Drouin better but not to Eagles level
A heavily depleted Drouin side found it tough going at Maffra on Saturday.
A tough opponent and, after half time, tough conditions when misty rain persisted. Maffra ran out 13-11 to 3-6 winners. The slippery ball dried up scoring in the second half; Maffra adding only four goals, Drouin just managing four behinds.
The Eagles were also a bit below full strength, centreman/on-baller Kel Porter and backline leader Sam Pleming noticeable absences.
But for Drouin it was still a much better effort than it showed a week earlier against Moe.
Both sides made plenty of mistakes early in the game.
Drouin’s proved more costly against a side that thrives on taking advantage of opponents’ errors.
Maffra jumped out to 5-3 before Drouin was able to get its score moving.
A behind to the Hawks and then a Jeb McLeod conversion from a mark 25 metres out had the quarter time score at 5-3 to 1-1.
The Eagles added to the lead in the second term but there was a 10-minute patch where Drouin had the better of the contest.
That led to successive goals by the Hawks, by Tom Barr with a 50-metre shot on the run and by McLeod when he marked in the forward line to kick his second. The gap had been brought back to 20 points. But it stretched out again with Maffra kicking the last three goals of the term as the rain started.
The second half had few highlights in the slippery conditions.
Drouin’s defence stood up pretty well as the Eagles forced their way forward and added just two goals for the third quarter.
It was another two goals for Maffra in the final term.
The first was from a free kick in the goal square that seemed to mystify players on both sides and the second from a badly executed Drouin pass across the half back line. The defenders couldn’t be blamed for those. The Hawks’ leaders around the ground, Eddie Morris, McLeod and Bob McCallum gave their all again.
At times they may try, or are forced, to do too much.
On Saturday that was possibly because the team was without as many as eight of its top 22, Liam Axford, Nathan Guy and Michael Laszczyk additions to that list for the trip to Maffra.
Two Under 16 players took the field in the seniors after earlier playing in the fourths – Jack Fraser for his first game and Fletcher Robertson-Edgar for his third.
But there were some promising signs for the Hawks nevertheless.
Brendan Dower’s continued development as a key backman was a highlight, not just in limiting Maffra’s Dan Bedggood to one goal but the way he went about it.
David Olsen had another fine game leading the defence where James McKellar also had one of his better games for the year.
Josh Seri showed his talent in a couple of periods, especially the second quarter, but needs to do that over four quarters, coach Jordan Kingi put in a solid game after an interrupted season and Clayton Kingi’s performance was possibly his best at senior level.
However, movement of the ball into the forward lines remains one of Drouin’s major issues if it is to kick scores that will win some games over the rest of the season.