Below: Pakenham defender Joe Allen flies to take a mark over Doveton ruckman Clint Wilson in the third term of Saturday’s clash at the Major Recreation Reserve.By Brad Kingsbury
DOVETON went down by 17 points to Pakenham in an enthralling match witnessed by a big crowd at the Major Recreation Reserve on Saturday.
While the scores were not huge, the match was laced with highlights including big marks, long goals and intense pressure from start to finish.
The Lions’ inaccuracy in front of goals was a less than impressive feature of the game with both sides booting 12 majors, but Pakenham managing 27 behinds to Doveton’s 10 that difference being the winning margin.
That said, there did not appear to be a 17shot gulf between the teams in general play, a fact that opposing coaches Michael Holland and Stephen Henwood agreed on afterwards.
Doveton recalled dangerous forward Ryan Hendy and captain Clint Wilson for the game, but was without Aaron McIver and Daryl Thomas, while Pakenham also had a key omission in Jared Goldsack.
The Doves got away to a good start and looked switched on, playing a physical brand of football that took the home side by surprise in the opening term.
After the visitors kicked three goals clear, Pakenham steadied to only trail by nine points at quarter time.
The Doves continued the pressure at the start of the second quarter, booting two goals and winning the ball across the centre through the efforts of youngsters David Welling, Keith Dobson and Rohan Scott.
When gun Lion ball winner Lincoln Withers left the field half way through the term, the Doves’ intensity suddenly dropped and Pakenham seized control, booting five goals and taking a 14point lead into the halftime break, much to Henwood’s disdain.
“I thought we were the best side for a quarter and a half, but we let them in and a few turnovers resulted in easy goals. You can’t allow that against good opposition like Pakenham,” he said.
“Half way through the second quarter Withers hobbled off and we all saw it and for some reason we lost concentration.
“I think a few boys thought ‘Withers is gone, how easy’s this,’ and just relaxed. We definitely dropped off mentally.”
Both sides came out with attack on their minds in the third term and the resulting quarter of football was one of the best seen this year.
The Lions were led brilliantly by ruckman Justin Sutherland with assistance from Holland, Beau Wheeler, Travis Murphy and Joe Allen who created great run from centre halfback.
The Doves looked to Justin Hill, David George and Ricky Hayes for inspiration and were not let down.
At the end of the hectic term, the Doves led by one point and the game was up for grabs.
Both coaches appealed to their tiring charges for a supreme effort in the last quarter, but it was the Lions who responded best.
Despite hideous kicking for goal with their 12 shots for the term resulting in two goals, eight behinds and two missing the lot, Pakenham proved the fitter of the two teams by outrunning their spent opponents and completing another solid victory.
Doveton had a number of impressive players including Welling, Nathan Wilson, Peter Pullen and Michael Henry and Henwood was perplexed by the performance afterwards, saying that the Lions would be tough to beat in the finals.
“Looking at the scores it seems like they dominated, but I didn’t think that was the case for most of the day. Having said that, blokes like Ponter and Sutherland missed shots they normally wouldn’t,” he said.
“The third quarter was fantastic and the football was just great. I think both sides were fairly spent in the last quarter, but credit to Pakenham, they finished the game off better.
“Our experienced players made some errors in the last quarter and our penetration was not good enough and that’s something we’ll work on this week.”
Holland was pleased with the victory, but said there was no room for complacency.
“Not taking anything away from them, but I thought we were a little bit flat today and struggled at times,” he said.
“We couldn’t rotate as much as we wanted to through the middle with a couple of players out.
“Both sides had good patches and bad, but to win like that well, we’ll always take it against a side like Doveton. It was competitive for most of the day and it always had to be won in the end.
They’re a good side and they’re going to be thereabouts.”
Withers played out the game and neither side suffered any major injuries during the game.
