GIPPSLAND DOWN IN INTER-LEAGUE
Yarra Ranges on top from bounce
The past counted for nothing as Yarra Ranges swept past Gippsland League in the community league rankings with an all the way and comprehensive win in their clash on Saturday.
Gippsland was unable to make inroads at any stage after Ranges bounced out of the blocks with two goals in the opening couple of minutes and dominated play until the final siren when the scoreboard read 16-15 to 6-14.
The match at Woori Yallock drew a big crowd for an inter-league clash, numbers heavily biased in favour of the home side.
It was evidence of the priority AFL Yarra Ranges had put into the game including its local promotion.
Coach of the side Danny Ryan referenced that in his comments at the after-match presentation ceremony, pointing to the efforts put in over two years to build and retain its best possible representative team.
Previously known as Yarra Valley and Mountain districts league it had come up against Gippsland in 2013 and 2015 and went home with its tails between the legs after a couple of heavy losses.
The boot was on the other foot on Saturday.
Gippsland suffered a major loss in less than a minute from the start when full back Adrian Slottje went down with a knee injury attempting to spoil a mark.
He was soon on his way to hospital.
It caused further reorganisation of a defensive unit already short of regular backmen with third string ruckman Ben Amberg having to take a key defence position for most of the game.
But Gippsland had its troubles all over the ground from the start.
Woori Yallock’s oval might be smaller than what the Gippslanders are used to playing on but it didn’t stop Yarra Ranges creating and finding space and constructing swift and positive attacks.
The Ranges’ players were simply far too good on the day.
They applied stronger pressure; marked, kicked and handballed much better, ran harder, outnumbered their opponents at contests and stuck to and implemented a game plan. They turned up to play. Yarra Ranges had five goals on the board, three of them within the first four minutes, before Gippsland got its first from a Chris Dunne conversion from a welljudged mark.
Mitch Bennett got a second for the opening term but at the break it was Ranges, aided by a handy breeze, in front 63 to 2-5.
There were hopes that Gippsland would benefit from the breeze in the second quarter and get back to about equal footing at the halfway mark.
That thought was soon put to rest.
Dunne’s second goal for the game and Gippsland’s third came after Ranges had put another three on the board and by half time the gap had stretched to seven goals.
It was three goals to two in the home league’s favour in the third term in which Gippsland did play with a lot more energy and the final quarter saw Ranges kick another two goals to one.
The Gippsland forward line struggled all game.
Coach Harmit Singh was forced to use captain and number one ruckman Bob McCallum in the key forward positions for well over half the game in an attempt to provide a marking and more mobile target.
Compared to Ranges the Gippsland forward lines were static, easy prey for a swooping defence.
Gippsland’s five goals came from smaller forwards.
Dunne, who also spent much of his time on a wing, and Bennett finished with two goals each, on-baller Nathan Paredes one and Daniel Bedggood snapped the side’s only goal of the last quarter.
It is doubtful if Gippsland had one player that was a “winner” on the day.
The medal for the side’s best player went to Warragul rover Brad Scalzo.
He never gives anything but 100 per cent and Saturday was no exception.
Scalzo more than likely won the possession count for Gippsland and was one of few that did try to be creative when brining the ball forward.
Bairnsdale’s Russell Cowan who played in the Yarra Ranges league last year with Mt Evelyn, Amberg (Traralgon), Bedggood (Maffra) and Leongatha pair Tom Marriott in the centre and Zac Vernon in defence were others named as Gippsland’s best.
Tyson Biffin from Moe and Hayden Hector (Traralgon) also battled hard throughout.
Drouin’s McCallum was serviceable in the ruck and forward and was one of the few Gippslanders to grab a few marks.
Warragul star Parades fought well against a slick Ranges’ midfield but was negated to a large extent and unable to rack of the high number of possessions that he regularly achieves in club games.