Border Mail |
LAVINGTON clinched one of its bravest modern-day victories with a 45-point trouncing of reigning premier Yarrawonga at the J.C. Lowe Oval on Saturday.
The Panthers overcame an injury epidemic, which has claimed some of their most important performers, to roll the highly rated Pigeons on their home ground.
Lavington was forced to make six changes after a disastrous training session on Thursday night, which included fresh injuries to Kade Stevens and Sam Harris on top of the casualties — Adam Prior and Mitch Palmer — from last week’s win.
Frontline performers Matt Pendergast and Myles Aalbers were already sidelined, but the Panthers still found a way to claim a heroic win.
The Panthers were also forced to make a seventh change late, with Nick Meredith unable to come up from a bad cork last week.
His replacement, Nick Turner, was out of the match before quarter-time with a damaged shoulder.
Justin Koschitzke defied a quad injury to boot a season-best six goals, but is likely to miss a month.
The Panthers didn’t miss a beat, with the influx of newcomers including debutant Connor Byrne, 15, and other unheralded performers such as Will Lenehan, Zac Hopper, Chris Annett and Jack Nunn.
Lavington coach James Saker said the win was a defining moment for his team, which is best placed to end Albury and Yarrawonga’s stranglehold on the competition.
“It is a proud moment for myself as coach, but also the people in the backroom about the direction we are going and what we believe in,” he said.
“Today we had seven guys come in who knew exactly how we want to play.
“They are all mates and are all on the same page.
“It is not the ultimate vindication but proves we are on the right track and our style of footy holds up.”
The win was being compared alongside the stirring fightback victory against eventual premier Albury at the Albury Sportsground in Tim Sanson’s final season as coach in 2011.
The bad news for the Panthers is they will be without many of their wounded warriors for an extended period.
Stevens, Pendergast, Harris, Prior, Koschitzke and Aalbers will all be out for four to six weeks.
Palmer is the only player expected to ret-urn against a resurgent Corowa-Rutherglen after a bout of concussion from the win against Wangaratta.
The loss has left some major question marks hanging over the Pigeons, who fell in against North Albury last round and have a clash against Alb-ury looming on the horizon.
“We haven’t been playing good footy for a while,” Yarrawonga co-coach Chris Kennedy said.
“They were just hungrier and full credit to them.
“It was well publicised how many players Lavi had out.
“But we have been down for a few weeks.”
