Confident opening win for Bloods
Trafalgar will take confidence that it can be a serious contender in the Ellinbank District Football League after a strong first up performance.
Coming off an opening round bye, the Bloods were able to end Ellinbank's hot streak at 11 and win 11-13 (79) to 8-6 (54).
Trafalgar completed most of its work in the first half, kicking out to a 20-point lead at the long break, 7-4 to 4-2.
The contest tightened in the second half, with each side managing four goals.
Damian Mann was the most effective forward on the day, booting four goals, while Matt Van Schajik found plenty of the ball for the Bloods. Tyson Leys was named their best player.
In another highlight for the visitor, season 2021 under 18 club best and fairest Hardy Kenny was handed a debut and performed admirably.
It was another example of some of the recent youth making their mark in senior football, with the Ellinbank side including young gun Ryan Atherton in their opening two games.
Anthony Battista continued his good form for the Bankers, while Mathew Robertson also booted two goals.
The thriller of the round was at Longwarry, where Poowong was again on the wrong end of another close result.
It was a tight contest throughout, the Crows leading 4-5 to 4-3 at half time before holding on by just five points, 8-8 (56) to 7-9 (51).
Longwarry have been fielding a good mix of youth and experience, which was reflected in its best players. Joining Russell Lehman and Cole Cook as strong contributors were Jake Stewart, Daniel Pullen, Lachie Spinks and Seth Ashton.
The Magpies boasted a better spread of scorers, but just couldn't find that next goal to put themselves on the positive side of the ledger.
Following last week's disappointment against Neerim-Neerim South, Buln Buln bounced back strongly to comfortably account for fellow finals fancy Lang Lang. A ruthless nine-goal second quarter set up the big win. The Lyrebirds simply couldn't miss in the first half as they booted 12-1 to take a 49-point lead into half time.
The Tigers lifted after the break and narrowly won the second half, booting five goals to three, but the damage had been done as the Lyrebirds won 15-8 (98) to 8-10 (58).
Having been restricted to running water in the opening round due to work commitments, Sam Langford made a welcome return to the Lyrebirds line up and booted three goals.
Buln Buln's talls proved a handful for the Tigers, with Matt Gray booting three goals and Bob McCallum two. Jack Symes was the other multiple goal scorer, while Jake Pierrehumbert got another look forward, converting one of his three shots.
Daniel Nichols booted three goals for the Tigers while Sean Dwyer was also a target around the ground but couldn't find enough opportunities close to goal.
Tyler Guan, Rhyce Harvie, Sam Kendall and Brock Duggan were also among the better players for Lang Lang.
Neerim-Neerim South remain undefeated and on top of the ladder.
The Cats were comfortably leading over a Yarragon side that promises to be on the improve when its strong performance was soured by a neck injury to one of its players.
An ambulance was called for the player with the injury occurring in the shadows of threequarter-time, the remainder of the match then abandoned.
Fortunately, it has since been reported that the injury is not serious.
Chris Urie had booted four goals to that point as the Cats collected the points, the score standing at 10-11 (71) to 5-4 (34).
The Cats had taken a 24-point lead into half time and built on that in the third quarter,