WBFL - Seniors

AN ASTONISHING nine-goal turnaround saw the Casterton Sandford Seniors snatch victory from the East Gambier Bulldogs at the weekend.

The Cats took the fight to the ’Dogs in the first half of the opening quarter, but after levelling the match at three goals, one behind apiece, East took another two majors into the first break.

And that’s where the wheels fell off.

The hard-hitting East backline foiled the few deliveries into the Cats forward line, while the ‘Dogs midfield found speed and accuracy to set up a four-goal quarter, only tempered by the efforts of Cats’ pres, Dylan Ayton and Matt Killey, solid in defence.

At the major break, the Cats walked off the ground looking downtrodden and with the scoreboard at 4.1.25, to the Bulldogs 9.5.59, the noise from the local crowd had reduced to a low murmur.

Whether coach Kane Forbes had some choice words or words of wisdom for his boys, behind closed doors, or a break to catch their breath was all that was needed, a different Cats side emerged from the change rooms to tackle the third quarter.

Diarmid Cleary started the show, kicking two majors in quick succession before it started raining goals for the Cats.

Newly-returned to the side, Alister McCrae was unstoppable, holding his ground to take strong marks against three and four opposition players, making no mistake with the set shot and hitting the target with deadly accuracy in a couple of handy snaps.

At the final break, the Cats trailed the Dogs by just eight points and coach Forbes message to his troops was simple:  “Shut them down through the corridor, win the contest, get the ball inside 30 – win the quarter, win the game.”

The Cats were making no mistake with their renewed opportunity, taking charge of the match with two quick goals, under pressure within the first 10 minutes of the last quarter, while denying any opposition runs forward, to take the lead 12.5.77, to the Bulldogs 11.8.74.

Minutes later, Mason Hunter sent a long bomb into the Cats’ forward line that was snatched up by Billy Galpin who cleverly avoided a coat hanger and made a perfect, quick delivery to Adam McKinnon.

McKinnon sent the ball through the big posts and set the crowd in fire and there was no looking back for the Cats, adding another two to the  tally, while East managed just three behinds for the quarter.

WBFL - Reserves

JOEY McArlein’s Reserves were also forced to take the fight to East Gambier, in what was a low-scoring match for three quarters.

In what appeared to be an evenly-matched competition across the ground, both sides struggled to take the ball forward, before the Cats gained the upper hand and at half time, just 17 points had were registered on the board – the Cats 2.3.15 to East’s 0.2.2

The Cats took time at the major break to regroup, outscoring East in the third, four goals to one but after the final break, the Bulldogs found their stride, dragging the margin back to a single point, with the Cats struggling for accuracy at goal.

From there, the Cats put the foot down, wrestling back control of the match and keeping the Dogs to a single behind, while adding another three majors to take a 21-point win, at home. This week the Cats head to Blue Lake Sports Park, hoping to be the first to topple the Demons, sitting top of the table in both grades.

WBFL – Under 16

SATURDAY saw an opportunity for the Under 16s to take home another win but they didn’t.

After the Cats beat East comfortably in round three, the boys came into the game with a winning mindset and thinking it was just going to happen.

East Gambier responded after their round three thrashing and put a very classy side on the park.

Both teams showed pressure early and hunt for the ball, but it was Kaeden Talay kicking the first for the Cats, making them come into the quarter-time break with a lead of six points.

The second quarter showed some fight back from East Gambier with the Bulldogs kicking two goals to Casterton’s one, kicked by Elwood Geary with a nice snap around the corner to only be behind by one point at half-time.

With the third quarter being a very high-pressured quarter, no team kicked a goal but Casterton were lucky enough to hit the front by a point going into the final quarter.

The three-quarter-time break saw a rev-up from the coach to find more fight to win.

With missed goal opportunities through lack of straight kicking, the game saw the Bulldogs run away, 13-point winners. Best players were:

Elwood Geary, who showed fight all day with his speed and agility to get to the ball first, while also being vital in the ruck.

Josh Jones, the always-reliable defender who makes his opponent fight for every opportunity, while also providing good use of the footy coming out of the backline.

Mitchell Bright being a bull in the midfield to help his teammates find first use of the footy.

Sid Herbert was pivotal in the back line and in the ruck, using his height to his advantage and helping his midfielders find the ball with ease.

Finally, Bay McKinnon with his quick running was able to get to the ball first and run straight lines to open the game and find his teammates.

With the Cats now sitting third on the ladder behind the Bulldogs by percentage, this week’s match up against South Gambier is going to be a big one to help find some confidence back in the group after a couple of losses in a row.

WBFL – Under 14

LAST time these two teams met we managed a draw on the siren.

This time round unfortunately the Cats kids did not perform to the same level and East had a few more quality players on the park that were not there in round three.

We also had Connor Stephens and Kelem Blenkiron out due to sickness and Krystal Collier sidelined for a few more weeks with the bad ankle sprain.

In the first quarter, 90 per cent of the play was within East Gambier’s forward half, our defence was doing a great job holding up and trying to stop the flood.

At the seven-minute mark East finally converted their first goal.

The next centre clearance looked promising and we got it out of the centre into our forward line for the first time, but East rebounded it straight back out again to score another goal.

A nice passage of play out of the backline from Archie Lane to Jack Rhook, to Sam Patton, onto Nate Longhurst - all nice kick-and-mark combos to players in space – looked promising, but no goal resulted.

East rushed it down and scored their third major, East quarter time score 3.2.20, while Cats had not troubled the goal umpire.

The second quarter was by far the Cats kids best of the day, we controlled a lot of the play for this quarter and the Sherrin spent much more time up our end of the oval.

In the second minute there was a ball-up just to the clubrooms side of the goal square, some excellent ruck work from Sam Patton clearly tapped the ball to Jedd Rhook, who got open and snapped our first goal for the day much to the excitement of our team and finally the early-morning home crowd keeping warm in their cars had something to toot for.

In the next couple of minutes again we got the centre clearance and pumped the ball deep into attack end where Jett Lykke passed to Jack Rhook, who was deep in the pocket not far from the old scoreboard.

The grandstand crowd were worried it may be a bit far out, but smartly Jack motioned to the umpire that the East boy was clearly over his mark and a 50-metre penalty resulted to take Jack to the top of the square and boot it straight through towards the Glenelg River.

East replied with another goal straight away, but our next bit of play come from some great pressure from Reghan Parsons and Archie in the backline; Kirby Vise gathered and got the ball onto Brody Pratt who had really stepped up and was dominating through the midfield.

A great shepherd from Rupert Dorahy allowed Brody to deliver the ball to Jack Rhook again, who kicked truly to score the Cats’ third goal of the quarter and all of a sudden we had a run-on and were only two goals down.

After half time the tides well and truly turned and literally nothing seemed to go our way for the home team; we were getting beaten all over the ground in one-on-ones and just following our players, the only time we got our hand on the footy was if Easties made a mistake.

At three-quarter-time coach Kurzman begged the kids to try harder to be first to the footy, but the skill of our opposition outshone us also in the last quarter and the flood gates well and truly opened.

In the second half we only managed one solitary point, while East scored eight goals, six points.

A couple of second half highlights were Brody Pratt’s intent and willingness to work hard all game to try to win the footy.

Billy Rhook had a great take on the wing and ran on, passing to his mate Nate Longhurst who presented well all game and took some strong marks at centre half forward.

Alex Hill had a spell in the ruck and tried his best, Jaggar Geary had a change of scenery down at full back, Riley Hutchins and Ayden Nolte and Lachie Auld did their best to try to stop the flow, as did Blake Kurzman battling hard against some really tough opposition. Takudswe Makore always tries hard continues to smile and is improving every week.