Blues crush Hill End
Thorpdale continued their ride at the top of the ladder with a crushing win over Hill End.
The Dales were led by second gamer from MDU in Tom McDermott, who bagged 10 goals, only two shy of Ian Jennings’s 12 against Hill End in 1976.
He scored Thorpdale’s 24th and his 10th 20 minutes into the final term.
After an even first half where it was a competitive game which Thorpdale led by 17 points, the flood gates opened in the third where Thorpdale kicked a record high nine third quarter goals (against Hill End) to their clubroom end.
Hill End, led by new coach Mark Bradley had no answer for the running Blues after half time.
The spirit had gone from Hill End as Thorpdale ran them in ragged circles.
The lead at three-quarter-time had ballooned out to 67 points, at which point Hill End hardly had the ball within scoring range, being repelled by the strong defence of Thorpdale.
The last term saw an even mix of goals for both sides but the damage had been done as Thorpdale picked up 11.9 percentage to maintain top position after winning 24-9 (153) to 13-3 (81).
Michael Santo was no slouch as he picked up another five goals for Hill End.
Best for the Blues were Tom McDermott, Luke Collie and Shannon Pickering, while for Hill End Isaac Ketchen, Scott Collins and Ben Rotheram were voted best.
Tigers scrape in
In the closest result of the day, Mirboo North scraped in by two points after Morwell East’s fightback nearly saw them upset the Tigers.
Mirboo North kicked away in the first quarter with a two goal advantage but the East fought back with a brilliant second term of six goals to four to trail by one point at half time.
Mirboo North just kept that competitive edge to keep ahead of Morwell East and with only 14 points the difference at three-quarter-time, Morwell East threw everything into a solid last quarter, to the extent that Mirboo North had to shore up the defence bringing players up from half forward.
Morwell East go a run on to add 4-1 to 2-1 but failed by two points to overcome the Tigers for only their third win for the season.
Zack Kilgower and Josh Taylor both kicked three each for Mirboo North in their 14-6 (90) to 14-4 (88) win, while Morwell East pair of Paul Henry and Lucas Towns also kicked three each.
There were 17 goalkickers in the 28 goal tally.
Bombers run rampant
Yallourn-Yallourn North kicked more goals in the first quarter than Boolarra all match in a one-sided game that was won by the Bombers by 150 points, with two players kicking over half of the Bomber’s score.
Tim Phillips bagged eight and Dean MacDonald collected seven to close up on the goal kicking stakes.
Yallourn-Yallourn North after a quiet start quickly got into gear in the second term, scoring eight goals to two with Phillips and MacDonald running rampant to build the Bombers up to a 59-point half time lead.
After half time the Yallourn-Yallourn North defence had little to do as the Bomber forwards took over, adding 14-9 to Boolarra’s two solitary behinds to finish 26-15 (171) to 3-3 (21), their highest score over Boolarra since 2010.
Tom Hutton, Lachlan Little and Brandan Paulett figured highly in the best player awards while for Boolarra it was a hard day at the office with Daniel Wilson, Tom Reiske and Matt Windsor being picked as best. M’well East Mirboo Nth Hill End Yarragon Boolarra Mirboo Nth Yarragon M’well East Thorpdale Boolarra YYN M’well East Boolarra 103.13 99.41 71.14 57.63 37.96 126.82 78.64 66.27 42.23 10.46 44.70 3.38 12 12 8 4 0 12 8 8 4 0 29 0