GOLDEN Square continued its recent domination over Gisborne on Saturday, handing its Bulldogs rivals a 140-point thrashing at Country Vet Oval in their Bendigo Football League clash.
The unbeaten Golden Square had 49 scoring shots to just nine as it won 23.26 (164) to 3.6 (24).
The victory was the third straight time Golden Square had defeated Gisborne by more than 100 points, with Gisborne’s score of 24 its lowest in its 194 BFL matches.
“Today lets us know where we are at as a group, and that efforts like that are unacceptable,’’ Gisborne coach Ty Elliott said.
“Guys need to start being accountable for their actions, and they should be inspired by playing against a side like Square to know where they need to be at.
“Golden Square has players in its side who are basically fringe players, but can come in and have a big impact because they want to and need to if they want to maintain their spot.
“We have some guys in the side playing senior footy who are just taking it for granted.’’Golden Square full-forward Grant Weeks produced another standout performance.
The 21-year-old booted 11 goals. He had eight by half-time, and now has 42 for the season at an average of 8.2, putting him on track for a home and away total of 151.
However, Weeks’ haul could have been considerably more - he also kicked nine behinds.
As well as his 20 shots at goal, Weeks, who was opposed by Josh Di Camillo, also took 15 marks.
Golden Square controlled the first term, having 13 scoring shots to two, yet was only 16 points up at quarter-time.
Square kicked a wasteful 3.10 in the first quarter to Gisborne’s 2.0, with both its goals kicked by Dylan McFarlane.
The dominance of Square was led by Jack Geary, who played a brilliant opening term, constantly driving the ball into the forward 50 to key focal points Weeks and Matt O’Toole.
The slick, precise ball movement of Golden Square was in stark contrast to Gisborne, which was stagnant when in possession and too often just blazed away.
After its inaccurate opening term, Golden Square found its radar up forward in the second quarter.
From 3.10 in the first term, Golden Square kicked 10.2 in the second quarter - Weeks kicking six goals, O’Toole two and Adrian McErvale two.
In a 12-minute burst to open the second term, O’Toole was unstoppable on the lead, taking five marks on his way to finishing the match with 12.
While Square piled on 10 goals in the second quarter, down the other end Gisborne failed to score as it went into half-time trailing by 78 points, 13.12 to 2.0, with inside-50 count at that stage 32-9 in favour of the well-drilled Square.
It was much of the same in the second half as Square added 10.14 to Gisborne 1.6, with the Square lead growing to triple-figures just seven minutes into the third term.
Golden Square - missing nine of its best 21 players - had such an even spread of contributors across every line that the best players could easily have read: “team effort’’.
Players to get votes in the Bendigo Advertiser-ASM Player of the Year Award were Weeks, Geary for the brilliant way he set the tone for Square, O’Toole for his fine lead-up game in which he finished with five goals, classy wingman Luke Hammond, and Nathan Bell, who constantly rebounded from half-back.
“It was a good all-round performance, and one of the big positives was the fact we got three young guys (Tom Paterson, Braden Deary and Dale Lowry) in, who all did really well,’’ Golden Square coach Nick Carter said.
Luke Saunders, Heath Levis and Casey Summerfield were gallant for Gisborne, which had captain Ollie Messaoudi (cracked ribs) out injured.
Match statistics:Centre clearances: Golden Square 15; Gisborne 15.
Inside 50s: Golden Square 69; Gisborne 25.
Stoppages: Golden Square 22; Gisborne 13.
Email a friend