TOORADIN undertook a highpossession ‘Richmondstyle’ game plan against Hampton Park on Saturday, but wasted its own scoring opportunities to lose the crucial match by 18 points.
Seagulls’ coach Dan O’Loughlin said the idea was to shut down key Redback forwards Kerem Baskaya and Matt Shorey and the plan worked well until the pair broke free and booted five of the side’s six lastquarter goals to see their team home.
The first half of the contest, in perfect conditions at the Westernport Oval, was dominated by the Seagulls’ ‘chipandhold’ style that frustrated the Hampton Park runners and created a lowscoring game with only seven goals on the board at halftime.
Tooradin upped its work rate in the third quarter, despite some lapses in discipline that saw it concede several 50metre penalties and lose Brett Hobson who was sent off for 15minutes and reported for rough play.
Inaccuracy was costly for the Seagulls who booted 1.7 for the term and still trailed by four points at the final change.
The Redbacks were stung into action after a blast from coach Jason Chapple and piled on six consecutive goals at the start of the last quarter to put the result beyond doubt, despite three late majors to the home side.
Among the Redbacks’ best were Michael O’Brien, Ryan Simpson and Hayden and Linden Fredericks, while the Seagulls best included O’Loughlin, Clint Walker, Aaron Hyde and captain Greg Bethune.
Chapple said it had been a frustrating day because, despite expecting the Seagulls’ tactics, his side failed to adjust and took a long time to gain the advantage.
“Tooradin was welldrilled and we didn’t react well to it,” he said.
“It wasn’t until the last quarter we got where we wanted to be and banged on six goals to win the game.
“We weren’t surprised (by the tactic) and we spoke about it at training during the week, but you can talk about it all you like, but it’s still so hard to prepare for that.”
O’Loughlin praised Tom Hallinan for his job on Baskaya, together with the rest of the side’s defence, but conceded that the loss had effectively ended his side’s push for the finals.
“It was disappointing because we were in it at threequarter time. We cost ourselves with some very bad kicking in the third quarter,” he said.
“They got it forward in the last quarter a few times and kicked goals. Our defence really did a great job, but just couldn’t match the talent they had all day.
“We’re out of it and we can only shape (the five) a bit now, but that’s the way it goes.”
CRANBOURNE star Marc Holt booted six goals in a bestonground performance to lead his progressing young side to a 33point win over neighbours Devon Meadows at Glover Reserve.
Holt, a prodigious, but enigmatic talent, was among the day’s best players and the Panthers, undermanned due to injury, had no answer to his marking power during the afternoon.
The first half of the game was competitive with only a few points separating the sides at the first two breaks.
Devon Meadows mentor Wayne Briggs surprised the crowd by pulling on the boots for his first game in three years to help his young side out and provide some onfield leadership, after captain Jesse DeHey was ruled out for the rest of the season with a knee complaint.
Briggs did his best to lead by example, along with Andrew Cotton and Craig Hunter, but the superior height and strength of the home side told in the end and saw Cranbourne run away with the game after the long break.
“They generated a lot more run out of the midfield in the third quarter and kicked seven goals. We couldn’t get any momentum to get us back in the game, but we did play a lot better this week and they were just too good for us on the day,” he said.
“The difference was that Cranbourne had a couple of good kids with a bit of height about them who could jump and take a good strong mark. We didn’t have players that could do that.”
Briggs, who was reappointed for 2007 last week, added that despite the ordinary year onfield, the club was very positive about the future.
“The morale of the club and players is good and my aim is to keep the group together and add some players to it to keep the direction positive,” he said.
DINGLEY was no match for a rampant ROC at any stage of their clash at Souter Oval, losing the onesided game by 173 points.
The Kangaroos were sluggish in the first term and the spirited, but undermanned, Dingoes took the game up to their topfive rated opponents and only trailed by nine points at the first change.
The game quickly became a procession after that with ROC moving up a gear and booting away to record a big percentageboosting win.
Kevin Quinn, Callum White and Brad Jones booted 16 of the Kangaroos’ 30 goals, while big man Darren De Jong played a major role together with Dean Blake and Michael Barker.
ROC coach Hayden Stanton was philosophical after the game, but pleased that his side escaped unscathed.
“We went okay, but it was a boring game really,” he said.
“Dingley was a game we were always going to win and the important thing was that we came through it without injury.”
