By RUSSELL BENNETT
IT’S a little hard to tell if it was Catani’s red-hot start, or Tom Hallinan’s savage quarter-time bake that got Nar Nar Goon going on Saturday at Toomuc Reserve in Pakenham.
The likelihood is that it was a combination of both.
After their shock loss to Nyora last week, the Blues roared out of the gates with an eight-goal to three opening term – dominating all over the ground in the early going.
And at the quarter-time huddle, Hallinan’s spray spared no one. Eyeballing some of his biggest-name and most experienced players, the Goon coach blasted them for being unaccountable, un-resilient, and even arrogant.
It was a huge day off the field for the Goon, with their life members and sponsors day coinciding with the 1965 premiership reunion. Yet the side started sluggishly.
Fortunately for Hallinan’s boys, their worst quarter was their first and they still had plenty of time to make up for it.
It’s often said that a mark of a good side is finding a way to win when things aren’t all going well and the Goon have had to do that at stages this season – including in their two most recent games.
Their resilience did ultimately come to the fore on Saturday as they prevailed 15.11 (101) to 15.7 (97).
After their fast start, the Blues still led at half-time off the back of some great work through the middle by Nick Visser, Antonio Benvenuto and ruckman Brandon Scammell. Owen Fitzpatrick (five goals), and Ryan Eaton (four goals) – who Hallinan forecast as a real danger man during the week – were also particularly influential but as the game wore on the likes of Nick Henwood, Brendan Hermann, Brent Hughes and Mat Slattery began to stand up and make their own presence felt. Tall utility Brodie Selby also started to have a real impact in the ruck, while under-16s player Callum Tyler showed no obvious signs of nerves in a super performance in his debut senior game.
John Alexander, Justin Evans, Cody Banbury and Scammell were outstanding all game for the Blues, which still could have won the see-sawing encounter after Fitzpatrick found himself all alone in the square late in the contest for his fifth major, and two Nar Nar Goon goals were disallowed in bizarre circumstances.
In other results from the first week of the Round 13 split-round, Daniel Uzarevic booted seven goals, best-on-ground Jackson Dalton snagged four, and Jack Allen shone in his 100th senior game for Cora Lynn as the Cobras thoroughly outclassed Nilma Darnum 27.15 (177) to 5.5 (35); a strong second half powered Lang Lang to victory over Nyora 14.17 (101) to 10.10 (70); and Jake Buckingham and skipper Nathan Lieshout (four goals) led the way as Bunyip restricted Poowong to just one goal in a big 21.15 (141) to 1.3 (9) win.
Click below for two videos – the first, a composed Tom Hallinan at three-quarter time (a contrast to his quarter-time address); and the second, Callum Tyler taking centre-stage in the middle of the Goon song.
Pick up a copy of the Gazette – out Wednesday morning – for plenty more, including comments from Hallinan about the Goon’s win.
