Warragul fails to get over Maroons

Things were not looking good for Warragul even before it ran onto Western Park on Saturday to take on Traralgon in the senior match.

Another three “outs” to the line-up joining an already long list of key players with longterm injuries was a big hurdle to jump for the Gulls against a Traralgon side determined to climb off the bottom of the ladder and rekindle some hopes that it can push for a spot in the finals.

The hurdle was too great, the Maroons shrugging off Warragul’s early enthusiasm to build an important 15-11 to 6-4 victory.

Out of the previous week’s winning Gulls’ team were rover Kim Drew (see separate story), Nick Stevenson (fractured cheekbone) and coach Ben Hughes.

They were losses that the team could ill afford.

Warragul hung in with plenty of spirit restricting Traralgon to two goals and a lead of seven points at quarter time.

But there wasn’t a great deal of resistance after then.

Eleven goals by the Maroons to three by the Gulls across the second and third terms put the match beyond doubt.

Warragul had few forward options forcing Matt Rennie, who had started in defence, to move into attack.

He is a quality player and didn’t let the side down kicking four of its six goals for the game to be it best and most effective player.

The other goals came from Luke Di Ciero, a former Traralgon player, and Angus Emery.

Experienced VFL player Luke Tynan, available for a second week from Casey Demons, put in another strong performance in defence.

The backlines did reasonably well against the flood of possessions Traralgon had with Shaun Beecroft in a back pocket creditable again and Jake Hughes also standing up well.

Gulls’ ruckman Sam Whibley continued his fine form and improvement in moving around the ground to win the ball and create options for team mates.

Mitch Nobelius in the centre put himself into plenty of the play and Sam Fennell, back in the side on Saturday, was also a solid contributor.

But the manpower wasn’t there to mount a significant challenge.

The Gulls travel next Saturday to take on Bairnsdale that has not lost on its home ground this season before completing the first half of the home and away season back at Western Park against top five side Moe.

The Western Park ground at Warragul stood up well on Saturday after some solid rain during the week allowing for plenty of hard-running by both sides with Gull James Davidson and Traralgon’s Mark Collison leading the charge after a loose ball in the senior match. Traralgon had the better of the day winning con vincingly against a depleted Warragul line-up: PHOTO: Amanda Emary.

There was plenty of feeling in the reserves game on Saturday with Warragul keen for the four premiership points to keep well in contention for a place in the “five”. ABOVE: Warragul’s Brendan Sheehan checks on team mate Jake Orlicki after he went down in a heavy clash. BELOW: Jamie Somers is on his feet while Traralgon opponent Josh Twite took the brunt of a forceful bump.