Pride of the Lions
Loss doesn’t detract from huge solo performances
LEOPOLD might not have managed to get the four points on Saturday night but a couple of its star players certainly had wins on the stats sheet.
Former AFL ruckman and 2011 Geelong premiership player Trent West was brilliant in the air, amassing 81 hit-outs in a stunning display of aerial dominance.
To put that into context, the highest number of hit-outs recorded in an AFL match is 80 by North Melbourne big man Todd Goldstein.
West’s tap work did not go unrewarded either, with gun on-baller Oliver Tate the beneficiary
of his smarts in the air.
Tate finished with 38 disposals according to Premier Data, to go with his 18 contested possessions, three inside-50s, six rebound-50s, five tackles, three goals and a remarkable 17 clearances, earning him a game-high 201 fantasy points.
In AFL terms, only Paul Salmon (22), Brent Moloney (19), Patrick Cripps (19), Sam Mitchell (18), Shaun Burgoyne (18) and Gary Ablett (18) have ever recorded a higher number of clearances in a match.
It makes the 20-point loss to St Mary’s even harder to take for the Lions, but their slow start — seven goals to none in favour of the Saints the opening quarter — effectively left them chasing their tails all night.
New Leopold coach Jason Tom said West and Tate were huge for his team and said they could get even better as the year progresses.
“He (Tate) is down at Geelong
but we obviously got him for Round 1, but the scary part about Oliver is he is probably working back to full fitness,” Tom said.
“He still has some fitness to make up — and he says that as well — but he is a quality player and he has played over 100 VFL games as well so he is a serious player.
“In Oliver’s case it depends how much footy he is playing with us but you add Marcus Thompson back into the mix and it is a strong area of the ground for us, with Westy’s work rate.”
“He rucked for 100 per cent of the game and didn’t come off for a break on Saturday night, which was probably due to some injuries as we didn’t finish off with anyone on the bench.”
Tom said Leopold would continue to review the first term but praised his side for fighting back in the final three quarters.
“I think barring the first quarter we won the next three quarters but obviously the game was probably finished at quarter-time unfortunately,” he said. “To our boys’ credit I thought we were the better team for the rest of the game, so I think with a lot of key personnel out the boys will draw a lot of confidence from the way they played.”