The Archives | Strathfieldsaye unleashed a withering 11-goal first quarter in 2010’s Anzac Day fixture at the Camp Reserve to sink Castlemaine.
Back then, just as in today’s fixtures, Lachlan Sharp was on fire. He booted eight of the Storm’s 24-goal haul playing more wing or half-forward than closer to the goal square as he does today.
Sharp had enormous back-up from on-baller Cameron Hall (7 goals) and small forward Craig Nicholls (5) as the Storm piled on goal-after-goal at the scoreboard end before the first siren.
In other fixtures South Bendigo belted Kangaroo Flat restricting the Roos to four goals for the evening, Square eased home by 30 points over Sandhurst in the Saturday night fixture, Eaglehawk caned Maryborough by 11 goals while Gisborne had to fight hard to dispose of Kyneton by 29 points.
It was a big turnaround for the Gardiner Reserve Dogs.
Winless and uncharacteristically at the bottom of the senior ladder after three rounds, Gissy faced enormous pressure leading into the match.
However, inspired by coach Ty Elliott the Bulldogs responded to the challenge in style.
In a daring move suggested by dual premiership captain Luke Saunders during the week, Elliott moved on-ballers Adam Pokrovsky and Casey Summerfield into defence.
And Saunders himself started the match as the ruck-rover. All three moves paid off as Summerfield, Pokrovsky and Saunders, playing an on-ball role, were named as Gisborne’s best three players for the day.
The victory propelled the Gardiner Reserve Dogs to 17 wins over the Tigers in their long winning streak.
Back to the Camp Reserve clash.
Nicholls had four of his five goals for the day by the first change. It seemed as if he couldn’t miss landing majors from every possible angle.
His first came from the outside of the right boot, the next from a goalmouth toe-poke through a pack and the third from a 40-metre set shot.
Meanwhile Hall swooped on anything Nicholls, missed. Which wasn’t much.
He roved a boundary line throw-in to perfection for his first goal, collected a poorly directed Magpie handball for his second and then collected a pass from coach Clint Whitsed for his third.
But Hall’s fourth major was the pick of the bunch. He bent his shot back at the last second from a flying snap to give him four --- and the quarter-time siren was still a way off.
The Storm enjoyed a considerable edge in pace. Hall, centreman Ben Sullivan, teenage wingman Kellan Smith and rebounding defenders Dermott Smythe and Matthew Ladson simply burned off despairing Magpie chasers.
When the game was well and truly done and dusted Castlemaine did outscore Strathfieldsaye by seven points in the final term.
They added 5.7 to five goals with Daniel Christmas taking his match tally to three.
And that was after a spell on the pine when Christmas was yellow-carded 12 minutes from half-time, meaning he couldn’t return until three minutes into the third term.
Rhys Jenkins and midfielder Ben Rose booted a pair of goals each for the Maine with Rose the home side’s best on the day in my Addy match report.
Storm coach Clint Whitsed said training for the match had concentrated on using the ball well plus taking accountability around the packs.
“We knew we had it in us (the 11-goal first quarter). And we had been working up to this game for the past three weeks.
”And as I’ve been saying to journalists all season so far, we’ve been playing pretty good footy,” Whitsed added.
Maine coach Paul Eyles said going into the Anzac weekend clash his players had trained as well – if not better – than at any other 2010 session.
“We didn’t expect that Storm first quarter effort. But all credit to them. We were second to the footy and were chasing all day.”
Meanwhile in the Sunday evening game at Dower Park South crushed an insipid Flat by 105 points.
The Bloods were already 91 points up by half-time with the Roos able to muster just a meagre 1.3 in the first two terms.
Spearhead Dayne Frew had the first of his six goals for the evening within the first minute of play.
The Bloods had 4.4 on the board before the Roos registered their first goal through Daniel Arnold.
But by the first break the game was over: South 8.6 to Flat’s 1.0.
And the Bloods’ 14 scoring shots in that opening stanza had come from just 17 inside 50s. By half-time the lopsided inside 50 count read: South 35, Flat 12.
Sandhurst trailed Golden Square by just one point at the final change in the Saturday night game at the QEO.
But the Dragons were unable to finish the job off as the top-of-the-table Dogs booted 6.2 to 1.3 in the vital last term to win by a clear five goals.
Early on the Dragons were the dominant side. Despite missing key forwards Simon Weekley and Mark Fitzgerald captain Sam ‘Spekky’ McGee presented well and took some strong marks.
Bulldog full-forward Grant Weeks nailed the last two goals of the first term to hand Square a narrow lead: 4.1 to 4.0.
The Hurst took over in the second quarter. With Jon Coghlan on top in the midfield the Dragons slammed home 4.2 to 0.2 in the opening 17 minutes.
That gave the slick Dragons a 23-point lead and an upset looked likely. Then the Square fought back landing three of the final four goals of the quarter, two of them from the boot of Grant Weeks. He finished the night with nine.
Spraying gettable shots at goal in that second term was the Hurst’s downfall. McGee, Jarrod Bateson, Blair Holmes and Lee Coghlan all missed in front of the big sticks.
Meanwhile Square’s star recruit Luke Hammond led the Bulldogs’ third quarter charge with great help from speedy Shaun Young.
The Square added 4.4 to 1.3 in the first 21 minutes of the third term. But the Dragons refused to wilt and drew within a single point at the final change.
Then Weeks took over. He booted three clutch goals in the final quarter, along with big man James Bristow’s 50m shot, to help the Dogs gradually edge clear.
Sandhurst used the in-form Jack Kennedy on Weeks but the star forward finished with nine majors (two in the first, one in the second and three apiece in each of the concluding two terms).
At the conclusion of four games in 2010 Weeks had 31 majors to his name.
In the other game Eaglehawk downed Maryborough by 67 points in a Saturday afternoon Princes Park fixture.
It was a big turnaround for the Two Blues. In rd. 13 in 2009 the Magpies won one of their six games for the season, belting Eaglehawk by 61 points.
But the Hawks produced a 127-point reversal. Midfielder Damien Lock (26 possessions by half-time), Gareth Crawford, Troy Coates (the 2018 Storm coach) and Josh Ketterer along with rebounding half-back Ryan Threlfall were all outstanding.
Threlfall had amassed an astonishing 18 possessions by quarter-time. Brady Herdman and Linton Jacobs ended with four goals each for the Hawks while Jayden Hind and Jayden Hooper snagged a pair each for Maryborough.
Chris Thomson was named the Magpies’ best while Bodie Malone stuck to his task of running with star Hawk midfielder, Josh Bowe.
Magpie coach Shane Fisher opted to sit and mentor from behind the fence on the outer side wing, not from the traditional box below the grandstand.
Final scores: Strathfieldsaye 24.8 (152) d Castlemaine 12.11 (83), Eaglehawk 18.13 (121) d Maryborough 7.12 (54), Gisborne 17.13 (115) d Kyneton 12.14 (86), G. Square 17.11 (113) d Sandhurst 12.11 (83) and South Bendigo 20.18 (138) d Kang. Flat 4.9 (33).
Top Five: Square 4-0, 16 points; Eaglehawk 4-0, 16; South Bendigo 3-1, 12; Maryborough 3-1, 12 and Kang. Flat 2-2, 8.
A grade netball: Eaglehawk 29 d Maryborough 27, Sandhurst 43 d G. Square 42, S’saye 58 d C’maine 33 and Kang. Flat 48 d South Bendigo 25. Kyneton in recess, 2010.
Top Five: Sandhurst 4-0, 16; G. Square 3-1, 12; Eaglehawk 3-1, 12; Gisborne 2-1 and 1 bye, 12; Kang Flat 1-2 and 1 bye, 8 points.
By Richard Jones
