By Russell Bennett
WEST GIPPSLAND FOOTBALL NETBALL COMPETITION
REVIEW – ROUND 6
Kooweerup has passed its latest test – recording a 35-point win over the Stars on their own Beswick Street deck.
Hayden Stanton’s side has emerged as one of the competition’s big improvers in 2018 with plenty of youthful exuberance across the board, but these Demons – coached by his great mate Ben Collins – seem hell-bent on not letting themselves get over-run, particularly late in contests.
Saturday was testament to that.
The Stars led by nine points at quarter time and were just a goal in arrears at the main change.
But the Demons, who led by 17 points with a quarter left to play, booted four majors to just one in the last to come away with a near six-goal win, 11.8 (74) to 5.9 (39).
New to the Garfield fold this season, Leigh Diston, Tim Vrevc, Nick Macente and Tanner Stanton stood strong alongside the likes of Rhys Murphy and Sam Batson while Troy Dolan, Nathan Voss, Dave Collins, Craig Dyker and big man Rory Connelly all shone for the visitors. Jason Wells (four goals) and Mitch Collins (three) again had a real scoreboard impact up forward, booting seven of their side’s 11 majors between them.
Meanwhile, an impressive all-around effort from David Main’s Cora Lynn led to a 104-point thumping of the Panthers at Bass – 24.17 (161) to 8.9 (57).
After leading by three goals at the first change, and still less than four straight kicks at the half, the Cobras put the foot down over the final two terms – including a nine-goal effort in the third.
In-form midfielders Chris Johnson and Jaxon Briggs were two of the standouts for the Cobras, alongside the key defensive pairing of Rylan Smith and skipper Tim Payne.
But, perhaps most pleasing for Main was the evenness of the contribution across the board when it came to his side’s goal-scorers. The Cobras had no less than eight multiple goal-kickers, led by Travis Woodfield with four, Nick Helsby and Ryan Spierings with three, and Jeremy Monckton, Tristan Fernandez-Phillips, Jaxon Briggs, Jason Toan, and first-gamer Lachlan Miceli with two apiece.
In Bunyip, Inverloch Kongwak overcame a gallant effort from the Bulldogs to win by 45 points, 12.13 (85) to 5.10 (40) with Lewis Rankin, Corey Casey, Conor Cunningham and Andy Soumilas again starring.
In the other game of the round, the boys from Korumburra-Bena belted out their song after their win over the hapless Dalyston at the showgrounds.
The win was just the Giants’ second in the WGFNC history to date.
The 63-point victory, 17.11 (113) to 7.8 (50), was spurred on by star performances from Jake McMillan (three goals), Brock Dorling, Ben Fitzpatrick (two goals) and Beau Anthony (two goals). Jamie Cann was also superb with four goals of his own.
With the result, Dalyston – which last year finished third on the ladder – now remains the sole winless team in the senior competition.
