Blues bolt in

By Ken Moore
AS most punters predicted, third-placed Catani booked a first semi-final berth after a 41-point victory over the sixth placed Longwarry on Saturday at Nar Nar Goon.
Trailing by 14 points at quarter time, the Blues turned their fortunes around with an unanswered seven-goal burst in the second quarter to open up a 26-point lead and from that point was never headed.
Kicking with the aid of a four-to-five-goal wind to the southern end of the Nar Nar Goon recreation reserve, Longwarry got off to a top start with an opportunist goal by pacy wingman Danny Wells from close in.
A few moments later, small forward Luke Serong marked and drilled home his first major to put the Crows, the underdogs, 14 points ahead inside the first five minutes of the game.
At the seven-minute mark Catani small man Jason Mead steered through the Blues’ first goal to pull the deficit back to eight points.
However, from then on, the Crows controlled the tempo of the game for the rest of the quarter and, aside from a goal by under-rated utility Mark Light, the Blues failed to capitalise on the scoreboard.
With an ascendant midfield, led by Matt Campbell, Andrew McKenna, Mark Light, Brody Rundell and Beau Ridgeway, the Crows had by far the better players on the field.
Longwarry led by 14 points at the first break and regularly pressed forward and should have held a four-to-five-goal lead at the first break.
Unlike last round when they ‘dilly-dallied’ with the ball, the Crows got it into their forward line far more quicker and Luke Serong and Jason Voumard posed problems with their fast leading.
For Catani, ruckman Paul Youle, half-back Kaine Wedlock and Nathan Ruskin were all defiant in defence in the first term.
Against the breeze Longwarry poured plenty of heat on Catani in the opening ten minutes of the second quarter, but its efforts dissipated at the 10-minute mark when star Blue forward Luke James produced a wonderful snap around his body to trim the margin to 10 points.
Thereafter Catani took charge and produced a constant stream of attacks and, with goals by Antonio Benevenuto, Owen Fitzpatrick, two long bombs by Phil Smith quickly followed by majors to Justin Evans and Luke James, the favourites landed seven straight goals to race to a 26-point lead.
Longwarry kept in touch with a late goal by the dangerous Luke Serong to reduce the margin to 18 points at the main break.
Catani runners Justin Evans and Antonio Benevenuto started to find plenty of the leather during the term, Andy Stockx did well in the close-in contests and Jason Mead and Chris Teniselli offered good run out of defence.
Longwarry captain Tye Holland, Ken Towt, Aaron Serong and Tim Milner all provided stubborn defence in the face of Catani’s many forward advances in the latter half of the quarter.
Less than two minutes into the third quarter, the Crows fell further behind when Owen Fitzpatrick marked and converted from an acute angle.
However, not to be denied, Longwarry struck back with a long goal by Mark Light and a terrific snap by Tye Holland to reduce the gap to only 10 points at the 10-minute mark.
Catani then lifted and with four of the next five goals, including another two to the elusive James, the Blues set up a 28-point lead before a goal in time-on by Serong, his fourth, kept the Crows in the picture and 22 points down at the last break.
Catani’s Phil Smith scored the vital first goal of the last quarter after he received a free kick and 50-metre penalty and his goal put a huge dent in the Crows’ chances.
Longwarry showed a bit of resistance with a goal on the run by Beau Runnalls, tried very hard and stopped the Blues from scoring a goal for more than 20 minutes, but despite this never looked like winners.
During time-on Catani consolidated its lead with three of the final four goals to record a convincing 41-point win.
Catani won because it had more players make the right decisions at the more important times.
That said, the Blues also miscued far too many kicks and will need to improve upon their performance if they aspire to make a preliminary final.
Catani’s most effective players were key defender Nathan Ruskin and rover Justin Evans.
While many Blues played in fits and starts, Ruskin played four solid quarters in defence and the plucky Evans used his footy smarts to good advantage all game.
Others to make an impact during the game included midfielders Shaun Pickering and Antonio Benevenuto, while Kaine Wedlock, Josh Tymenson, Paul Youle and Jason Mead all made their presence felt.
Catani coach Paul Alger was a relieved man after the game. “I’m just happy to win,” he said.
“It would have been disappointing to have been bundled out of the finals after finishing third. They beat us to the footy early and we were lucky they did not put it (their ascendancy) on the scoreboard, but we’re still alive.”
Longwarry half-back Blair Weller read play well all game and provided tremendous rebound from behind centre and along with key defender Ken Towt, who was at his unpretentious, but effective, best, both played a large hand in keeping the Crows in the contest until late in the game.
Wingman Brody Rundell bounced back from a hard knock in the second quarter to play a fine game and Andrew McKenna, Mark Light and Tye Holland had a busy midfield presence.
Luke Serong proved hard to stop across the forward line, but tarnished a good performance with too many sprayed shots on goal.
Ruckman Luke Tymenson deserves a mention for giving it his all in the ruck and halting many attacks a kick behind play against his former club.
Longwarry coach Graeme Jose rued his team’s bad kicking early.
“We had enough of the ball and our chances, but too often we drove the ball into our forward line poorly,” he said.
“In the end we were beaten by a better team on the day. I thought we did a good job this season with the home-grown talent we used.”
The Goon
marches on
IN the reserves, Nar Nar Goon advanced to the first semi-final after it crushed Bunyip by 71 points.
The Goon set up victory in the opening term when it outscored the Bulldogs against a strong wind.
Kicking with the advantage of the breeze the Goon posted five second-quarter majors to none to seal victory.
Goalsneak Tim Manning ignited the Goon with four first-half goals and had another attacking option in Matt Noonan, who took a number of good marks and chimed in with three goals.
Craig Lewis, Steve Hobson and wingman Tim Mulcahy provided a good deal of zip to the Goon’s midfield engine room and Blair Lidstone showed his ample experience in defence.
For Bunyip, midfielders Brad Thomas and John Ablett, wingman Mitch Davies and rover Paul Carmody all ran hard and won many handy possessions. Across half-back both Scott Blaney and Damian Berryman repelled many Goon forward thrusts.
Crows call the tune
IN the thirds, Longwarry brought an end to Neerim Neerim South’s season.
After holding the best the Cats could offer against the stiff breeze in the first term, the Crows motored ahead in the second.
The Crows had a smattering of good players, led by their on-ball brigade of league best-and-fairest Dylan Holland, Josh Bourke and Chris Karlis.
Centre half-forward Dylan Serong proved a handful for the Neerim defence and ruckman Luke O’Donoghue had a good duel with the Cats’ Tony Vagg, with the honours split evenly. The Cats were well served by on-ballers Jack Fallon, Ryan Morrisson, Matt Ward and Jesse Agnew – who all had a crack.