Omnia   

 

malleeflThe Southern Mallee Giants have achieved back-to-back wins cruising to a 56-point win over Ouyen United.

The Giants needed to show that they were capable of beating one of the top 3 teams, and while they defeated depleted Demons line-up, they will be pleased to have had a solid win.

Ouyen United were missing a large part of their starting onballers as well as key forward duo, Bradley Vallance and Laurence Angwin. Even with such a hole in their side, the Demons flew out of the blocks and kicked the first 4 goals of the game and lead the Giants by 5 points at the first break. Alex Morrish was dangerous up forward and Dylan Fishwick was solid around stoppages.
The Giants were getting plenty of the ball but weren't able to capitalize, missing many kickable goals. At half time the home team had 21 scoring shots to 6 but only lead by 25 points.

Kain Robins was again a key target going forward, and shared 8 goals with Lachy Foott. Tyler Lehmann was running hot in the third quarter kicking 3 goals and Marcus Burdett was supplying neat delivery going forward.

Thomas Morrish was a standout for the Demons and was ably supported by his more experienced teammates Simon and Dean Jardine. They were able to hold steady and not allow the Giants to break open the game.

Regular contributor Ryley Norris, Clint Burdett and Sam Weddell were also important for the Giants.

After a reasonably even contest in the first three quarters of football at Woomelang, the Cats flexed their muscles get over the top of Walpeup Underbool by 72 points.

With a dominant display in the final term booting nine goals to nil the Cats eventually took control of the game. The Roos needed to start well after a heavy loss the previous week and did so applying plenty of pressure on the Cats when they had possession and moving the ball cleanly as they pushed forward. With Kane Munro unavailable the Roos made some positional changes to the previous week's line up and the challenge seemed to spur them on.

Both teams attacked the ball hard with a number of heavy collisions as the Cats rallied in the second term with Arnold Kirby proving to be a focal point up forward. With his size and strength and Trent Donnan finding plenty of the ball, Woomelang Lascelles edged in front threatening to break the game open.

Walpeup Underbool stood strong lead by coach Shayne Birss and Ben Fisher in the midfield, and Josh Plozza taking a number of timely marks in the back half to hold out the Cats. The Roos were able to out score the cats in the third quarter taking a small amount of momentum into the final term. But any hope of an upset was quickly put to rest as the Cats took control and broke clear as they ran away with the game.

The Woomelang Lascelles midfield ran riot, giving their forwards every opportunity with first use of the ball and pinpoint passes to fire up the local crowd. Devin Mcfarlane moved well across half forward for the Cats booting four goals. The Roos left still looking for a four-quarter performance to give them a chance at a win.

By Dale Shannon