Drouin defeat Sale in stunner
by Keith Anderson
Drouin pulled off the upset of the Gippsland League season when it downed previously undefeated Sale on Saturday.
And the 12-8 to 7-9 win at Drouin was the Hawks first at home against Sale since 2010.
Often there is a moment in a game that has a huge bearing on the result.
That happened midway through the third quarter when, while waiting for the ball to come back into play after a Drouin behind, The Hawks 16 year-old second gamer Jacob Kanstanty was decked.
An umpire spotted the incident, awarded Konstanty a free 40 metres out that he coolly slotted through for a goal.
Drouin led by just eight points when the incident occurred.
The Hawks had been good all game but lifted a couple of gears for the rest of the match.
They kicked six successive goals in the third quarter, by Michael Theodoridis, Todd Beck, Rhys Salter, Cam Jolly, Dan Clebney and Konstanty.
Sale’s only major for the term came after the siren.
The Magpies also booted the first two goals of the last quarter to cut the gap to less than three goals before Konstanty rubbed further salt into their wounds with two finely judged marks from which he goaled.
It had been a superb overall team performance by Drouin to post its second win of the season from four rounds.
The Hawks had led all day, its defensive group outstanding with Tim Hancock and Joe Collins superb and the other backmen more than doing their jobs.
On ballers Eddie Morris, Chris Robinson, Todd and Bailey Beck and another junior Tom Evans were in control around the ground for all but a couple of brief periods.
Winger Tom Barr’s second half was all class and inspirational.
Konstanty’s four goals all came at important stages.
Full forward Theodoridis got three goals before injury curbed his impact.
Sale was missing some key players but Drouin was also down on strength.
Coach Jordan Kingi remained sidelined from a round one injury and champion ruckman Bob McCallum joined him and will be missing for some weeks to come.
McCallum broke a hand in the first quarter of the clash with Warragul three weeks ago, played at Leongatha last Saturday week but on Saturday morning was in hospital in Melbourne undergoing an operation on the injury.
He managed to get back to Drouin late in the afternoon to see his teammates snare the four premiership points and join the players’ circle in the dressing rooms for a raucous rendition of the club song.
Right - Cambell Jolly (left) sends the ball inside fifty as Lachlan Sutherland tries to impact the kick with a bump.
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Photos - CRAIG JOHNSON
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