The big question has Donald blown the double chance with their loss to the Boort Magpies with only one round of home and away to go. Charlton made every post a winner in their match against the St Arnaud Saints to get home by over twenty goals to reclaim second spot. The Navy Blues, who entered this round equal on points with Donald and in the fight for the double chance, trailed the Royal Blues by over sixteen percent. Charlton has now overtaken Donald by a narrow margin percentage wise leading to the final round where they take on fourth placed Birchip-Watchem in a game that the result may still determine who gets second spot and the double chance. Donald still has the chance to reclaim second spot but that will depend on them winning their final game against the Sea Lake Nandaly Tigers and that is far from assured as the Tigers will be keen to finish their season on a high. Wycheproof-Narraport bounced back to the winning list with a win over the Wedderburn Redbacks but they had to pull out all stops in the second half to get the four points. Wedderburn played a good brand of football in the first half but could only manage two goals after the long break with the Demons posting eight more goals to give them a fifty point win. Birchip-Watchem Bulls got away to a slow start against the Tigers but found their feet in the last three quarters kicking fifteen goals to the Tigers four to come away with a fifty point win as they now prepare for the final round match with the presently placed second team in Charlton and if they can overcome them then the possibility is that they may have to line-up against them again in the first semi-final.
Donald v Boort
With the chance of retaining the double chance riding on the result of their game against Boort the Donald side had plenty to play for but were jumped by the Magpies to trail by about four goals at quarter time. Boort’s James Orr was in fine form and gave the Magpies first use of the ball and with Leehman being dangerous around the goals for Boort their intentions were clear from the first bounce. Donald was able to grab a couple of goals late in the term but they had to work overtime to make it happen as Boort was looking real sharp and teaming well in all parts of the ground and certainly looked the goods.
In the second quarter Donald started to play a better brand of football but was still finding it difficult to break through the Boort defence lead by Aaron Wilson, who has had stellar season for the Magpies. Haddow, Garner and Ross Young picked up their work rate gaining many possessions and it was only their class that gave them the opportunities to break through the Boort defence to post three goals for the quarter but Boort was equal to the task as the maintained a sixteen point lead the half time stoppage.
With a half to play and just over two goals separating these two sides with one looking to hold onto the double chance and the other playing for a bit of pride you would have expected a better premiership quarter but in this term neither side could get the vital break with only three goals being scored in the quarter with two of those going to the Boort Magpies and only one to the home side who went to the final stoppage trailing by twenty two points and they would have to find another leg if they was going to get the points over a determined Boort side.
Donald did have the better of the two sides in the final quarter outscoring Boort three goals to two but they were unable to bridge the gap and in the end failed by seventeen points to record the win they needed to retain second spot. Donald now has the difficult task to get the points over the Sea Lake Nandaly Tigers at Sea Lake and if they are able to achieve a win then this will give them the chance to reclaim the double chance but the major player in their efforts to be there in the second week of the final series will weigh heavily on the result of the Birchip-Watchem v Charlton game and if the Navies get the points then Donald will front up against the Bulls in week one of the finals. Boort did bounce back after suffering a huge loss to the Tigers last week but look set to finish their season on high when they play host to the Redbacks next week.
Boort’s ruckman in James Orr who has a ripper year in his first season in the North Central was named best player for the Magpies with Jack Baker, Riley Leehman, James and Aaron Wilson also joining Brodie Leonard-Shannon as better players. Riley Leehman was the major goal kicker with four. Brody Haddow was named best for Donald with other better players being named in Nick Garner, Ross Young, Charlie Murrie, Jackson Hogan and Darcy Harrison. Seamus Young and Chris Prockter both kicking three goals each for Donald.
Final score Boort 12-10=82 defeated Donald 9-11=65
Birchip-Watchem v Sea Lake Nandaly Tigers
Sea Lake Nandaly Tigers carried their good form from last week into their game against the inform Birchip-Watchem side to kick out to a handy lead in the opening term and thing were looking a little shaky for the Bulls. By quarter time the Tigers had opened up a twenty two point lead and looked well in control of the game as they posted the first four of their five first term goals of the game before the Bulls could get their first major this coming from their inform forward in Brendan George.
In the second term Birchip-Watchem kicked the first two goals of the quarter to reduce the Tigers lead before Considine hit back for the Tigers to post their sixth goal of the game. Jack Wilson kicked the Bulls third and his second for the quarter to put the home side just two points adrift of Tigers at the half time break. Birchip-Watchem looked better in this term but as the score line showed both sides was having trouble adding to their scores in the second half of the term where neither side could register a score in the final ten minutes of the quarter but with only two points separating the two sides the contest looked set for a big second half.
After the long break the Bulls started the term better than the Tigers and they started to put their stamp on the game as they outscored Sea Lake Nandaly three goals to one for the term. At the final change they held a fourteen point lead that could have been greater if they had taken full advantage of three late shots at goal. Sea Lake Nandaly as they have in some earlier games has got away to a good start but then stalled in the later quarters to see them hand up a handy lead and miss winning opportunities.
The final quarter belonged to the Bulls as they raced away from the Tigers banging on eight goals to two to run out strong winners by fifty points. The Bulls kicked the first seven of their eight goals for term before the Tigers scored their first major score. Birchip-Watchem had seven different goal scorers for the quarter with Zac Holmes being the only multiple goal scorer with two. Jack Wilson was named BOG and also finished the day with five goals, Brendon George was their other major goal kicker with four. Other players named in their list of better players were Daniel Ratcliffe, Michael Monteith, Lochlan Sirett, Tom Carland and Joel Greaney. Best for the Tigers: Luke Martin, Mikal Bloom, Angus Munro, Billy McInnes, Brad Collins and Codey Elliott.
Final score Birchip-Watchem Bulls 16-14=110 defeated sea Lake Nandaly Tigers 9-6=60
Wedderburn v Wycheproof-Narraport
Wedderburn struck the Wycheproof-Narraport Demons on the back of their first loss in the previous week’s round of matches. Josh White got the Demons away with a goal five minutes into the game. Wedderburn pushed the ball forward but could not get any reward for their effort until midterm when young Redbacks forward Will Holt got the home side on the board. The Demons sent the ball forward to the league’s leading goal kicker in Corey Jones but the Redbacks Ben DeAraugo was denying Jones any free space and was able to hold him goalless in the opening term. Pappin kicked a long goal for the Demons to post their second and the Redbacks reply came rather quick with Jake Hayes kicking their second goal. The Redbacks hit the front when first gamer Luke Darcy Holt marked a goaled with his first kick in the senior competition. Demons James Coatsworth who had been busy in the opening term put the Demons back in front with a goal just prior to the siren to end the first entertaining quarter. At quarter time the two sides was only separated by one point.
In the second term the Redbacks stuck to their plan and kept with the ladder leaders who was unable to break away from their lesser opponent and both sides were answering the challenge in what was an entertaining game which seen the Demons increase their lead out to nine points by the half way mark. Jones was able to break away from DeAraugo in this quarter to register three of his side’s five goals in the quarter while the Redbacks had four individual goal kickers.
With the game in the balance in the first half the Redbacks was hoping to keep in touch with the Demons in this term but this went pear-shape when Corey Jones opened up to kick the only four goals for the term. Wedderburn’s score addition was just the one point and they trailed the Demons by six goals at three quarter time and to most this was probably expected as top sides are rarely held in games against side sitting at the other end of the scale but the Redbacks could be proud of their effort which wasn’t indicated by the scoreboard.
The final term seen the Demons again dominate the scoring adding four goals to two, Corey Jones added one goal in the final quarter to give him eight for the day and this you would think would be enough to give him the trophy for the most goals in the season. Jones topped off a good day also being named as the Demons best player with great support coming from James Coatsworth. Tom Keane, Dane McLennan, Joel Turner and Ben Brennan were also mentioned as better players. Wedderburn’s best was the inform Robbie Tonkin with Ruckman Jordan Hargreaves putting in a solid game along with Liam Ritchie, Hayden Polglase, Nathan Holt and Jake Hernan rating in their best players.
Wycheproof-Narraport 16-12=108 defeated Wedderburn 9-4=58
St Arnaud v Charlton
The opening term of the St Arnaud v Charlton seen the Saints be as close in the first term as they would get for the game. Being off target didn’t help their cause kicking six points for the quarter while the Navy Blues was also a bit off target but they had also posted two goals to go with their five points. At quarter time the Navy Blues was only eleven points up but had controlled the game.
In the second term the Navies put the foot down and kicked nine goals for the quarter with Giri and Gunn doing most of the damage. St Arnaud added two goals but by the half time break were nearly ten goals behind Charlton who was on a mission to post as big a score as they could as they sat in third place on the ladder trailing Donald by sixteen percent.
Things didn’t improve in the premiership quarter with Charlton again peppering the goals for a good return. In this term they were able to add six goals to their already healthy total and had increased their lead out to around the fifteen goal margin. St Arnaud added just the one goal in the quarter and it didn’t look to get any better in the final term.
As predicted the Navy Blues were not out to play any favours to the reigning premiers who got the trophy over them by eight points in last year’s grand final. Charlton for the second time in the game had kicked nine goals to make it a clean sweep against the Saints who have lost all three matches to Charlton this year. Gunn and Giri kicked eleven goals between (Giri 6 and Gunn 5) them and the Navies had plenty of fire power with eleven different players kicking goals and their effort was rewarded with them reclaiming second spot on the ladder and also overtaking the Donald side on percentage even though only just. For the Saints the seasons end cannot come quick enough as it is a season they would like to put behind them.
Charlton has an important game ahead of them next week, when they take on Birchip-Watchem and the result of the this game and the Donald v Sea Lake match will determine if the Navies retain the double chance or not.
Charlton’s better players included Jye Sandiford, Anthony Judd, Tom Finlay, Daniel Thiesz, M. Giri and Andrew Hooper.
St Arnaud’s best Torin Petrie, Gavan Vassallo, Harley Durward, Caleb Bloomer, Nigel Reid and Kurt Torney.
Next week
Boort v Wedderburn
Charlton v Birchip-Watchem
Sea Lake Nandaly Tigers v Donald
Wycheproof-Narraport v St Arnaud
Last Modified on 14/08/2016 18:30