The Standard | TERANG Mortlake is desperate for a four-quarter performance after scraping home against a Hampden league bottom-five opponent for a second straight week.
Fast start, strong finish downs Roos
The Bloods showed grit to fight back from a 27-point fourth quarter deficit against Hamilton Kangaroos to record a 12.12 (84) to 12.10 (82) win at Melville Oval on Saturday.
The Kangaroos kicked five unanswered goals, including the first two of the final term in quick succession, after an ugly melee broke out midway through the third quarter.
Players from both sides spilled over the boundary line near the benches as the contest turned fiery.
The Kangaroos grabbed the momentum and appeared on track for an upset.
But utility Alex Moloney, forward Joe Arundell and midfielder Damian O’Connor sparked a Bloods’ revival.
Arundell put them in front late in the final term.
Both coaches – Bloods mentor Matthew Irving and Roos leader Jarrod Holt – conceded two strong patches proved the catalysts in Terang Mortlake’s win.
The Bloods kicked the first five goals of the game and the last four.
“To their credit they kept persevering,” Irving said.
“I guess they’d be very disappointed to lose that because they were in control for 90 per cent of the day.”
Holt said it was a difficult loss to take.
“We just tightened up a bit when we thought we were a chance to win,” he said.
“I thought we played into their hands by stopping. Guys were getting the footy and stopping and kicking wide.
“We got in that (winning) position for starters by playing attacking footy and taking the game on and then we just stopped. It is a tough lesson to learn.
“Wins have been tough to come by for us, so it hurts even more when you lose a game you should have won.”
Irving said the Bloods were disappointed with their response after the melee.
“When there was that bit of push and shove, they kicked the next couple of goals and we just went back into our shells,” he said.
“I challenged them at three-quarter-time to really dig deep, find something.
“Early in the last quarter they kicked the first two goals so the game was pretty much iced and then we fought our backsides off to come home really hard.”
Irving and Holt said the heated fracas was a bad look for country football.
“I guess in the context of the game it was a bit of frustration from both sides. Turnovers were atrocious,” Irving said.
“We’d turn the footy over and they’d turn it back over to us. I guess a bit of frustration blew out and they took it out on each other.”
Veteran Bloods midfielder Nathan Jones accepted a one match suspension after being reported.
