July 26, 2010

Bendigo Football League...

WITH an August finals berth beckoning, Kangaroo Flat held out an inspired Strathfieldsaye Storm to win one of the best Bendigo Bank BFL matches of the season in a shootout on Saturday.
The two clubs had no less than 74 shots at goal in the Dower Park clash with the Roos able to hang on to win by 11 points.
The Storm twice fought to the lead in the pulsating third quarter, but it was the Flat who ran out 17.23 (125) to 16.18 (114) victors ensuring they displaced Maryborough from fifth spot on the BFL ladder.
Strathfieldsaye left Michael Pilcher at full-back on the Roos’ spearhead Justin Maddern day-long. Maddern booted seven goals (his eventual tally was 7.9) and he was just too mercurial and athletic for Pilcher.
At the other end of the field, the Storm relied on small forwards Lachlan Sharp and Matthew Rice who contributed nine of the visitors’ 16 majors.
Strathfieldsaye really needed that third quarter surge. Kangaroo Fat controlled the first half to take a 27-point lead into the long break.
With on-ballers Sam Ryan, Ryan McNish and Billy White pumping the ball forward and half-backs Carl Thiesz and Andrew Gladman rebounding strongly the Roos had 9.12 on the board by half-time. The Storm was stuck on 5.9.
The Green and Whites had five, first quarter goals on the board before the Storm registered their first score of the day – a behind – at the 17-minute mark.
Maddern (3), McNish and Shannon Geary all kicked truly at the Station Street end and had it not been for Lachlan Sharp’s opportunism the game might have been all over at the first change.
Sharp collected a loose kick-in at the 22-minute mark to slot the Storm’s first goal. Moments later he collected the spillage from a marking contest to run in at the scoreboard end for the Storm’s second goal.
But the Flat’s Jack Bowyer ensured the home team of a four-goal buffer at the first change with a fine, set shot from the bowling greens flank.
Centreman Cameron Hall and midfielders Ben Sullivan and Dermott Smythe tried everything to boost Strathfieldsaye in the second term.
Harrison passed to the leading Cameron Ross and the big man marked and converted. When Ross again nailed a goal, this time from the kiosk pocket, the Storm closed to within two kicks.
But as they do so often, the Roos turned to Maddern. Although he missed after taking a tumbling mark, the Flat full-forward banged home a goal soon after from the Tabaret pocket to finish off a thrust organized by McNish and Bowyer.
Another Maddern major followed after he outmarked everyone in a pack of six players, sprinted past them all and snapped his fifth for the day.
The Storm needed a huge lift as the third quarter opened. Up stepped Matthew Rice who drilled three goals with Ryan Eastman and Sharp (2) adding to the expanding tally.
Strathfieldsaye nailed the first five goals of the third term as the visitors sneaked out to a four-point lead: 72-68.
When Smythe took the mark-of-the-day on the George Edwards grandstand wing, the impetus was all with the Storm.
Flat’s McNish and Doherty, busy all day, stopped the rot. Three goals between them from the Roo midfielders propelled the home side to the lead once again.
Close to three-quarter time, Maddern goaled on the run with a shot from the outside of his right boot to hand Kangaroo Flat an eight-point lead at the last change.
Nevertheless, the Storm had outscored the Roos 7.4 to 4.3 in one of the best and most exciting quarters of the 2010 season.
Again Rice featured for the Storm as the last term opened. He stole the ball from a fumbling Roo defender to nail his fourth major.
Maddern got his seventh goal as the Flat replied, but his return of 1.4 (including a poster) in the last term could have been fatal.
The two clubs went goal-for-goal in the fourth term arm-wrestle. Even though Cameron Hall and Eastman steered through valuable Storm majors, Sam Ryan iced the game for the Flat as he bounced out of a pack, took a handball and drilled a scoreboard end goal.
Roos coach Murray Collins said he’d sat his players down about a month back to discuss making the five, and setting the club’s goals.
“We’re rapt to be in the five and knew that if we could do well today and maybe next week (against Maryborough) things are in our hands,” he said.
Collins conceded Storm had “played their hearts out” with all the emotion surrounding the game. Players lined up before the first bounce for a minute’s silence to honour Brian Geary and Peter Crapper who both passed away late last week.
Storm coach Clint Whitsed, although bitterly disappointed, said his team’s third quarter fightback was pleasing.
“But those six first quarter goals to the Flat were very hard to get back. A lot of our guys did have good second halves, but we needed them to because we had a lot down in the first half.”

KANGAROO FLAT      6.5       9.12      13.15       17.23 (125)
STRATHFIELDSAYE  2.5        5.9        12.13       16.18 (114)

GOALS
Kangaroo Flat: Justin Maddern 7, Ryan McNish 3, Ryan Doherty 2, Tyrone Downie, Jack Bowyer, Shannon Geary, Sam Ryan, Carl Thiesz. Strathfieldsaye: Lachlan Sharp 5, Matthew Rice 4, Cameron Ross 2, Ryan Eastman 2, Cameron Hall, Danny Harrison, Kris Lea.

BEST
Kangaroo Flat: Justin Maddern, Sam Ryan, Carl Thiesz, Ryan McNish, Billy White, Cameron Carter, Ryan Doherty. Strathfieldsaye: Ben Sullivan, Cameron Hall, Dermott Smythe, Lachlan Sharp, Matthew Rice, Danny Harrison.

Votes in the Bendigo Advertiser Player of the Year award

5: Justin Maddern (Kangaroo Fat)
4: Ben Sullivan (Strathfieldsaye)
3: Sam Ryan (Kangaroo Flat)
2: Cameron Hall (Strathfieldsaye)
1: Carl Thiesz (Kangaroo Flat)

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