SANDHURST won its first game five seasons back thanks to a desperate last quarter revival against Kyneton at the QEO.

The two basement dwellers clashed in a BFNL round 7 match in 2008 and the match attracted more publicity on the Monday than the Top Five clash between South and Gisborne.
The re-building Dragons fought back from a 16-point deficit three minutes into the final term to run over the top of the tiring Tigers.

And it marked the first time in the 2008 season that the Hurst had booted 10 goals.
The home team finished on 10.15 (75) to Kyneton's 7.16 (58).

It didn't look promising for the Dragons early in the final quarter. Kyneton forward Brian Ruffell banged home the first goal of the final stanza with just 40 seconds played.
But the Tigers, coached jointly by Bill Young and Mick Martin-Alcaide in the absence of Brett Cook, could manage just two behinds for the rest of the term.

Sandhurst took control of the play after Ruffell's major and added 5.4 to charge to victory.

It did take the Dragons more than seven minutes to get the scoreboard ticking over, with their entire last quarter score coming in the concluding 18 minutes of the match.
Key players for the Dragons were midfielder Tyson Findlay (who later played for Eaglehawk), winger Jarrod Bateson and forward Oliver Stoltz.

This trio combined to register all of the Hurst's five, last stanza majors.

Stoltz started the run of Maroon and Blue goals when he was on target at the nine-minute mark. It made up for the 25 metre set shot he'd missed 60 seconds earlier.

Then Findlay drilled a 40 metre set shot to leave Kyneton ahead by just two points. It was the first time since the second term that Sandhurst had strung together consecutive goals.

THE up-and-coming Bateson capped a top game when he marked a Tigers' kick-in following a Hurst behind at the 16-minute mark. Bateson played on and kicked a 45 metre goal-on-the-run to hand the Dragons the lead for the first time since the third quarter.

Findlay and Stoltz sealed the win for Sandhurst with goals at the 21 and 22-minute marks.

Elated Hurst coach Kieran Nihill was delighted for his young players after the victory. "It's good to win and I think it's going to do a lot for the young players which is the most pleasing thing," he told Advertiser sports writer Luke West.

"Our whole theory was to take the game on, and that was really pleasing the way we did that.

"We were 16 points down in that last quarter and with a team that's not going so well it's probably easy to say: 'Bugger it –- we've lost again.'

"But the way we won was to take risks, take the game on, carry the footy and try to get around a few opposition blokes," Nihill added.

"It could easily have gone the other way, though, and I guess you have to feel for Kyneton because unfortunately some poor sod had to lose and, thankfully, it wasn't us."
The Tigers suffered a blow when captain Darren Chambers was forced to sit out the majority of the second half with a leg injury.

THRE was nothing in the game for the first three quarters. The biggest margin between the teams was the 12 points which Kyneton led by five minutes into the second stanza.

The Tigers were on top by 10 points at quarter-time. A rare goal from Dragon skipper and key defender Mal Borchard in the final, few seconds of the second stanza gave the Hurst a four-point advantage at half-time.

Inaccuracy plagued both teams in the third term with Sandhurst able to manage just five behinds. The Tigers added 2.6 to go into three-quarter time with a nine-point lead and all the momentum.

But after Ruffell's early goal that was it for Kyneton as the Dragons did all the scoring for the remainder of the final quarter.

Bateson, Findlay and Nihill led the way in the Hurst game plan of run and carry, but they had other committed teammates.

Billy Barnes, Ryan Walker, Lachlan Watts and Nick Arthur were key members of the winning side. Arthur, like Barnes, was prominent with his aerial skills.

Although there were sombre scenes in the Kyneton rooms, the Tigers were well served by ruckman Haydn Smith who got his share of tap-outs, midfielders Brent Dryden and Brad Else and defender Jay Reardon.

Bendigo Pioneer Shane Page was also among the Tigers' best.
Cameron Tate was Sam McGee's opponent for most of the day. Tate pulled in seven marks and played a mix of forward and midfield.

The match-up of McGee on Tate meant Sandhurst was robbed of its leading goal-kicker being able to play in attack. Nevertheless, McGee held Tate to just a single major for the day.

Findlay and Stoltz booted two goals each for the Hurst. Ruffell finished the day with three of Kyneton's seven.

IN other matches South Bendigo outscored Gisborne 11 goals to six after half-time in the Sunday game at the QEO, while Maryborough hung on in a thriller at Princes Park to beat the fast-finishing Kangaroo Flat by a point.

Golden Square, with a brace of injured top players watching on, accounted for Castlemaine by 37 points at the Camp Reserve.

Final scores: Maryborough 16.16 def. Kangaroo Flat 16.15, South Bendigo 16.18 def. Gisborne 12.16 and Golden Square 12.11 def. Castlemaine 5.16.

I wrote about the Maryborough game for the Monday Advertiser. Extremely accurate in the opening three terms, the Roos added 6.7 in the last stanza as the winter darkness closed in.

By comparison the home side at Princes Park landed just two majors to Ben Jackson and Andrew Tatchell, but they were crucial.

Tyrone Downie, as he has done so often for the Green and Whites, booted his sixth goal to reduce the margin to eight points. Denis Hickey snapped a brilliant major out of a massive scrimmage to narrow the gap to a single point.
But the Magpies held on grimly in the closing moments. In retrospect, it was Maryborough's third quarter surge when they added 7.3 to 1.3 -- with Jamie Bond landing three vital goals --- which got the Borough home.

Leading team Eaglehawk with a six win-no loss record sat atop the senior ladder. The Hawks had the bye in this round five years ago.

A FORTNIGHT earlier the Hurst had been beaten by arch-rivals South Bendigo in their biggest-ever BFL loss --- a massive 211-point thumping.

It was the second biggest shellacking in the BFNL records of the 2000s. Only Square's 249-point belting of North City in 2006's final round saw a bigger final margin.

And remember. The Hurst's record stretches back to the 1860s although there was a period of recess from 1900-1919.
The Bloods led the round 6 match 16.15 to 1.1 at half-time and then 28.18 to 2.2 at the final change. South spearhead Dayne Frew bagged an even dozen for the day in the goal-kicking stakes, with Michael Leech and Brad Rohde chipping in with five each.

Midfielders Brady Childs and Gavin Bowles added three majors each.

Sam "Spekky" McGee booted three of the Dragons' five goals.
The peculiarity of the final goal-kicking tallies was the fact that Leech played at centre half-back on McGee for the majority of the match.

Leech's ability to drift downfield paid dividends as he constantly ran into forward space, unmarked.

At the other end of the field Frew was picked up early on by Dragon key defender Mal Borchard. Hurst recruit Billy Barnes was switched onto the strong-marking South spearhead early in the third term.
Frew still finished with 12.

Final score: South Bendigo 36.27 (243) def. Sandhurst 5.2 (32).

The inter-league match between Bendigo and Gippsland was played the weekend after South's slaughter of the Hurst. So for the Dragons to re-group and win their first game for 2008 over Kyneton just two weeks later was a terrific effort.

From the Bendigo Advertisers of May 26th 2008, and June 9th, 2008.

Richard's tips for Round 4 – Anzac Day: Eaglehawk by 20 points and Strathfieldsaye by 33.
April 27th: Golden Square by 15 and Gisborne by 49. Season total: 8.

By Richard Jones