EAGLEHAWK cruised home to a massive percentage-boosting win over an outclassed Castlemaine in Saturday's BFL match at Canterbury Park.
No fewer than 10 Hawks kicked goals as the home club dominated the contest from the first bounce.
The Magpies didn't kick a goal in the opening term and were held completely scoreless in the third. In both quarters they were attacking the Simpson's Road end goals.
Key defender Josh Gitsham turned in a superb display in the Eaglehawk backline, marking surely and creating plenty of run.
Small forward Linton Jacobs, versatile tall Kain Robins and linkmen Josh Bowe, Jarrod Findlay and Troy Coates were top contributors in the Hawks' 108-point victory: 22.19 (151) to 6.7 (43).
Coach Derrick Filo was pleased with the contribution from his players in the front half. "We're trying to get an even spread of goalkickers so weren't not reliant on just the one forward all the time for our goals," he said.
"And even though we might have looked a bit sloppy at times I thought our team pressure and our run was really good."
It took the Hawks just 62 seconds to score the opening goal of the day when Elliott Massina took a pass from Ryan Threlfall to convert.
Threlfall was exceptionally busy in the first half along with Bowe, Coates and Jarrod Findlay.
After Jacobs had snapped his first of five majors for the day and Bowe and spearhead Matt Gretgrix followed with two more, Magpie coach Paul Eyles switched Ben Rose onto Bowe.
But Castlemaine's atrocious ball-handling and dropped marks told. When they did get hold of the leather, Magpie players were guilty of over-using it with ring-a-rosy handballs.
They trailed by 33 points at the first change and found goal-scoring just as difficult in the second term.
Jacobs and Gretgrix already had two majors to their name, with Damien Lock adding another as he bustled through a pack, before the first Magpie goal was landed.
Big centre half-back Orry Cross was freed on the half-forward line at the town end. He steered through the Maine's first goal deep into the second term.
Three experienced Castlemaine players then combined well for the Magpies' second. Lachlan Brown ran hard in midfield, got the ball to Luke Walters and he found Jason Cordy within scoring range.
Cordy banged home the Pies' second after missing a gettable goal mid-term.
In time-on Walters popped through another major, thanks to a 50m penalty. Suddenly, Castlemaine had landed two goals in a row.
But the Magpies couldn't add even a single point in the third quarter. Gitsham hauled in two huge marks on the full-back line before chopping off a slewed kick from Cordy and charging away from the Simpson's Road end goalmouth.
Eaglehawk ruckman Tim Nicholson was busy around the ground, bringing his running players into the game with deft handballs.
Castlemaine had a scoring chance when Joel Smith soared high to pull in a fine mark. But the set shot was ordinary as the ball came off hands and hit the behind post.
Meanwhile Robins (2), Lock, Jacobs and Coates added goals for the Hawks as the home team stretched their advantage to 90 points by the last change.
Jacobs made sure of nailing a goal in each quarter as he started the scoring in the last quarter. He took a Kane Bloxsidge pass, then bobbed around despairing would-be tacklers to snap his fourth major.
Castlemaine replied with a grubbered major to Adam Culvenor, followed up by an unerring Ben Rose shot. For the second, consecutive week Rose was clearly Castlemaine's best player.
But Eaglehawk was relentless. Sparked by Castlemaine's mini-revival Gretgrix, Robins, Jacobs and Josh Ketterer all nailed goals, Robins with a toe-poke just centimetres from the goal-line.
Castlemaine coach Paul Eyles said following on from the disastrous first quarter the previous week the Magpies had worked hard on the training track.
"There were only four or five goals in it at quarter-time this week so we wanted to work our way into the game in the second quarter.
"We thought we could fight our way back into a competitive position. But we were terribly unaccountable, had no awareness around the packs and Eaglehawk wore us down with their fitness and run."
EAGLEHAWK 5.6 9.10 16.16 22.19 (151)
CASTLEMAINE 0.3 3.4 3.4 6.7 (43)
GOALS -- Eaglehawk: Linton Jacobs 5, Matthew Gretgrix 4, Elliott Massina, Kain Robins 3, Damien Lock 2, Josh Ketterer, Troy Coates, Josh Bowe, Jarrod Findlay, Gareth Crawford. Castlemaine: Jason Cordy 2, Orry Cross, Adam Culvenor, Luke Walters, Ben Rose.
BEST - Eaglehawk: Linton Jacobs, Josh Bowe, Josh Gitsham, Troy Coates, Tim Nicholson, Jarrod Findlay. Castlemaine: Ben Rose, Luke Walters, Lachlan Ford, Lachlan Brown.
VOTES in the Bendigo Advertiser Player of the Year award:
5: Linton Jacobs (Eaglehawk)
4: Josh Bowe (Eaglehawk)
3: Troy Coates (Eaglehawk)
2: Josh Gitsham (Eaglehawk)
1: Tim Nicholson (Eaglehawk)
• Golden Square's Grant Weeks is the top goalkicker in country Victoria with 42 majors after five rounds.
• He landed 11 against Gisborne in the Bendigo league's Battle of the Bulldogs on Saturday.
• Four-time premiers in the Noughties, Gisborne has fallen on hard times following the retirement of a clutch of premiership players. The Gardiner Reserve Dogs snared just three goals for the game against the Square, who won by a thumping 140 points: 23.26 (164) to 3.6 (24).
By Richard Jones
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|