Monster scores & a Preston thriller – Division 1 Men’s Round 17 Review

It was a weekend full of offence in Division 1 Men’s, with some big scores on display. While the bottom five have been set for some time, the battle from second to fifth on the ladder continues to be a tight contest.

Oakleigh 29.10 (184) def Brunswick 3.4 (22)

Oakleigh continued to put their best foot forward with another substantial win over Brunswick.

The Krushers kept Brunswick to one goal for the majority of the afternoon, while managing to stack on 29 goals of their own.

Oakleigh had 95 points by halftime and continued to build up the margins even though percentage will be unlikely to help them at this stage.

Star Oakleigh forward Rogan Kitts has likely locked away the competition’s leading goalkicker kicking a huge nine goals and now has 74 goals for the season.

There were plenty of goals to share around, however, Elliot Black slotted a bag of seven and Oliver Thomson kicked four.

Oakleigh will look to keep their future in their own hands with a win over St Mary’s this coming round.

A win would lock them into finals on points, whereas a loss would mean they are relying on Parkside losing out to the Monash Blues, as Parkside has a significant percentage advantage.

Brunswick will finish their season against Prahran, who, while third, could realistically miss out on finals with a loss on the weekend.

Kew 29.24 (198) def Monash Blues 3.9 (27)

In another game with a massive margin, Kew defeated the Monash Blues by a comfortable 171 points.

The game was effectively sealed by half-time, with a 113-4 scoreline being insurmountable for the Blues.

The Bears ended the day with 53 scoring opportunities and nearly 200 points for the afternoon.

Monash managed to get on the scoreboard with three goals in the second half, but it wasn’t comparable to Kew’s efforts.

The Bears have been on fire with an 11-game win streak to end the season, including a win over the ladder leaders and look like the team to beat.

Kew will hope to make it 12 games in a row with a win over UHS-VU this weekend and go into the finals in fiery form.

For Monash, both relegation and finals are off the table, but they could still end the year with an exciting win over Parkside; a Monash win would ensure Parkside can’t make the top four and end their season early.

St Mary’s Salesian 11.14 (80) def by Preston 12.10 (82)

In the toughest matchup of the round, St Mary’s Salesian narrowly went down to the Preston Bullants by two points.

It was an intense first quarter that led to a four-point margin at the first break. St Mary’s was unable to make the most of their opportunities in the second term, as Preston were able to create a solid 27-point lead at half-time.

The sides went goal for goal in the third term before St Mary’s started to really narrow the margin in the final quarter. Scoring four goals to one, the Saints were just unable to take the lead in the dying minutes, leaving the Bullants in the driver’s seat for finals.

St Mary’s coach Heath Chipperfield was pleased with his side’s ability to compete against the best sides.

“Our work-rate and contest were excellent all day, but we didn’t capitalise on our chances, especially in the first half.”

When asked if his side had made substantial progress over the season this year, he said “We’ve been improving throughout the year and felt we played some of our best footy on the weekend. Really disappointed for the players that we couldn’t quite get over the line but thought we showed a fair amount of character considering the context.”

Chipperfield took the opportunity to praise a few standouts from his developing side; Tom Vuller’s ability to start chains from the ruck, alongside Ed Bourke in the forward line, were the key names mentioned.

Preston ends the season with a first versus tenth match-up against the struggling Old Yarra Cobras.

The Bullants will head into finals comfortably on top of the ladder regardless of the result.

St Mary’s will end their season outside the finals but can still play a major role in deciding Oakleigh’s fate.

Old Yarra Cobras 0.3 (3) def by Prahran 21.17 (143)

Prahran were at their very best at both ends of the ground, keeping Old Yarra goalless to win by 140 points on the weekend.

The Two Blues continued their charge into finals, nearly reaching 100 points by half-time.

Despite the massive margin, percentage is unlikely to play into Prahran’s top two chances, with Kew having scored a dominant 2000 points for the season.

Captain Rory Brodie led the way for Prahran with five goals for the afternoon, with another three each for Patrick Marks and Jake Stent-Powell.

Brodie will hope to lead his side from the front once again next week when Prahran face off against Brunswick. A win will secure their spot in finals, although due to percentage their position is almost all but sealed already.

The Cobras will end their 2026 campaign with an away game against Preston.

Parkside 21.21 (147) def UHS-VU 3.8 (26)

The difference between the top and bottom five was shown once again in a big win by Parkside over UHS-VU. The Devils won the day by 121 points, keeping their finals dreams alive.

While the first quarter wasn’t drastically one-sided, the second term saw Parkside stack on eight goals and break away to a 69-point lead.

The scoring slowed down for Parkside in the second half, in part due to inaccuracy; however, this wasn’t an issue as they kept UHS-VU to only one goal in the half.

Parkside need a few things to go their way in the final round to sneak into finals. While they need to win their final game against Monash, they also need either Oakleigh to lose, or Prahran to lose by a big margin.

The Devils final position isn’t in their hands, but they’ll be playing for as big a margin as they can against Monash to find a way into finals.

UHS-VU will end their season in the relegation bracket but will still be trying to show their development by stopping Kew’s red-hot winning streak.