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Monday April 25, 2016

BENDIGO ADVERTISER

29

BENDIGO FOOTBALL-NETBALL LEAGUE SPORT

Sandhurst piles on
goals in massive win
Ollie Messaoudi is back
in the Gisborne team on
Monday.

Anzac
matches
to end
round
MONDAY GAMES
A PAIR of Anzac Day matches will complete round two of
the Bendigo Football-Netball
League on Monday.
At Camp Reserve, Castlemaine will officially open
its new lights before it gets
an early chance to gauge its
improvement when it takes
on reigning premier Strathfieldsaye from 5.15pm.
Both teams are coming
off round one wins Castlemaine over Maryborough by
70 points, which propelled
the Magpies to the top of the
ladder for the first time in 11
years, and Strathfieldsaye by
32 points over Sandhurst in
the grand final rematch.
At Gardiner Reserve, it will
be a clash of the Bulldogs
rivals when Gisborne hosts
Golden Square in a twilight
match from 4.20pm.
The young Gisborne side
has a familiar name back
in the team, with hard-nut
stalwart Ollie Messaoudi
who retired at the end of last
season named in the team.
It shapes as a big day off
the field for Gisborne, which
is holding a past players day
and 10-year reunion of the
clubs last premiership triumph in 2006.

BALL MAGNET: Sandhurst midfielder Joel Wharton was one of Sandhurst's many good players in the big win over Maryborough. Picture: LUKE WEST

DRAGONS V MAGPIES
BY ADAM BOURKE

WITH 10 seconds to go in
the first quarter on Saturday,
Maryborough trailed Sandhurst by just 12 points in
their BFNL clash at the QEO.
The Magpies had strung
together 15 minutes of
competitive football and
looked capable of making
sure the Dragons earned the
four points.
There was certainly no
evidence of what was about
to follow.
A goal after the quarter-time siren from Sandhurst captain Blair Holmes
started one of the most
one-sided three quarters in
modern times in the BFNL.

The Dragons kicked 32

goals to three after quarter-time to humiliate the
Magpies, 37.25 (247) to
6.3 (39).
It was Sandhursts biggest
score and winning margin
since the Dragons defeated
the now defunct Northern
United 48.27 (315) to 3.4
(22) in round three of the
1995 season.
The Dragons had 14 individual goal kickers, led by sixgoal hauls from Nick Stagg
and Matt Thornton, while
Galen Munari added five.
Its a learning experience
when you play against a
quality outfit like Sandhurst,
Maryborough coach Shane
Skontra said.
Theyre a mature group,

Shane Skontra

theyre well-drilled and they

know each others game really well. Theyre obviously
in a premiership window
and were trying to rebuild
our club.
Weve had a losing cul-

ture here and you can fall

back into bad habits. It hasnt
been a theme in our practice
matches or in our first game,
but it did come out today.
Thats something well
continue to work on and
well be largely positive this
week about next week. Obviously we need to address
those lapses, certainly those
large lapses in games.
Sandhurst coach Wayne
Primmer was happy with his
teams workrate.
It was a pretty good performance. I was bit disappointed with the first quarter,
but from then on we controlled the game, he said.
We used our handball
and foot skills well and we
converted well. Last year we

had a tendency to kick a lot

of points.
The Dragons had a plethora of good players.
Joel Wharton, who led the
Dragons goal kicking last
year, is enjoying the freedom
through the middle of the
ground this year.
In contrast, Nick Stagg is
spending more time inside
forward 50 where his pressure has been a highlight. He
could have kicked eight or
nine goals had he made the
most of his chances.
The only negative for
the Dragons was a slight
calf strain to skipper
Blair Holmes.
Maryboroughs best were
Ethan Crackel, Jake Postle
and Andrew Siekai.

Inaccurate, but Tigers prevail

TIGERS V BLOODS

CLASS ACT: Ben Weightman bagged seven goals for Kyneton on Saturday in the Tigers'
22-point victory over South Bendigo at the Kyneton Showgrounds.

KYNETON has started a

BFNL season 2-0 for the first
time since 1999 after backing
up its round one win against
Gisborne with a 22-point
triumph over South Bendigo
on Saturday.
The inaccurate Tigers
who trailed by 12 points at
three quarter-time prevailed 11.22 (88) to 9.12 (66)
at the Kyneton Showgrounds.
Kicking with the breeze
in the final term, the Tigers
added 4.11 to 0.1 to over-run
the Bloods.
While pleased to bank
another four points, Tigers
coach Luke Beattie lamented

his sides poor conversion.

For the greater portion of
the game we played better
footy this week and it was
probably reflective in the
scoreline (33 scoring shots to
21), Beattie said.
But making the most of
our chances is something
we need to work on because
there will be games, which
today almost was, where inaccurate kicking may potentially cost us the game and
we as a group dont want to
see that happen.
We want to maximise the
opportunities we have with
a forward line that is going
fairly well at the moment.

Star Tigers forward Ben

Weightman won the Anzac
Day Commemorative Award
for
his
best-on-ground
performance in which he
bagged seven goals.
Bryce Hinneberg and
Daniel Davie off half-back
were also standouts in the
win for the Tigers.
The Bloods who kicked
six of their nine goals in the
third quarter named backman Jacob Smythe their best
player, while Leroy Miller
and ruckman Kieran Strachan also played well.
Miller and Rory Alexander
kicked two goals each for the
Bloods, who are now 0-2.