In somewhat of a lack lustre game, Bulli proved too strong for Tarrawanna on Saturday in a comfortable five goals to one victory to keep up their hunt for the league title in 2016.

Going into the match both sides had to re-shuffle their sides from the previous week with Tarrawanna suffering from the late withdrawal through injury to key defenders, Jake Morlando & Mitchell Young whilst for the visitors, the suspension of James Kerr, meant three positional changes to accommodate the inclusion of Corey Horner.

The opening 35 minutes was a drab affair with both sides struggling to put three or four passes together. With little or no cohesion in general play, attacking raids were at a premium at either end of the pitch with both goalkeepers having very little involvement in the game.

When the first goal came on 38 minutes, it caught most spectators by surprise as it basically came out of nothing. Bulli's Dylan Lewis made a strong run down the visitor's right side and cut the ball back from near to the bye-line across the face of Tarrawanna's six yard box. Somehow, the winger's innocuous cross eluded two Blueys defenders, who were covering the near post area, with both failing to get a touch on the ball, allowing Julian Minutillo to nip in front of David Hamilton in the Tarrawanna goal and side foot the ball home from close range.

With this being the only goal of the first half both sides left the field giving respective coaches, Peter Willis & Ben Smith an opportunity to reinvigorate some life into their charges and remind them that there was still a lot to play for in the remaining 45 minutes albeit for different reasons. From Tarrawanna's perspective, they had a legitimate chance of finishing top five whilst Bulli can realistically still finish on top of the tree.

Bulli did start the stronger of the two sides and doubled their lead just seven minutes of the restart. Ryan Emerton swung in a corner from the left into the middle of the penalty area just outside the six yard box with Hamilton screaming for the ball. Inexplicably, the Bluey's keeper failed to claim the ball allowing Minutillo, who was not the biggest player on the pitch, to simply jump in front of him, win the ball and nod the ball into the empty net.

The visitors were now pushing forward at every opportunity and on the hour mark, Tarrawanna's semi final chances were all but ended when Ben McDonald scored his side's third goal with the unfortunate, Hamilton have a part to play in this one also.

A stray pass had been knocked across the Tarrawanna penalty area out towards Bulli's left wing. The two closest players, McDonald and Hamilton gave chase to the ball which took both players outside the area towards the touchline. Not sure what Hamilton was doing out there but when the keeper decided he had strayed too far from goal it was too late when he decided to make a beeline back towards his goal.

With a lot of work to do, McDonald upon reaching the ball, turned, sized up the possibilities and proceed to lob the ball back over the retreating Keeper's head into the far corner of the net for a great finish from distance and not a lot of angle to work with.

Ten minutes later, the home side pulled a goal back which was really just a consolation. The Blueys had been awarded a free kick in centre field some 40 metres from goal. Sam Chapple took the free kick and knocked a hopeful long ball into the heart of the Bulli defence. The ball was in the air a long time and one would have expected Bulli Keeper, Yuya Kuwata, to come and catch/punch the ball clear but with no Bulli defender attacking the ball, it fell to Bradley Welch to win an uncontested header and pick his spot with Kuwata stranded on his line.

The passing of both sides did improve during the second stanza but it was Bulli who were able to impose themselves on the game better having more quality players in their team and on the bench.

The visitor's restored their three goal buffer on 74 minutes and it was two substitutes who had entered the action for the last 20 minutes of the match. Jared Fish and Aaron Baker had not been on the field that long when they were involved in Bulli's fourth goal. A neat passing movement ended with with Baker supplying the final pass which allowed Fish to apply a neat side foot volley from 15 metres which found the bottom corner with Hamilton well beaten.

Bulli's dominance was completed in the last minute when Fish was brought down in the penalty area with a penalty awarded. The substitute brushed himself down and took it upon himself to take the spot kick which he struck home with aplomb. A brace was a just reward for a player that missed all of 2015 with a nasty injury in the pre-season and has not been without his injury issues this time around.

After the game, Bulli Coach Ben Smith acknowledged that his side has played a lot better in most other games with their passing game was well below par although the goals were a bonus. Smith felt that Tarrawanna were well organised and was happy with the few positional changes that had to be made for this game.

Although Peter Willis was unavailable for comment, Tarrawanna would have been disappointed with this display especially on the back of a gallant display against Olympic in the previous round which resulted in a last minute heart breaking loss. They will need to re-group very quickly with a top five spot still mathematically possible and two winnable games to finish off the regular season.

 

Match Stats

Tarrawanna 1 (Bradley Welch 71')

Bulli 5 (Julian Minutillo 38' 52', Ben McDonald 61', Jared Fish 74' 90')

 

Tarrawanna Oval, Tarrawanna

Referee: Steven Bozic 

Assistant Referees: Jay Walpole & Bradley Merchant

 

Tarrawanna: David Hamilton, Allister Carrigan (Joshua Chapple 83'), Bryce Dolinscak, Daniel Chapman, Samuel Chapple, Matthew Mazevski, Darren Stone, Jacob Fryday (Samuel Isabella 72'), Rick Goodchild, Sangyu Park (Sam Onana Awono 72'), Bradley Welch.

Subs not Used: Peter Arnone, Christian Pretto.

Yellow Cards: Matthew Mazevski 67'.

 

Bulli: Yuya Kuwata, Matthew Naylor, Kenji Takahashi, Corey Horner, Scott Best, Guy Knight, Sam Davies, Ryan Emerton (Aaron Baker 71'), Ben McDonald, Dylan Lewis (Nick Miceski 89'), Julian Minutillo (Jared Fish 66').

Subs not Used: Daniel Carreno, Joao Oliveira

Yellow Card: Nil

 

Report by David Naylor

Photo courtesy of Noel Wynn