South Melbourne win Battle of the Bloods as MHSOB complete stunning comeback — Div 2 Men’s Round 10

MHSOB 16.18.114 def Canterbury 14.10.94

MHSOB completed a stunning comeback over Canterbury, kicking six goals in the final term to take the win despite trailing all game.

Canterbury started the game hot, kicking seven goals in the first term, giving them a 36-point lead at the first change, playing what coach Steve Brown described as “almost the best footy we’ve played for the year.”

The Unicorns responded in the second term, kicking four goals to one and tightening the lead to 12 at the main break, before turning up the energy to kick the last six goals of the game and complete the comeback, running out 20-point winners.

“Canterbury are a very good side,” MHSOB coach Sean Lester said. “We were a touch off early and they capitalised on that. Similarly to the weekend before against Power House, in the first quarter we tried to play Canterbury footy and no surprise, they’re better at that brand than we are.

“We had a clear message for the second quarter about momentum. I didn’t care if it was 51 to 49 per cent in our favour, so long as they didn’t have any momentum. Then we gradually chipped away.”

The third quarter was key to the win, with both sides trading goals to keep the margin at a winnable 12 points.

“At three-quarter time we knew our last quarters had been strong and Canterbury’s recent form suggested they would have tired legs late,” Lester said. “It was about challenging them and asking the questions, ‘Are we good enough?’ and ‘Will they want to fight enough?’”

“There’d been long quarters due to stoppages, so we knew there was still plenty of time. What was most pleasing was that when we hit the front, we didn’t park the bus or change anything. We just kept doing what worked well.”

Elsternwick 19.14.128 def West Brunswick 9.6.60

A complete four-quarter performance saw Elsternwick take the chocolates over West Brunswick by 68 points at Elsternwick Park.

While West Brunswick kicked the first of the game, it was the only time they would manage to hold the lead, with the Wicks kicking the next four and maintain this momentum for the match.

“It started from our midfield,” Elsternwick coach Oliver Gildea said. “We got first use and used the ball really well going forward. I felt that our pressure game made it really hard for West Brunswick to get their game going, and we carried that through the day.”

It was Elsternwick’s second-highest score of the season, with the side creating plenty of opportunities for their forwards to latch onto.

“We had a lot of multiple goalkickers, which is always hard to defend,” Gildea said. “I felt they didn’t have match-ups for our talls in the front half, so we threw an extra tall forward and that made us hard to defend. Any team is hard to beat with a good spread of avenues to goal.”

“Their ball movement and ability to capitalise on opportunities were impressive,” West Brunswick coach Rick Pograri said. “From our side, there were aspects of our defensive execution that we’d like to improve.”  

The Wicks were also strong defensively, holding the Magpies to just nine goals.

“Defensively, I think we just applied great pressure and rolled high up the ground,” Gildea said. “Our voice and energy all day was fantastic and, in a tight competition, that can make all the difference. That was the real positive for the day.”

West Brunswick will hope for a better performance against South Melbourne, who beat the Magpies in a nail-biter in Round 2.

Power House 12.11.83 def North Brunswick 10.5.65

Power House recorded their fourth win on the trot, but it nearly wasn’t to be after a close encounter with ladder dwellers North Brunswick who kept the victors to just 18 points.

North Brunswick started the game strong, kicking 4.1 to take a five point lead into the first break.

“North Brunswick played really strong contested footy, which we expected, and they pretty much dominated the first 20 minutes,” Power House coach Nick Cox said. “We were able to work our way back into it when our mids got on top.”

In the second quarter, Power House displayed why they are sitting second on the ladder as they kicked five goals while keeping their opponents to none. Whilst they had the help of the wind, their contest and outside run game helped them get on top at half-time with a 28-point lead.

North Brunswick did well to work their way back into the contest in the third, cutting the lead down to just 10 at three-quarter time. However, they were unable to carry that momentum into the last as Power House kicked the final two goals of the game, sealing the four points.

“The message at three-quarter time was to get back to how we played in the second quarter, and we were able to do that,” Cox said. “It was a real slog, and I was pleased with how we were able to finish the game off well. This division is really tight, and North Brunswick are going to make it tough for a lot of sides in the second half of the season.”  

North Brunswick will look take confidence out of their close encounter as they come up against another strong side in Canterbury next week, while Power House face Therry Penola.

Whitefriars 16.13.109 def Therry Penola 7.4.46

Whitefriars’ stingy defence was one of the key factors in their dominant 63-point win over Therry Penola. Whitefriars started the game strong, kicking four goals to one in the opening term.

“We struggled to get clean possession out of defence, which they took advantage of, and they put goals on the board,” Therry Penola coach John Tate said. “Late in the first we were able to get the game back on even terms, but we couldn’t score as we wanted to.”

The Lions kicked three in a row early in the second to cut the margin to nine; however, they suffered a few match-ending injuries, hurting their stocks as Whitefriars started to regain some momentum.

“It was nice to see we put the hammer down and didn’t get complacent with an early lead,” Whitefriars coach Andrew Daou said. “Young sides can sometimes get wrapped up in their early work and our leaders ensured we didn’t.”

In the second half, Whitefriars’ lead continued to grow, kicking six goals to two while their defence held Therry Penola to just 46 points on the day.

“It was a team effort,” Daou said. “The forward pressure was manic, the mids won the source all day, and the backs were an iron wall.”

Therry Penola tried hard all day; however, Whitefriars were too strong for the Lions.

“Jack Ivers’ run from behind was a positive and Tommy Reymers getting busy in the forward half helped, but our poor execution allowed Whitefriars to get forward 50 entries, and they continued to score from them,” Tate said.

Jordan Knox was strong down back for Whitefriars, with Matt Makao’s forward pressure being key as Chevy Spurr’s performances continued to improve each week.

South Melbourne 12.11.83 def Aquinas 9.11.65

South Melbourne got back to winning ways as they defeated Aquinas by 18 points away from home. Aquinas started the game strong, kicking the only three goals of the first term, which gave them a 16-point lead at quarter-time.  

South Melbourne had a better showing in the second term, kicking three in a row, which helped cut the lead to one at half-time. South Melbourne got on top early in the third, kicking another streak of three goals before Aquinas responded with their own three-goal streak.

South Melbourne led by seven at the last change, and Aquinas cut the lead down to one early in the term; however, South Melbourne then went on to kick four of the last five goals of the game, sealing their fourth win of the season.

One of the highlights of the game was Seb Coombes’ volley in the goal square, as the small forward kicked five on the day. As well as Coombes, Conor O’Neill, Hayden Portelli and Lachlan Hornibrook were among the best for South Melbourne. Jack Livingstone, Toby Box and Matthew Cintolo were the standouts for Aquinas.

 Aquinas will look to get back to winning ways against Elsternwick, whilst South Melbourne will look to make it two in a row against West Brunswick.