ROB POPPLESTONE
FOOTBALL
MID GIPPSLAND
By ROB POPPLESTONE
FOUR rounds into the 2023 season and clubs have now started to show their hand as to what they can and cannot do, and those strengths and weaknesses had also been tested against various opposition.
A clearer picture will be obvious in the month ahead, but this week in particular fully tested the teams expected to be at the top end of town.
Foster v Yinnar
IN the fortnight leading into their weekend clash with the reigning premiers, Foster had claimed two victories, both by just three points and both against quality opposition.
Their home ground hosting of Yinnar, was expected to produce yet another nail biting encounter, but it was bad kicking that proved to be costly, very costly.
Foster 4.14 (38) were defeated by Yinnar 9.4 (58).
“What do they say about bad kicking … it was going to catch up to us after the last few weeks and today it did. More scoring shots and just as much of the ball, they beat us on the ground and got a few easy ones which was deflating for the group. The Yinnar boys had plenty to say so there’s a good little rivalry building,” Foster senior coach Sam Davies said.
Yinnar are slowly getting their mojo, and with that come their confidence, and with that comes their premiership winning form.
“Was great to get the result in what was a good contested game of footy, I’m really proud of how we went about it, our willingness to compete and apply pressure was great to see. Our depth has been challenged which has given us no other option but to play the kids and once again they were fantastic! Foster are a good side, they controlled the game at stages but couldn’t hit the scoreboard, credit to my boys though, they worked super hard and deserved the win,” Yinnar senior coach Daniel Taylor said.
Most sides in the competition seem to have improved on what they offered in 2022, and the fact that Yinnar are winning games that they may have lost last season, sends a message to all in the competition that they believe they are capable of going back to back.
Hill End v Newborough
HILL End at home has for many years been one of the toughest trips on the calendar for opposition clubs.
The Rovers, always with strong community support, making it a sometimes uncomfortable and testing environment from which to claim a victory.
Newborough however are quite a different proposition this year to last, and did what they needed to do quite comfortably.
Newborough 17.21 (123) defeated Hill End 3.16 (34).
“First time in five years we meet the Hill men and get to sing,” Newborough senior coach Craig Skinner said.
“The usual footy problem, perfect conditions and both sides kick a copious amount of points without a single excuse.
“We already have the Byrne Fanning cup in the cupboard and plan to engrave it in the future.
“Santo coaches better with less talent than a star studded team and would agree the scoreboard was not the true indicator of the game that was played. but overall happy to descend with four points.”
Those four points are just another to add to the unbeaten Bulldog’s tally, and they are the same four points that Hill End would have loved to have had.
“Newborough were far too good for us today. We did battle and I don’t think the scoreboard gave our effort justice,” Hill End senior coach Mike Santo said.
“A huge last quarter blew us away. Our inaccuracy around the goal clearly didn’t help. Craig has the boys well structured and playing for each other and they’ll be hard to beat by most sides.”
Coach Santo has remained, and you can bet will remain positive about what his side is capable of, the evenness of the competition meaning that a quick rise up the MGFNL ladder is always possible if you can string a few games together.
MDU v Fish Creek
CLUBS have worked out very quickly, the clashes that are of most importance, finals like, for want of a better description, and this match was touted to be one of those.
Two sides, seemingly evenly matched and both desperate to start and put some distance between themselves and those middle-of-the-ladder teams.
MDU standing tall and signalling they will be a finals contender in 2023, winning 19.12 (126) to Fish Creek’s 6.9 (45).
“We had a really good day as a group, moved the ball well and the most pleasing thing was turning the forward entries into scores,” MDU senior coach Nathan Allen said.
Fish Creek would have given themselves a chance of securing a win, but the result highlights the need for teams to be either on their game or paying the price.
“We got shown up by a pretty slick and well coached outfit. It was a great day for footy and Meeniyan’s skill and work rate shone through. Some good learnings for us to take from the game, so it’s time for us to roll up the sleeves and start putting in the hard yards,” Fish Creek senior coach Jarrod Walker said.
At this early stage of the season, it appears that some new faces will be putting their hands up for a place in the league’s top six, MDU is certainly one of those, but a week is a long time in football and there are still fourteen long weeks to go.
Mirboo North v Thorpdale
MIRBOO North approached Thorpdale with the respect the Blues have quickly earnt, as they prepared for home ground clash.
The Blues may not have tasted victory in their opening three matches of the season, but they had certainly done enough to suggest they might cause some concern for the Tigers, and concern is what they caused, the Blues tasting some rare success in possibly their best win in years.
Thorpdale 11.8 (74) defeated Mirboo North 10.11 (71).
“Great day for the club taking home the win in both grades of footy on Mirboo North’s home deck. A bit close for our liking at the end in the seniors, but good reward for the playing group,” Thorpdale senior coach Jason Winderlich said.
“Extremely even competition this year so we expect another good challenge against Hill End at home.”
As disappointing as the loss was for the Tigers, you could not help but complimentary of the way the Blues went about their victory.
“Congratulations to Thorpy getting their first win today. They played some good patches of footy and capitalised on a lot of our mistakes so they deserved the win. We did have a chance to snatch victory in the last 30 seconds but it wasn’t meant to be,” Mirboo North senior coach Peter Mongta said.
Disappointing loss for our club but we have to turn our focus now to MDU next week now and get on with it.”
MDU, will not be any easier a proposition for Mirboo North than Thorpdale were, so the pressure is now on the Tigers to quickly turn things around.
Morwell East v Stony Creek
RETURNING to their home ground to take on the Lions, Morwell East were keen to make it a perfect start to the season with four wins from their opening four matches.
The Hawks had previously displayed some very slick movement of the ball, which, complemented with young legs, was causing some massive headaches for opposition sides.
Round 4 was no different for Morwell East winning by 39 points, 10.13 (73) to Stony Creek’s 4.10 (34).
“It was a very physical game. For four quarters Stony Creek brought the physicality, they threw everything at us. They played the game one on one. My message to our boys was simple. This is us, this is the way we play the game so let’s be better at it for longer,” Morwell East senior coach Paul Henry said.
“The spirit in these boys is something else and that’s exactly what we are going to need again this week, in what will be our biggest test yet, when we come up against the undefeated Newborough side. Can’t wait for this!”
The Hawks are cruising through the early part of the season, but will quickly find the pressure will start to build, while for Stony Creek, the pressure is already there.
“We were good with our pressure and tackling which kept us in the game. Our skills let us down, just lacked that polish going forward. We will take some positives out of the game but have a bit to work on before Toora next week,” Stony Creek senior coach Chris Verboon said.
Tarwin v Boolarra
Both of these two teams had come off heart breaking three-point losses in their last match, and both to the same side in Foster.
Tarwin, who had a bye in between, were super keen to bounce back with a victory at home over the Demons.
In somewhat of a shootout, it was the Sharks that got the job done
Tarwin 19.8 (122) defeated Boolarra 15.9 (99).
“Well we jumped out of the gate well! Then got complacent and the Boolarra lads turned up the dial a little bit! It was a well ground out win for us and each week we keep learning about ourselves and also the competition! I thought we moved the ball the best we have this year so that’s promising,” Tarwin senior coach Troy Hemming said.
The Sharks’ 10 goals to two opening term was super impressive, but equally impressive was the way the Demons didn’t give it up and fought back to put themselves into contention.
“Ten goals to two at quarter and you think the game is over, but to the boys credit we fought back and hit the front but undisciplined free kicks cost us badly, you can’t give good sides that sort of head start and unfortunately we haven’t hit another four points. We now have a bye next week then a massive game against Yinnar,” Boolarra senior coach Tony Giardina said.
The Demons have shown they can mix it with the very best sides in the competition, but sooner rather than later they will also need to win games of footy.
TOORA had the bye.
WELL hasn’t some extra interest been thrown into the Mid Gippsland Football-Netball League season of 2023, with the likes of Thorpdale, MDU, and Morwell East all showing significant improvement from the season past and all three capable of having an impact on the makeup of the top six, and all three believing they can actually be a part of it.
Thorpdale v Hill End
THORPDALE are coming off one of their most pleasing victories in a handful of years, after defeating the respected Mirboo North on the Tigers home deck just last week.
The Blues had been showing signs that a win might be on its way after three commendable performances in the opening three rounds, but now in the blink of an eye, they have the very real chance of making it two in a row.
“Last week was a great day for the club, a good reward for the playing group. It’s an extremely even competition this year so we expect another good challenge against Hill End at home,” Thorpdale senior coach Jason Winderlich said.
During pre-season, you might have pencilled this match up as one that Hill End would be expected to win, but right now Hill End are the hunted, and will need to find something extra to overcome their current blues, after last week’s loss to Newborough.
“We did battle and I don’t think the scoreboard gave out effort justice. It was the last quarter that blew us away; our inaccuracy around the goal clearly didn’t help,” Hill End senior coach Mike Santo said.
There is no easy pathway this week for the Rovers, and Santo will be hoping, or more precisely, coaching as though its their last chance to remain in touch will those sides above them.
Newborough v Morwell East
ONLY one of these two unbeaten teams will continue to hold that title after this weekend.
As good as Morwell East have been, the Hawks will no doubt know more about themselves after the Round 5 clash with Newborough.
The Bulldogs on their home deck are a powerful unit, in fact they are on any ground at the moment, and they will be ready, willing and able to give the Hawks their toughest test to date.
“I’m looking forward to an early top of the table game at home with a chance to get a bonus four points in front of our Past Players Reunion,” Newborough senior coach Craig Skinner said.
The opportunity to showcase to past players that this may well be another year for the Bulldogs to celebrate won’t be lost on Coach Skinner, but he and his talented team won’t have everything their own way.
“The spirit in these boys is something else and that’s exactly what we are going to need again this week, in what will be our biggest test yet, when we come up against the undefeated Newborough side. Can’t wait for this,” Morwell East coach Paul Henry said.
For the winner, clear air at the top of the MGFNL ladder beckons, for the loser it’s back to a chasing pack of clubs.
Fish Creek v Foster
TO say a win is crucial for these two teams would be a massive understatement.
Fish Creek, under the guidance of coach Jarrod Walker, are showing patches of what is required to win games, but the Kangaroos will need to give more and do more to be in a position to claim the points against the visiting Foster.
The Tigers themselves have managed to taste victory on a number of occasions already this season, but will not be wanting a repeat of the sort of inaccurate finishing they showed in their defeat last week.
“What do they say about bad kicking … it was going to catch up to us after the last few weeks and last week it did,” Foster senior coach Sam Davies said.
Fish Creek would love the Tigers to once again be giving up chances in front of goals as they did last week, but more importantly they just need to be better themselves.
“Some good learnings for us to take from the game last week, so it’s time for us to roll up our sleeves and start putting in the hard yards,” Fish Creek senior coach Jarrod Walker said.
There are no shortcuts or easy passage to success at any level, and the Kangaroo’s performance this week will make obvious whether they understand that or not.
Mirboo North v MDU
MDU would have done some forward scouting on this week’s opponent, and possibly walked away from the Tigers defeat to Thorpdale with a plan of how they might also be able to claim victory.
It really is an early fork in the road for Mirboo North, who might well have had last week’s clash with Thorpdale as one they expected to win.
Pressure can quickly build in such a close competition and that pressure will give us an early look at what the Tigers are made of.
“Last week we did have a chance to snatch victory in the last thirty seconds but it wasn’t meant to be. It was a disappointing loss for our club but we have to turn our focus now to MDU this week and get on with it,” Mirboo North senior coach Peter Mongta said.
Without question, that is what the Tigers must do, last weeks surprising loss to Thorpdale is dead and buried, but a win this week can quickly get the Mirboo North club up and about again. What stands in their way is MDU.
“We had a really good day as a group last week, we moved the ball well and the most pleasing thing was turning the forward entries into scores,” MDU senior coach Nathan Allen said.
As good as the Demons were last week, you get the feeling they will need to be even better again this week.
Stony Creek v Toora
TWO teams that currently sit at the wrong end of the MGFNL ladder will no doubt be preparing to throw everything they have in this week’s round five clash.
Toora, coming off the bye, have had time not only to refresh, but also see the Demons account for the Lions first hand just a week ago.
A handful of the Magpie players may not have been on the trip to Hill End just a few weeks ago, but they will have no problem in the journey to Stony Creek this week.
“We have had patches where we have looked ok, but just not for long enough, we have had a solid three weeks where we have learned a lot but we were looking forward to last weeks bye.”
Both sides are more than capable on their day, bu there will be no excuses from either side this week.
“Last week our skills let us down, just lacked that polish going forward. We will take some positives out of the game but have a bit to work on before Toora this week,” Stony Creek coach Chris Verboon said.
Yinnar v Tarwin
WINNING form is good form, and these two teams bring that into this weeks game in round five.
Tarwin showed another side to themselves last week, when they took on and defeated Boolarra in a real shootout against the Demons, the Sharks kicking better than twenty goals of scoring.
However, whether they bring that game style into this week against Yinnar, will be of most interest.
“We keep learning about ourselves and also the competition. This week we have our first away game at Yinnar,” Tarwin senior coach Troy Hemming said.
Yinnar are preparing for perhaps their biggest challenge of the season, but last week’s win over Foster have them well placed.
“Our depth has been challenged which has given us no other option but to play the kids and once again they were fantastic! Tarwin this week is another challenge that we’re looking forward to, they look to be in good form so we’ll have to be at our best to get the win,” Yinnar senior coach Daniel Taylor said.
It promises to be one of the better and more interesting clashes of the round, for the winner, the momentum continues, and for the loser it’s a sure sign there is some work to do.
BOOLARRA have the bye.
