MID GIPPSLAND FL
There were no surprises in another wet round of Mid Gippsland football.
Continual rain at most venues brought the level down to a real slog at some of the matches.
Trafalgar thumped Morwell East by more than 10 goals, Newborough and Yarragon slugged it out with the Dogs pulling through by 54 points, Mirboo North surprisingly had a comfortable win over Boolarra by 40 points in the closest game, Thorpdale won by 43 points over Hill End and Yinnar squashed Yallourn Yallourn North by 92 points.
Trafalgar v Morwell East
Trafalgar asserted its strength against Morwell East in conditions that were not too bad until the floodgates opened mid way through the third, and then it never stopped raining.
Football skills went out the window as players grafted hard, dropped easy marks, miskicked and generally made a mockery of the game.
Trafalgar led out of the blocks while the ball was relatively dry, but could only manage a string of behinds.
Trafalgar, aided by a stiff crosswind in the second, was able to add a further 6.3 (39) with Matt Robertson scoring three which included a ‘Tim Cahill-special kick’ off the ground which started the avalanche.
Tyson Leys and Jamie Hines were doing good things for Trafalgar, keeping possession of the greasy ball.
Morwell East coach Paul Henry was also busy in the middle, but they fell down across half forward.
By half time Trafalgar led 7.9 (51) to Morwell East 3.5 (17).
With the rain bucketing down in the third Trafalgar lost its radar and posted 2.11 which included seven successive behinds; Morwell East on its limited forays to the forward line managed 2.1.
Ben Marks was responsible for both goals.
In the final term it not only physically rained, but it rained goals for the Bloods.
Morwell East seemed to give up as Trafalgar went on a rampage adding another six goals to finish a creditable 15.22 (112) to Morwell East’s 5.10 (40).
For Trafalgar the much-conditioned Matt Robertson finished with six goals to be the top kicker on the day.
Ben Marks scored three of the East’s five.
Trafalgar had many good players with Tyson Leys, Darcy Brock, Dylan Farrell and Klay Butler all sharing the spoils.
For Morwell East, Lucas Towns, Brad Soutar, Brandon Francis and Jody Riordan all tried hard under the conditions.
Thorpdale v Hill End
Thorpdale broke through for its fourth win for the season and reversed its first round result against Hill End.
With at least three back into the side, Thorpdale went into the game full of confidence after its downer the previous week.
Hill End jumped out early and had three goals on the board before Thorpdale knew what was happening, but that’s where the rot stopped and Hill End was restricted to only two more goals for the rest of the game.
It was not a high scoring affair, but Thorpdale had got the edge by half time and slowly turned the screws to eventually run out winners, 12.6 (78) to Hill End 5.5 (35).
For Thorpdale, Nathan Scurrah played well up forward and was rewarded with four goals, the best of the day.
Its best were thirds player Shannon Pickering, Deen Allen, the O’Connell boys and Harley Foat.
For Hill End it was a disastrous day but it had good players in Ben Rotheram, Amburupa Uliando, Rob Fiddelears and Matt Van Tilberg.
Newborough v Yarragon
The only thing these two teams had in common was they both scored 11 behinds, unfortunately for Yarragon, Newborough also added 10 goals.
Yarragon was restricted to a single goal for the match.
It was not pretty to watch as both teams soon got the mad pack on and it was nearly a game of rugby as the slippery ball caused havoc.
Yarragon’s Carson Strobel was delighted to kick the first goal of the match.
Places on the ladder did not matter as players slugged it out in the mud and at half time it was a poor reflection on the state of football with Newborough 3.9 (27) to Yarragon 1.5 (11).
After the break Newborough got its act together and started to use the ball with more skill.
Stewart Robertson was voted best with general field play and four goals, while Glenn Michie also notched another three.
Of the rest of the mudlarks, Jarroyd Bennets, Mick Gelagotis, Josh Keyhoe and James Mander were best.
Yarragon’s David Bates, ScottWood, Stewart Edwards and Ben Damschke all played well under severe conditions.
Yinnar v YYN
League leaders Yinnar was out to build up percentage against YYN.
It did but it was tough going against a team determined to show some spirit towards the end of the season.
Amassing 6.4 (40) to nil in the first quarter Yinnar established the general trend of the match.
The Bombers hit back in the second with three majors but Yinnar was equal to the task and booted four to establish a half time break lead of 45 points.
Playing excellent wet weather football in the last half, Yinnar added a further 54 points to the Bombers’ nine.
YYN had no answers to the way that Yinnar played.
YYN full-back Owen Budge and Yinnar forward Tim Aitken had a great battle all day with honours split, Aitken managed to boot four but was under pressure all day, it was left to eight other Magpies to kick goals in Yinnar’s runaway win.
Liam Visser, who seems to improve with age, was voted best for Yinnar, but not far behind was Max Renwick, Lee Cummins, Brendan Chapman and Daniel Nardino.
For the hapless Bombers, Budge, Darcy Shellcott and D Murphy were best.
Mirboo North v Boolarra
A GAME that had a big bearing on the final five make-up was between Mirboo North and Boolarra, played in drizzly rain for most of the day.
Mirboo North jumped away from Boolarra early and the Demons had to play catch up all day.
There was a lot riding on the result, which Mirboo North won 14.12 (96) to Boolarra 8.8 (56).
The win has now opened up an eight-point lead to Mirboo North in fourth, from Boolarra in fifth.
It wasn’t a day for goalkickers but Jesse Giardina (Boolarra) and Matt Holland (Mirboo North) both scored three each in the best of the day.
Joe Brooks, Jack Robertson, Josh Taylor and Kallum Nash were best for the Tigers, while Boolarra was best served by Vince Corbett, James Holmes, Tim Auld, Nick Hider and Ken Towt.
