EDFL review – round 7

By Ken Moore
CATANI coach Graham Jose claimed “the umpires beat us”, after his side lost to Longwarry by five goals on Saturday.
Jose couldn’t hide his disappointment with the lopsided third-quarter free kick count, which club insiders said favoured the home side 18 to two.
“Bad kicking didn’t help us, but the better team on the day didn’t win,” Jose said.
“The umpires beat us.”
Longwarry – one of this season’s biggest improvers – put an end to Catani’s final chances after it triumphed by 30 points.
The Blues now appear certain to miss playing finals football for the first time in a decade.
The Crows’ victory was full of merit, because they looked headed for defeat when trailing by 20 points late in the third quarter.
But they turned the game on its head with nine unanswered goals to have the game all wrapped midway through the last quarter.
Neither side could gain the upper hand in the first half and only two points – in favour of the visitors – separated the sides at the main interval.
Catani looked well on target for its second win, when it scored three unanswered third-quarter goals.
But the Crows responded to the challenge and with majors by burly forward Adam Pavlovic, Luke Serong, Dylan Holland and Brock Neve, the home side gobbled up the deficit and snatched a two-point lead and, more importantly, the momentum, to enter the last quarter.
Longwarry started the last quarter where it left off in the third and with goals by Rhys Holland, the dangerous Pavlovic (two, both after good marks), Serong and Dylan Holland, the home side quickly skipped to a 26-point advantage to break the back of a tiring and ailing Blues line-up.
Pavlovic, who struggled to get a regular senior game at Berwick, has proved to be one of the finds of the season. He kicked seven goals and now has 29 for the season and with four second-quarter goals, kept the Crows in the contest before half-time.
Ruck-rover Jason Garritty, the Holland twins, Dylan and Rhys, and defender Tim Milner all put in strong first-half efforts and in the third quarter Thomas Metselaar, Brock Neve, Michael Bourke and Leigh McDonald all provided the Crows with terrific drive.
Longwarry, the cellar dwellers last season, is closing the gap on the better sides. Given Catani has done little this season, Longwarry still has a fair way to go to match it against the topliners, but it is heading in the right direction.
Longwarry coach Grant McDonald, sidelined with a collarbone injury, said he was proud of his team.
“It was a great team effort. We are taking little steps at a time and today showed that we are moving forward,” he said.
“I was really pleased that many individuals did the job I asked of them.”
Catani was up and running until midway through the third term thanks to hard running and good use of the ball by midfielders Jake Delphine, Phil Strahan, Andrew McKenna and the silky-skilled Antonio Benvenuto, in his first game since the opening round.
For most of the match, Luke McFarlane made things difficult for Crows forward Luke Serong, Beau Ridgeway gave it his all against his former club and tall forward Cam Miller made his presence felt across the half-forward line.
To give the Blues their dues, Benvenuto and Strahan, two of their prime movers, suffered injuries that saw them benched in the latter part of the game.
Obviously, that didn’t help their cause.