FOOTBALL
GIPPSLAND LEAGUE
By LIAM DURKIN
COMPREHENSIVE margins were the order of Round 2 in the Gippsland League.
Margins of 84, 52, 48 and 29 points were recorded in four of the five games.
While most on-field results were one-sided, all sides united for the league’s annual mental health round.
Special commemorative jumpers and netball dresses were a feature across the venues, and players wore blue armbands recognising all those lost and going through personal battles.
The league now breaks for Easter.
Warragul 8.9 (57) def by Morwell 17.7 (109)
IT’S not often you see such a dominant display from a visiting team at Western Park – if you play cricket at least.
Morwell burst out of the blocks against Warragul, kicking five goals to none in the first term, on their way to a comprehensive 17.7 (109) to 8.9 (57) win.
Looking resplendent in their new away jumpers, enough to bring a tear to any Richmond supporter’s eye given their likeness to the 2017 Grand Final design, the local Tigers showed there was clearly no scoring end, putting up another six goals in the second term before running the game out after halftime.
Brandon McDonald kicked four goals, repeating the dose from Round 1, while a further five players kicked two each.
Cohen Campbell was one of them, as was Tyler Hillier, and both featured in the best.
Others to play well were Zac Anderson, Charlie Burr, and the man with the patented ball drop, Josh Galea.
Antony Rosato was also prominent, and may have met his like-for-like in Warragul midfield bull Tom Hobbs.
Who busts through a brick wall first between those two?
Hobbs kicked a goal for his efforts, although new Warragul recruit and VFL player, Will Hayes was best-on-ground.
Hayes is of the famed Ben, Will and JD Hayes horse training stable, who won the Country Racing Victoria Trainers Premiership last season.
The Gulls will be hoping Hayes can help Warragul to similar success on the football field, but after results like this, it is clear they have some work to do.
Warragul coach, Jed Lamb was on record saying “we’ve just got too much talent to keep getting beaten”, in the Warragul Drouin Gazette’s season preview.
At the risk of bringing out clichés normally reserved for basketball motivational posters, talent alone hasn’t materialised into finals appearances for the Gulls in recent seasons.
As a former Carlton player, Lamb might need to drive home sentiments from Blues premiership coach, Ron Barassi, who believed talent was merely a “quirk of conception”.
James Harrison, Sean Masterson, Patrick Mulqueen, Tom Stern and Zac Stewart battled hard in the loss.
Morwell now sits as one of only two unbeaten teams, with both wins coming via big margins, fulfilling a preseason goal from playing-coach Boyd Bailey to “bury teams”.
So far, so good.
Moe 10.18 (78) def by Traralgon 12.12 (84)
HOW is this bloke not playing in the AFL.
With his side trailing all game, Traralgon captain Tye Hourigan singlehandedly got the Maroons over the line against Moe, 12.12 (84) to 10.18 (78).
Hourigan has always been about the team, as has reigning Maroons premiership coach, Troy Hamilton, but even he couldn’t help but sing Hourigan’s praises post-game.
“He was phenomenal, back early on and he’s a very dangerous weapon when you throw him forward,” Hamilton said.
Down by as much as 19 points in the last term, the usually intercepting Hourigan was swung into attack, where he kicked three goals in 15 minutes in front of the famed Moe ‘Can Bar’ to silence the parochial Ted Summerton Reserve crowd.
Such silence was polite, as even the most rabid Lions supporters had to doff their cap, and raise their Carlton Dry cans after Hourigan’s third goal with a minute left sealed the game.
For all the goals, it was how they came about that signified his dominance.
If ever there was a moment that summed up why Hourigan is the Number 1 ranked player in the competition, it came just before he kicked the eventual match-winner.
With scores level, and the game looking like it was headed for a draw as the clock ticked past 30 minutes, a high ball was sent inside Traralgon’s 50.
A pack of Maroon and Moe players awaited its descent; Hourigan among them.
In that situation, conventional wisdom says a Traralgon player holds out Moe’s tallest defender, allowing Hourigan a clean jump at the footy.
Hourigan didn’t need extra assistance – he simply leapt straight up and over them all. As the inevitable unfolded, a cry of “surely not” escaped the lips of this writer.
Of course, he goaled from 40 metres out on a slight angle. He’s like Jimmy Recard – everything he touches turns to gold. He’s not even 24 yet, and already won four senior best-and-fairests for the Maroons.
Some have even already labelled him Traralgon’s greatest ever. Keep in mind that takes in luminaries such as Tony Lane, Brian Hammond, Russell Northe and Terry Hunter (with obvious apologies to many others).
All this talk of one player and one quarter of football may distract from a potentially bigger story, and that is how Moe botched a game that was there for the taking.
It took new Lions coach Leigh Poholke just one week to deliver a spray, and then one more for him to experience his first ‘classic Moe’ episode.
‘Classic Moe’ is a well-established phrase in local football vernacular, and an unfortunately familiar one to many long-suffering Lions supporters.
The term usually acts as an all-encompassing explanation as to how Moe lose from seemingly unlosable positions such as at the weekend. It’s arguably been going on for decades.
Just one look at the quarter-by-quarter scores from the 1972 Grand Final between Moe and Traralgon offered a haunting comparison to what transpired last Saturday.
On that day more than 50 years ago, the Lions led for most of the game, and by more than five goals at halftime in fact, only to lose by a point.
That was the start of three consecutive Grand Final defeats by less than a goal, leading people at the time to dub Moe the ‘Collingwood of the Bush’.
The Magpies own captain of that era, Des Tuddenham, in later years always lamented Collingwood’s fitness as the main reason the side kept falling short.
Such thoughts may have been applicable when transported to the present day, as watching on, it appeared Moe simply ran out of legs in the last quarter.
The Lions had ample opportunity to make the equation more difficult for Traralgon, particularly in the first quarter, when a return of 3.8 (26) to 2.0 (12) showed their dominance.
The Maroons made some use of the scoring end kicking toward South Street in the second, and went into the rooms only seven points adrift.
A low-scoring grind made something of a mockery of the perfect conditions, with that trend continuing in the third as game play was very much end-to-end.
Moe’s Riley Baldi (available thanks to a VFL bye) provided a highlight, snapping out of congestion to give his side a 16-point lead at the 17 minute mark.
Traralgon’s Cooper Brown however took goal-of-the-day honours, after nailing a neat left-foot checkside underneath the scoreboard, moments after Liam Willaton broke the likely 10 metre dash record, bursting the ball forward.
Willaton and Moe’s Callum Nash in a 100m sprint would make for good, if short, viewing, likely done and dusted in 10 seconds.
The Lions had looked the better side up until three quarter time, and after 16-year-old Bobby Higgins kicked his first senior goal early in the final term, igniting the obligatory mob from teammates, the home side appeared full of momentum.
That momentum was harnessed even further when Jacob Balfour kicked a set shot from straight in front not long after, stretching the lead out to 19 points.
Traralgon however hit back, with favourite son Matt Northe taking advantage out of congestion to run in and kick his third for the afternoon just after the 10 minute mark.
By this stage, Hourigan had gone forward, and in what seemed only a matter of minutes, the deficit was cut to five points.
With Hourigan forward, it was impossible not to get real Morwell versus Traralgon vibes from last year’s drawn match. Hourigan kicked six in that contentiously named ‘match of the century’.
A loose ball was collected by Hourigan at the 17 minute mark, and he promptly goaled to put the Maroons in front.
A league best-and-fairest winner then proved he is human, missing a target at half-back and seeing the ball land in the arms of Mitch Mustoe.
Mustoe, one of a host of new Maroons this season from Traralgon Tyers United, kicked the set shot from 40, extending the visitor’s lead.
Going like-for-like against Hourigan, Moe sent Declan Keilty forward, and the Lions were able to get the ball inside 50 for the first time in what felt like an eternity.
Lion’s senior debutant Kurt Holt missed a difficult chance on a slight angle in the early stages of red time.
His Churchill premiership teammate, now playing for Traralgon, Chris ‘Squid’ Williams, meanwhile weaved out of a stoppage and sent the ball forward a short time later. To think how many times he’s done that for the Cougars.
The move of Keilty paid off, in as much as Moe was able to level scores at the 28 minute mark.
Keilty was awarded a free kick on the edge of the goal square, and snapped truly from close range.
That he kicked the goal with a ‘snap set’ added some irony to the occasion given the Lions missed a host of chances using the same method earlier in the game.
While snapping set shots seems to be the modern way, any PE teacher would surely advocate running toward the target for any activity requiring accuracy.
A draw appeared the most likely result after Keilty’s goal, until Hourigan did what he did.
Traralgon flooded their numbers back, and upon the next centre bounce, little more than a minute played out when the siren sounded, giving Traralgon their first win of their premiership defence.
Hourigan was an obvious best-on-ground for the victors, while Luis D’Angelo, Hugh Dunbar, Mitch Membrey, Jordan Cunico and Willaton were also busy.
Membrey recovered admirably from an indifferent third quarter that saw Moe’s Ben Crocker take a number of contested marks on him.
Crocker kicked four goals, and Balfour three to rate a mention in the Lions best, along with Keilty, Alex Dijkstra, Max Woodall and Riley Baldi.
Baldi has been identified as a potential bolter for the midseason draft, while many will be hoping Hourigan has a change of heart and nominates after choosing to stay local.
It is understood multiple AFL clubs met with him during the off season, and virtually said all he had to do was sign on the dotted line.
True ‘bush legends’ these days are few and far between, but Hourigan could end up as one if he opts to keep wearing the maroon and white.
In a previous generation, work on the family farm usually determined country players couldn’t make the move to the big smoke, while local footy folklore is littered with players who supposedly ‘coulda been and woulda been’ the next big thing if football was higher on their list of priorities.
Ron Best is considered the greatest bush legend. The late former Nationals MP kicked more than 1600 goals in and around Bendigo.
Offering an inside into what makes the Traralgon skipper such a formidable player, Hamilton said there was no great secret.
“He’s a brilliant reader of the play and he’s got the magnificent pair of hands and a kick, but his fitness is also there,” he said of Hourigan.
“If anyone sees Tye train, you’ll understand how and why he can do what he does.
“Everyone can read the play, everyone can probably mark like him, but not everyone can run as far.”
Given the Maroons finished a game against the Lions full of run, it seems appropriate to borrow from late Richmond Coach of the Century, Tom Hafey, who had this parable printed on the back of his business cards:
“Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up, it knows it must outrun the fastest lion or it will be killed.
“Every morning in Africa, a lion wakes up. It knows it must run faster than the slowest gazelle, or it will starve.
“It doesn’t matter whether you’re the lion or a gazelle – when the sun comes up, you’d better be running.”
Leongatha 21.7 (133) def Sale 7.7 (49)
LEONGATHA showed no mercy against Sale.
The Parrots slammed on 13 goals to three after halftime, to win 21.7 (133) to 7.7 (49) at home.
The Magpies were in the game up until the main break, trailing by only four goals, before resources well and truly expired.
To see Shannen Lange not in the best players for Sale is a rarity, but it was the case at the weekend – only for the fact he was injured, along with Jack McLaren.
The Magpies reportedly have up to 20 players unavailable, in what must be an unescapable sense of déjà vu given the exact same fate greeted them this time last year.
Tom Wrigglesworth, who has returned home after playing cricket in the UK last footy season, put in an honest stint for the visitors at the weekend, as did Will Leslie, Cooper Whitehill, Jack Leslie, Derek Eggmolesse-Smith and Lachie Ronchi.
Tallin Brill continued his rise in league ranks, kicking five goals for Leongatha, while Ty Hall nabbed four.
Hall is one of a host of Parrots players who have paid their dues in the early game, and are now seeing some reward in the long term.
Ben Harding, Kim Drew, Mitch Bentvelzen and Tom Marriott were also productive.
Despite the margin, there was at least one talking point out of the Leongatha camp, with news key forward Guy Dickson has been cleared to neighbouring Korumburra-Bena.
Another one gone to the minor leagues…
Maffra 11.4 (70) def by Wonthaggi 15.9 (99)
WONTHAGGI held off a persistent Maffra.
The travelling Power was made to earn the points, eventually winning 15.9 (99) to 11.4 (70).
A five goal to two opening gave Wonthaggi enough of a buffer, which the Eagles were never able to bridge.
Most of the match turned into a dour struggle, particularly in the third term when both teams managed just one goal each.
The game opened up in the final quarter, with the Power finishing as they started, kicking five goals.
Kyle Reid was best for Wonthaggi, in what will be pleasing for Power officials after injury sidelined the key defender last season.
Jye Gilmour was also industrious, and is staking an early claim for most improved player in the competition.
Josh Schulz (who has graduated from Number 24 to Number 13), Hunter Tiziani, Noah Anderson and Ryan Sparkes did a good job as well.
Best for Maffra was Tom Scott, East Gippy veteran Luke Dyer (four goals), Noah Christy, Sam Anderson, Jack McQuillen, and club games record holder, Daniel Bedggood.
Drouin 12.6 (78) def by Bairnsdale 19.12 (126)
DROUIN played a home game in Morwell.
The Hawks met Bairnsdale somewhere in the middle, and went on to partake in a high-scoring match.
The Redlegs got their first win on the board, 19.12 (126) to 12.6 (78).
The technical visitors established a 27-point lead at the main break, and extended from there.
Tyran Rees was best for Bairnsdale with four goals, and was helped by Cooper Harvey, Will Mitchell, Lachlan Cloak, Tom Blenheim and Byron Vickery.
Drouin was best-served by Tom Unferdorben (have fun with that name TRFM) who kicked three goals, to go with contributions from Kye Quirk, Aden Quirk, Zayne Atkins, Darcy Britt and Max Williames.
With another week ticked off, the next stop on the Hawks’ tour is Wonthaggi.
The relocation of the club aside, to give an idea of just how much Drouin are up against it this season – the Hawks had 15 senior players in Round 1 who had played fewer games combined than the club’s senior games record holder, David ‘Chewy’ Olsen, who played more than 250.
