Relentess attack on ball stumps Drouin
Sale players ran onto the Drouin ground on Saturday with some firm objectives.
To recover the winning feeling after successive defeats, regain confidence and rediscover the relentless approach to contests that had seen it on top of the ladder for much of the season.
Tick, tick and tick; mission well and truly accomplished.
The Magpies dealt Drouin its heaviest loss of the season – 97 points.
Final scores were 20-12 to 5-5, Sale ramming home its advantage with 7-1 in the last quarter.
Drouin didn’t put the cue in the rack at any stage; it fought as hard as it could.
The reality was that without on-ball trio Eddie Morris, Jordan Kingi and, the latest addition to the injury list, Chris Robinson, it didn’t have the quality manpower to match the strong and talented Sale.
Add to that the late withdrawal of David Olsen, who’d also missed the previous game at Bairnsdale with injury, and it made a wellbelow full-strength Hawks’ side on the ground.
Sale took full advantage of that but, even so, had too much all over the ground strength.
Under 16 player Thomas Evans, who’d earlier in the day played a full game in the fourths, got the call-up for his first senior game to replace Olsen, and Bailey Beck also returned.
Evans certainly wasn’t over-awed or intimidated playing mainly on a wing and not reluctant to put himself in the thick of the action.
The midfield absences meant Harry Wans and Clayton Kingi, key elements of the Drouin defence that had been pivotal in the good early part of the year, played on ball as did Todd Beck who did well on Saturday but robbed the Hawks of drive from a wing.
The scores might indicate a bit of a romp in the park but the contests were far from that. It was tough football from start to finish. A highlight among few was the contest between arguably the league’s two premier ruckmen, Drouin’s Bob McCallum and Sale’s Jack Lipman.
They’ve had some great battles in recent years and Saturday’s was no exception.
The taller and bit physically stronger had the better of the hit-outs overall, but McCallum as usual was one of the Hawks better around the ground contributors.
Lipman also did his bit in that regard for his team.
The game opened with no give or take from either side.
Sale got the first two goals before Liam Axford, in his last game for the year, got Drouin’s first after marking at centre-half forward and benefitting from a 50-metre penalty courtesy of an opposition player moving across “the zone”.
Umpire “involvement” had a hand in four of Drouin’s goals for the game.
As well as Axford’s, the Hawks goaled from another free kick and 50-metre penalty when star Magpies on-baller Kane Martin reacted out of frustration to the close attention he’d received from Wans throughout the match with Clayton Kingi the eventual beneficiary, McCallum got a goal from a free kick at ruck contest and Tom Barr another in the last quarter when held without the ball.
Todd Beck got the only other Hawks’ goal from a mark 30 metres out from goal in the final term.
But the goals were few and far between for Drouin all game.
Sale took a 5-2 to 1-1 lead at quarter time and added another three goals in the second term, all scored in the final few minutes, to have the match well under its control – 8-7 to 1-1.
Drouin didn’t score in the second quarter, its only real chance a set shot that went out of bounds.
Sale’s relentless pressure not only stymied Drouin’s too few forward thrusts but also gave defenders little space to start positive moves.
The second half for the Hawks was more about trying to stem the bleeding.
Whatever bandages it applied didn’t help as Sale inflicted more wounds.
The Hawks didn’t have any clear winners on the day.
Liam Anderson in defence was solid again and took some excellent contested marks, fellow backmen David Miller and Joe Collins battled hard under difficulty with about 80 per cent of the game played in Sale’s half of the ground and McCallum, Wans, Todd Beck, Jackson Kos and Clayton Kingi tried their hardest.
Sale will be a presence in the finals, its only concern being to remain injury free with a lack of depth in the reserves side.