Drouin’s big boilover
Gippsland League’s Drouin produced the biggest boilover in any of the four district leagues this season on Saturday and Mid Gippsland’s finalists were settled with one home and away game to go. But there are still question marks over the “fives” in Ellinbank and District and West Gippsland leagues where there are two rounds remaining. Drouin proved there is no such thing as a certainty in football when it won only its second game for the year and ended an 11-match winning run by Leongatha at Leongatha. And in the first weekend of a split round another of the top three Gippsland sides, Sale, just got home against Bairnsdale while Morwell scored its fourth win of the year sending Wonthaggi to the foot of the ladder. Ellinbank can still in theory make the EDFL finals but its form in the next fortnight would have to be a huge lift from recent weeks. It needs to beat top two teams Nyora and Longwarry to have any chance of displacing Poowong. Poowong is a game ahead of Ellinbank and will be a strong favourite to down Buln Buln next week before its final round against Nyora. On Saturday Ellinbank led top five side Catani by three points at half time before losing by 14 points while Poowong was a comfortable 10-12 to 4-1 winner against Neerim Neerim South, the Cats going goalless in the second and third terms. There were no upsets in the league. Warragul Industrials, locked in a battle for third spot, had few troubles disposing of Lang Lang by 86 points. Nyora and Longwarry that will finish one-two both continued their winning ways. Nyora trailed by four points at half time against Nilma-Darnum but rallied to score 1210 to 7-6 while Longwarry ran away from Buln Buln in the second half to score 17-16 to 8-8. Six of the 10 West Gippsland clubs have a lot to play for over the next fortnight. Four sides are battling for important top three finishes and the fifth and last place in the finals is a toss up between Cora Lynn and Garfield. It could well be that those two sides have a shoot-out for the spot when they clash in the final home and away round. Cora Lynn got the points against Korumburra, but not without some struggles, and Garfield won easily over Dalyston in a round on Saturday highlighted by Nar Nar Goon’s toppling of Inverloch-Kongwak. The result saw Inverloch tumble from top place, on percentage behind Koo wee rup, with Nar Nar Goon level with Phillip Island a game behind the top two. The Islanders had too many guns for Kilcunda-Bass scoring 13-12 to 4-3. A nine-goal to nil second quarter was the story of Nar Nar Goon’s 12-9 to 8-10 defeat of the Sea Eagles while Koo wee rup took over top of the ladder as a result of its nine-goal defeat of Bunyip. In Mid Gippsland Morwell East stayed one game out of the “five” after coming from behind in the last quarter to score 7-17 to 7-8 at Yarragon but they won’t displace Thorpdale that bounced back to some better form when it kicked 22-18 to Hill End’s 8-4. Thorpdale would have to lose next Saturday to Newborough that is out of contention and Morwell East would have to defeat Trafalgar, that has lost only once for the season, by almost 200 points for the “five” to change. Last Saturday’s match-up of Trafalgar and Yinnar (3rd) looked set for a strong win by the Bloods at half time, but they managed only another goal for the match as Yinnar fought to get within 13 points at the final siren. Mirboo North (4th) was far too good for Newborough 12-16 to 4-6 and Yallourn Yallourn North, with Dean MacDonald booting 10 goals, was all over Boolarra that only managed two behinds and will be looking forward to the end of the season.