A RAMPAGING Golden Square handed Gisborne its biggest defeat in its 10 years in the Bendigo Bank Bendigo Football League on Saturday.
Playing at Gardiner Reserve, Square belted a non-competitive Gisborne by 159 points, 31.11 (197) to 6.2 (38).
The thrashing surpassed Gisborne’s previous heaviest loss in its 183 games in the BFL since joining in 2000 of 154 points against Castlemaine in round 15, 2000.
What made Saturday’s lop-sided result even more remarkable was the fact Golden Square and Gisborne entered the round 14 clash sitting second and third on the ladder, separated by just one game.
“We came down here really believing we could win today, but not to do it like that,’’ Golden Square coach Mark Adamson said.
“We’re just continuing to improve as a group together week by week.
“Our running game went to another level today, and our pressure game was terrific, especially after we were headed early.
“There were just so many good players for us today, and it was probably one of those days where we had a bit of a run of the ball and things went our way. It was just a very good team effort.’’
Gisborne coach Ty Elliott was bitterly disappointed with his side’s lack of “fighting spirit’’, after the Bulldogs barely gave a yelp after half-time.
“With the young group of players we’ve got who have been involved with the juniors for a long time and been very successful, they probably really haven’t been exposed to losing,’’ Elliott said.
“But you’ve still got to have some fighting spirit about you, and today we just didn’t have that.’’
While Gisborne kicked just six goals for the match, it had four of them by the 19-minute mark of the first quarter when it led by 18 points, 4.1 to 1.1.
But over the last 100 minutes of the game, the slick Golden Square kicked 30.10 to 2.1 as the hapless Gisborne disintegrated.
From 18 points down at the 19-minute mark of the first term, Golden Square kicked four goals in quick succession to go into quarter-time ahead by six points.
Full-forward Nick Carter was superb in the first term for Golden Square, kicking three goals - it should have been four though, after he missed a set-shot straight in front from 25m out.
Square then kicked the first four goals of the second term, making it eight in a row for the match, to extend the lead out to 30 points, before Callan Potter ended Gisborne’s 33 minutes without a score by goaling from 25m out after a free-kick.
Gisborne would kick just one more goal for the match, while the ruthless Golden Square put its foot down and humiliated its Bulldogs’ rivals in front of officials from the Ballarat Football League, which is trying to woo Gisborne as its 12th club next year.
The more polished Golden Square led by 37 points at half-time, 11.2 to 5.1, before Gisborne totally capitulated in the second half.
Golden Square piled on 20.9 to 1.1 after half-time, with Gisborne’s sole second half goal a 50m set shot from the social rooms’ flank by Michael Thornton 18 minutes into the third term.
As well as the scoreline showing Golden Square’s dominance in the second half, so too did the inside-50 count (38-12) and centre breaks (18-4).
Golden Square finished with 12 goalkickers, headed by lively half-forward Danny Bateman (five), Nick Carter (five), who spent all of the last quarter on the bench, and the returning Jason Limbrick (four, all in the last quarter).
The Square midfield led by Nathan Bell, Mark Lloyd (two goals), Matt Klein-Breteler (three goals) and Jason Griffin (two goals) cut Gisborne to shreds, while the backline was superb with its constant rebound.
Golden Square’s pressure never dropped off over the four quarters and it was consistently able to exploit Gisborne’s lack of accountability, as well as some poor mistakes in the Gisborne defensive 50, particularly in the third term.
Match statistics:
Centre clearances: Golden Square 29; Gisborne 11.
Inside 50s: Golden Square 63; Gisborne 34.
Stoppage clearances: Golden Square 19; Gisborne 19.
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