash scoreless and stacking on another nine goals of their own for a final score of 151-37. 

Parkside coach Rick Frost was happy with his players across all lines of the ground.

“Tom Hakins in the forward line returned to really good form,” he said.

“Ryan Williams and Mick Romano, both on ball, were brilliant, and Nick Moylan in the backline is in career best form.”

The well-rounded performance led to another big margin for Parkside, although the winning margin wasn’t quite enough to stay ahead of Prahran, dropping Parkside to third place on the ladder.

However, percentage is not something the team focuses on, according to Frost, who said instead they “base our club on practising a style that will hold up in big games” rather than focusing on any ladder impact.

The Blues will host Kew next week, who are coming off a large win of their own. Parkside will travel to play UHS-VU, who are fighting to get out of the relegation bracket at the midway point of the season.

Prahran (21.18 – 144) def Old Yarra Cobras (5.3 – 33)

Prahran added another solid win, this time against the Old Yarra Cobras. The margin was kept to only two goals at quarter time and half-time, with Old Yarra staying in the fight and Prahran battling inaccuracy to start the game. However, Prahran regained composure and started piling on the goals in the second half, with the sides going four to three in the first half, and 17 goals to one in the second.

Prahran assistant coach Patrick Marks noted their slow start, saying it “took us a bit to get going, but we were able to put it together in the second half”.

The second half was significant for Prahran, adding up to a margin of 111 points. The margin enabled the side to jump ahead on the ladder to second place, with Marks saying, “We had a focus to keep pushing for scores this week as we were sitting third by a very small margin.”

Marks said the game allowed the side to “make the most of our opportunities going forward to provide ourselves with the best opportunity for finals.”

Within the game, Marks gave praise to Tom Cotter alongside Joshua Steffanutti up forward and Rory Brodie in the ruck, who didn’t lose many taps.

Old Yarra Cobras coach Nathan Monaco saw the two distinct sides of the game, celebrating that his side “played our best half of football all year yesterday”, before going on to note “unfortunately we just lost connection in the second half and allowed their midfielders to put us away.”

While disappointed by the second half, he acknowledged his side is still “trying to home in on all the positives from the first half to build for the back end of the year.”

Prahran will face Brunswick in Round 9, a team hoping to redeem themselves after a tough loss to Kew. Prahran will hope to get the win and stay in the top two going into the second half of the season. The going doesn’t get any easier for the Cobras, though, as they host the undefeated Preston Bullants and will hope to expand their first-half form across more of the game.

Preston Bullants (16.11 – 107) def St Mary’s Salesian (7.11 – 53)

An honourable effort from St Mary’s Salesian wasn’t enough to top a 54-point win by the undefeated Preston Bullants. The game started evenly, with the scores tied at nine points apiece at the first break. From here, however, the Bullants were able to reveal their class, breaking away to a 26-point lead at the half-time break and scoring 10 goals to five in the second half to expand this lead.

Despite the end result, St Mary’s coach Heather Chipperfield said he “was pretty happy with our effort and contest throughout the day, even if the scoreboard didn’t quite reflect that.”

Chipperfield noted the quality of opposition was high, identifying their ability to set up the ball and rapidly generate scores when they had momentum. Chipperfield compared this to his side’s ability to score as a key development to their path forward.

“In contrast, we didn’t capitalise on our inside 50’s. We’ve still got some work to do with our connection up forward, but still, plenty of positives came out of the game.”

Chipperfield gave praise to his midfield group, acknowledging Will Coten, Ben Tricarico, Nathan Evans and Jason Rubridge all worked well as a midfield group, with further praise given to Josh Salloum, who was brilliant in defence before being moved up forward late.

Preston will attempt to complete a perfect first half of the season when they go up against the struggling Old Yarra Cobras at Koonung Reserve on the weekend. St Mary’s Salesian will have a tough match-up on their hands against Oakleigh. A win would give St Mary’s a positive win-loss ratio going into the second half of the season.

Oakleigh (19.16 – 130) def UHS-VU (8.6 – 54)

Oakleigh kept themselves in touch with the top four with a 76-point win over University High School – Victoria University. Oakleigh took a four-goal lead at the quarter break, expanding that to an eight-goal lead at half-time. Oakleigh slowed their opponent down in the third but couldn’t do enough to reduce the margin, resulting in 19 goals for Oakleigh, with nine of them coming from captain Nicholas Torpey and vice-captain Rogan Kitts combined. Despite a valiant effort from UHS-VU, including three goals from Brandon Jackson, it wasn’t enough scoring power to keep up with Oakleigh.

In Round 9, Oakleigh will come up against St Mary’s Salesian, who are coming off a solid effort against the ladder-leading Bullants. UHS-VU will host Parkside, who continue to compete for second spot.