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humeWeekly Times |VICTORIA Country No. 2 downed the Victorian Amateur Football Association Premier B-Division 4 side by 29-points in wet conditions in Bendigo yesterday.

Vic Country No. 2 backed up Vic Country under-19’s success earlier in the day with a win in yesterday’s second game, 10.16 (76) to 7.5 (47).

The under-19s benefited from a strong start prior to rain descending on the Queen Elizabeth Oval to run out 50-point winners, 8.13 (61) to 1.5 (11).

Vic Country No. 2 were slow out of the blocks with VAFA kicking three of the first four goals to lead by 13 points at the 15-minute mark of the first quarter.

Back-to-back goals from Sorrento’s Leigh Poholke brought the country side back into the game, and scores were level at quarter time.

An impressive snap for goal from Penshurst’s Will McGregor kicked off a game-defining second quarter for Vic Country No. 2, and goals to Imperials’ Brad Hards and Hastings’ Luke Clark consolidated a half-time lead with VAFA scoreless that quarter.

Donald’s Luke Fisher kicked his second goal in the third quarter and two quick last quarter goals to Geelong Amateur’s Mitch Day, who finished with three majors, sealed the result.

Vic Country No. 2 coach John Cossar said the wet conditions were a “culture shock for everybody”, but described the win as “pretty satisfying”.

“The first five or 10 — maybe even 15 — minutes they dominated us a little bit,” he said.

“To lock them down and score as many as we did was a credit to the way the boys adapted to the conditions and started to play a bit more for each other.

“We were keeping the stats and we were getting beaten pretty heavily at stoppages. They self-adjusted a bit in the first quarter, we had a chat about it at quarter time to get better spreads around the stoppages. We thought we were a bit tight and getting beaten on the outside.

“We addressed that and we had the stoppages 14-4 in the second quarter so that probably was a turning point of the game.”

Earlier in the day a strong start put Vic Country under-19s in the box seat as the rain descended on the day’s opening game.

Vic Country under-19s kicked the first three goals of the match through Pakenham’s Jake Smith and back-to-back majors to North Ballarat’s Sam Hooper, and were 16 points ahead at quarter time.

After the first break the game became an arm wrestle in the wet and that term ran for close to 30 minutes despite only 1.5 being scored between the two sides.

St Mary’s Hayden McMahon provided one of the highlights of the game with his second goal about 14 minutes into the fourth term, with a clean pick up in traffic and goal to put his side 42 points clear.

Warburton Burras’ Dylan Gordon, Birchip Watchem’s Dale Hinkley and North Warrnambool’s Sam McLachlan led the way for Vic Country but coach Damien Sexton said the entire side contributed to the win.

“Those three goals were probably worth six or seven, but (VAFA) challenged us on a couple of occasions, I thought if they got their tails up we could’ve been in a bit of trouble, but to the credit of our blokes the group was just really good,” Sexton said.

The team did not escape unscathed, with Newtown and Chilwell’s Hayden Smith coming off in the third quarter with a torn quad, and captain Tom Atkins from St Joseph’s suffering a lower leg injury.

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