GISORNE moved up to third spot on the Bendigo Bank BFL ladder with a 109-point QEO demolition of Sandhurst in mid-winter 2008.

With Shane Davis, Ollie Messaoudi and Gareth Bowes controlling the midfield, Rodney Sharp rebounding from half-back and constantly running the lines and Richard White slotting five goals the Bulldogs were always in charge.
But it wasn't all doom and gloom for the Dragons. They did manage to kick seven goals for the day while Sam "Specky" McGee completely shut down Gisborne's (and the BFL's) leading goalkicker in Jordan Barham.

Barham went on to win the 2008 Ron Best medal award with 75 majors.

At the QEO two seasons earlier, South Bendigo withstood a spirited challenge from Castlemaine to win its seventh game of the 2006 BFL season.

In a see-sawing contest full of momentum swings, the Bloods kicked the final four goals of the match to win 19.16 (130) to the Magpies 14.9 (93).

South playing coach Danny O'Bree showed why he was among the elite players in the BFL with a dominant final 40 minutes.
Having spent much of the match in the midfield O'Breen shifted himself down to the goalsquare midway through the third quarter. It proved to be a match-winning move.

O'Bree nailed five goals, including four in the final quarter, with his ability to win one-on-one marking contests a highlight.

The Magpies tried four players - Adam Culvenor, Chris Jardine, Aiden Millard and Alan McLennan - on him but none could curb O'Bree's influence in attack.

BUT back to 2008 and Gisborne's win: 23.20 (158) to Sandhurst's 7.7 (49).

Davis racked up 20 possessions by half-time, also booting a running goal from the scoreboard pocket at the city end. He constantly let the Dragons' on-ballers know where he was with his relentless body work.

If Davis missed anything, which wasn't much, the hard-running and slippery Bowes picked up as he broke attempted tackles.
Meantime Messaoudi bustled hard under the packs while Sharp was able to take running bounces as he swept down the swimming pool wing.

Big Jason Duff-Tytler who started the game on the bench kicked the Dogs' fourth first term major after the siren.
White booted two goals and hit one of the Barnard Street end goalposts with another shot after taking a ‘hanger' at centre half-forward in the opening term.

Nick Stagg posted the Dragons' only first quarter six-pointer while Lachlan Watts marked Jarrod Bateson's probing kick right on the point post line late in the second stanza.

Watts' banana kick scored Sandhurst's second major. By then, Gisborne had 12 goals on the board at the long break with skipper Anthony Belcher on target (he finished with four majors). White was up to four goals by half-time.

THE last half belonged to the Graveyard Dogs. They added 11.13 and even though the Hurst managed 5.4, Gisborne's players knew they had a finals double chance to play for.
In the third quarter playing coach Marcus Barham was involved in one of the plays-of-the-day.

He collected a city end kick-in on the scoreboard flank, handballed to the running Sharp whose three bounces, followed by a long bomb, found Messaoudi lurking in the Barnard Street end goalmouth.

Gisborne's hard-nut centreman coolly snapped the Dogs' 15th goal. It was a coast-to-coast Bulldogs move.

Sandhurst playing coach Kieran Nihill, who was extremely effective from his half-back flank, at the last change implored his charges to keep on working.

"They are older than us, more experienced and have bigger bodies. But keep on running and don't give up."
Gisborne, meantime, went on to add 7.7 as Shaun Comerford, Darren Farrugia, Bowes and Marcus Barham himself shared in the spoils.

Barham said after the game that bolstering the club's percentage had been the main aim.

"We knew no matter how things worked out at Eaglehawk by winning today we could grab third spot. Hopefully we can stay there over the next few weeks."

The coach was pleased with the form shown by three of his key players: Davis, Stewart Hamilton and Belcher. All had missed sizeable chunks of the 2008 season through injury.

"Anthony (Belcher) missed all of the first half of the season and didn't come into the side until the Castlemaine game (in round 10)," he said.

TWO years earlier at the same ground, the plucky young Castlemaine side refused to concede defeat.
Even with South booting the final three goals of the third stanza and seemingly impregnable with a 28-point buffer, the Maine had other ideas.

The Magpies rallied in the first 12 minutes of the concluding term to cut the margin to 10 points. Lively rover David Taylor booted two goals while Lachlan Brown and the talented Brock Bouch added one apiece.

Castlemaine's players seemed to have more run in their legs and they were winning more than an equal amount of contested ball.

But then the Bloods' simple game plan kicked in. It was just to get the pill, kick it long to O'Bree in the front half and he'd do the rest.

That strategy paid dividends as the coach snared three of the final four majors of the day. O'Bree virtually single-handedly ensured South's 37-point victory.
The signs looked ominous for the Pies early in the first quarter as South controlled the play.

But they wasted many opportunities kicking five, consecutive behinds before ruckman Leigh Rees --- playing against his old club - kicked the first of his two goals.

Then Castlemaine gradually worked its way back into contention after yet another slow start. Even when it seemed the Bloods would break away the Pies closed the gap to one point at half-time: 6.8 to South's 6.9.

IT WAS goal-for-goal for the opening 15 minutes of the third quarter. Then three quick goals to South --- all of which O'Bree had a hand in --- gave the Bloods what seemed to be a match-winning buffer at the final change.

South Bendigo had winners across every line. Marty Shadbolt played a fine game in attack, Rick Coburn was dominant through the midfield and slipped away to kick two majors, Linc Sullivan continually rebounded the ball from defence while Grant Tasca continued his impressive 2006 season either up forward or down back.

O'Bree was pleased with Leigh Rees' game. "To play against his best mates, it was really great to see how Reesy went about his footy," the Bloods coach said.
Magpie coach Ian Martin described his own game as "patchy" but the Maine midfielder was in his side's best.

Other good players for the Pies, who slipped out of the BFL Top Five with a 4-4 record, were defender Clint Aldridge, promising teenager Jarred James who had one of the BFL's premier defenders in James Flaherty moved onto him, and hard-working midfielder James O'Brien: the 2012 skipper.

O'Brien had his forehead and nose covered in tape after coming off in the opening stanza because of the blood rule.
"We had a good crack but we're still not quite good enough, are we?" Martin remarked.

South lost full-forward Luke Beattie (shoulder) in the third quarter while the Maine was without forward Adrian Conn (groin) and key defender Lachlan Maltby (hamstring) after half-time.

NORTH City (the Ballarat-based club) was winless in the 2006 BFL cellar after going down to Gisborne at the Graveyard: 36.25 (181) to 12.5 (77).

In just his second senior match Danny Klaaysen kicked 10 Gizzy goals while star flanker/on-baller Michael Dillon racked up 40 possessions and booted seven majors.

For the fourth, straight game Darren "Fudge" Farrugia nailed six, giving a haul of 23 majors to the three main Dogs' forwards.

Richard's tips for Round 11: Kangaroo Flat by 23, Gisborne by 9, Strathfieldsaye by 15, Castlemaine by 20 and South Bendigo by 35.
2012 season tally: 40.

By Richard Jones