Amateur holds off brave Modewarre

GEELONG Amateur cocoach Jarrod Young has praised his team’s younger group of players in the wake of a gutsy win over Modewarre at Stinton Oval on Saturday. Ammos were under the pump in the opening 10 minutes of the game but withheld a fierce Modewarre outfit and finished the term strongly, booting the last two goals of the quarter to take an early advantage. They never relinquished their lead from that point onwards and in miserable conditions managed to keep the Warriors at arm’s length as they looked to push late in the game. Experienced trio Daniel Lovick, Baden Dodd and Young all led the way with their attack on the ball but the Ammos cocoach said the emerging batch of future stars at Queens Park deserved credit for their performances. “Our under-23 kids, (Blake) Sutterby, (Wade) McSparron, (Mason) Spikers, Harry Kershaw, Daniel Grose and Jimmy Koroneos, they all played really good footy,” Young said.

“They’re all junior footy players who are coming through (our system) and we’re really happy with how their form has been.

“It was a really good contest played in the right spirit and we’re really happy to come away with the win, but they (the younger players) are making us a better side.”

The 15-point victory came on the back of a dogged determination from Geelong Amateur to stifle the Warriors at stoppages and not give them space on the outside.

It means Ammos now sit eight points clear of Modewarre heading into the BFL competition’s bye week and are well entrenched at the pointy end of the ladder after seven rounds.

But it was far from an easy win for the home side, with players from both teams finishing the game with sore spots in what was an often bruising encounter.

Aware of Modewarre’s capacity to run all day, Young said the message at threequarter-time to the Ammos playing group was “start well and lock it down from there”.

“We spoke about just getting the first goal and then the second goal,” he said.

“We felt if we could get the first two goals which we managed to do that it would really put them under pressure and then we could look to try to shut the game down in the conditions.

“We managed to do that and it was really good by the boys to come out like that at the start of the last quarter.”

Ammos will now face Queenscliff after the bye before a return bout with Anglesea at home.