Bendigo Advertiser | A BAG of 12 goals from full-forward Matt Knox spearheaded Gisborne to a 127-point win over Maryborough in their Bendigo Football League match at Gardiner Reserve on Saturday.
Knox was unstoppable for the Bulldogs in their 25.22 (172) to 7.3 (45) win - their first of the season.
His 12 goals were the first double-figure haul by a Gisborne player since Jordan Barham bagged 12 against Kyneton in 2008, with the performance drawing high praise from coach Rod Sharp.
“He’s a quality forward. If he can consistently get reasonable delivery then he is very hard to stop,” Sharp said.
“We’ve rated him for years and it might be this year that the rest of the competition realises just how good he is.”
Gisborne led by 20 points at half-time, but should have been further in front after having a wayward 7.10 on the board to the Magpies’ 5.2.
But the Bulldogs split the game wide open with a dominant second half, piling on 10 goals in the third quarter and eight in the last, while holding the Magpies to just 2.1.
“We finally started to get some execution in the second half, and some of our good players started to get their hands on the ball a bit more often,” Sharp said.
As well as Knox’s 12 goals, the Bulldogs had Ben Sonogan kick four and Andre Headberry three.
Knox, swingman Sonogan, Tim Walsh and Tom Waters led the better players for the Bulldogs.
Maryborough coach Jamie Bond said his side was hampered by having no bench by half-time with Ryan Connellan, Nathan Bond, Luke Vadala and Chris Freeman all off the ground, as well as having five players double up from the under-18s earlier in the day.
“Not having a bench after half-time made it tough, but the boys who were out there battled it out,” Bond said.
“Unfortunately, we ran out of legs.”
Maryborough - which has conceded 34 goals to nine in its two second halves this season - was best served by Austen Murphy off half-back, Coby Perry, who has moved into the midfield, and ruckman Kade Bench.
Matt Bond and Jacob Rollason kicked two goals each.
