Devil brothers share spoils
IT wasn’t just one Bennett, but two, who had a bout of leather poisoning on Saturday as Corio brothers Joel and Toby Bennett combined for 90 disposals.
A former Werribee VFL and Geelong West GFL midfielder, Joel set a personal best in the loss to the Belmont Lions, racking up 52 disposals, 13 clearances, 10 tackles and two goals.
It was enough for him to be handed the Allan Couzens Award for best player on the ground in the GDFL Indigenous match between the Devils and Lions, despite Corio losing by 59 points.
Joel said he and Toby didn’t pad the stats with “too many give-and-gos” but did look out for each other as Toby collected 38 disposals of his own.
“I sort of said at quarter-time, ‘I think I am on here’,” Joel said.
“(Toby) had 38 (disposals) as well, which was good. We were pretty happy with it.
“We sort of felt like we were on top in the contest, but as the game went on, Belmont kicked a few in the last quarter. (Belmont) was on top around the ground most of the day but it was going well inside the contest.
“We do have a brother connection or something like that, we definitely know where we are.”
Naturally after passing the halfcentury mark for disposals – only three VFL/AFL players have ever had more than 52 touches in a game at the top level – the question turned to whether Saturday’s outing was Joel’s best individual effort.
The Devils co-coach and captain rated it near the top, having surpassed his previous best of 48 touches.
But a 36-disposal, six-goal effort in round 11 last year against Werribee Centrals topped his charts.
“It's a bit hard to say, I have had a few games where I kicked more goals (than on Saturday),” he said.
“On the weekend I was getting a lot of the footy but I like to hit the scoreboard a bit more, but it was definitely one of my better games.”