West Gippy triumphs in local interleague
The West Gippsland Football Netball Competition triumphed over the Ellinbank and District Football League 131 to 58 in Saturday’s senior interleague game in Yarragon.
It was a disappointing result for the EDFL side, who had an emphatic win over Horsham DFL last year. Unfortunately for them, success did not lie closer to home.
From the opening bounce it was clear the game belonged to WGFNC. They kicked an unanswered 21 points before Adam Cook’s goal halfway through the quarter opened the scoring for the EDFL. The whistle sounded on the first term with a 27 to 20 scoreline — either side had a chance.
But after the quarter-time break, it was more of the same. Both sides traded goals as the Ellinbank League fought to establish their first lead of the match. That effort was ultimately fruitless. WGFNL’s sharpshooters kicked seven majors and they entered the main break 49 to 34.
But it was the third quarter that proved to be the decisive one. An on-target kick from the EDFL’s Jake Pierrehumbert in the first two minutes brought his side within nine points of WGFNC.
That goal would be the EDFL’s last for the quarter, WGFNC keeping their opponents scoreless until the whistle sounded. They rocketed away, kicking seven goals and two behinds, four of those majors coming in the final 10 minutes.
When the dust cleared, there was a 53-point margin between the two sides. WGFNL’s threegoal haul and Jason Well’s two were crucial to that effort.
There was nothing the EDFL’s best men could do in the final term. WGFNL added 5.8 to their side of the scoreboard and a last-ditch effort from the EDFL yielded a clean three majors. But the game had already been won and lost. WGFNL’s Nathan Gardiner put the final nail in the coffin for the EDFL, closing out the fourth with a goal just before the siren and bringing the final scoreline to 19.17.131 to 9.4.58.
Jake Weightman walked away as WGFNL’s best player on the day. His efforts were backed up by Dylan Clark, Jaymie Youle, Aaron Paxton and Jason Wells. Wells kicked a match-best four goals, two in the third and two in the fourth. Heath Briggs, Nathan Gardiner, Nathan Voss and Andrew Dean followed him, all with three majors to their names. Jaymie Youle, David Clark and Nathan Allen kicked one each.
It was Nicholas Visser finished the match-up as the EDFL side’s best man. Benjamin Campbell, Trent Baker, Brad Arnold, Paul Pattison and Nathan Campbell also had an impressive game. Ben Campbell, Nathan Visser and Jack Hazendonk kicked two each, followed up by single majors from Ilan Osman, Hayden Baker and Adam Cook.