Drouin beaten but no white flag
Some heart can be taken from Drouin’s second half effort on Saturday after Maffra had blown it away early.
It was an easy win for Maffra – 21-19 to 7-5 –on the back of a 13 goals to one first half, nine of the goals coming in the first quarter.
The Hawks were much more competitive in the second half kicking six goals to Maffra’s eight, the Eagles getting the last four of the match in “junk time”.
A good sized crowd, swelled by there being no Ellinbank and District league football at the weekend, basked in the rare June sunshine and wind free conditions.
Maffra arrived with a side heavily hit by injury, and one suspension, but as has been its story over the past 15 years or so is able to call on replacements that slot seamlessly into the team style.
Ruckman Trent Knobel, a former AFL player, made his first appearance for the season but was used sparingly.
The tone was set from the start.
Small forward Mitch Bennet had a goal on the board within a minute and would have three by midway through the term.
Dan Bedgood was also lively with two goals for the quarter.
Drouin coach Bob McCallum got his side’s only first quarter goal, and only one for the first half, when he marked and converted from 45 metres.
Drouin continued to pay the price for its disposal errors, the scoreboard at half time proof of that – Maffra 13-10 to 1-2.
The Hawks managed to bottle the game up for the first 10 minutes of the third quarter and forward Michael Theodoridis got on the end of one of their few swift attacks to get the term’s first goal.
Drouin conceded the next three before closing out the quarter with goals from Liam Anderson, gathering a spill from a marking contest, and Rhys Fairlie after a goal square mark.
The first three goals of the last quarter made it five in a row for the Hawks.
McCallum snapped accurately after taking the ball at a boundary throw-in, Darcy Irwin read the fall of the ball well from a quick centre clearance for another and Cambell Jolly got the final one roving a ruck contest.
Although never going to win Drouin showed some “ticker” when a white flag could easily have been hoisted after Maffra’s nine goal first quarter.
None was a better example of that – again – than McCallum, who was outstanding not just for the Hawks but among the 44 players on the ground.
Defenders David Oslsen and David Miller settled into their tasks on Bedggood and Bennett to limit further major damage from the Maffra pair after quarter time and on-ballers Jordan Kingi, Liam Axford and Tom Barr never stopped fighting hard for the ball at ground level.
Irwin was a good contributor, especially in the second half, and Theodoridis was the most dangerous looking of the forwards.
He is strong, can mark, is sharp on his feet and a good kick.
The Hawks just need to get the ball forward to him more quickly and to his advantage.