MARYBOROUGH had no answer to the brilliance of Golden Square’s Corey Jones on Saturday as the Magpies’ Bendigo Football League struggles sunk to a new low at the hands of the Bulldogs.
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With Jones booting 16 goals, the Bulldogs handed the Magpies their biggest loss since rejoining the BFL in 1992 with the whopping 238-point margin.
The Bulldogs showed no mercy on the Magpies – whose player number battles reached the point on Saturday where they had to forfeit the reserves – in winning 40.20 (260) to 3.4 (22) at MyJet Oval.
As ridiculous as it sounds, you could almost argue Maryborough did well to keep the final margin to 238 points considering the Magpies were already 91 down at quarter-time after a first-term blitz by Jones that seemingly had two BFL records under threat.
Golden Square piled on 15.7 in the first term, with the Bulldogs’ score of 97 three points more than the 94 South Bendigo had on the board at quarter-time the day the Bloods kicked the BFL record score of 322 against Kennington in 1990.
Jones was in a class of his own, kicking eight goals in the first term – all in the space of just 16 minutes - and creating some interest in whether he could eclipse the record for the biggest bag in a BFL game of 24 jointly held by Bendigo City’s Dave Mahoney (1913) and Eaglehawk’s Harry Morgan (1953).
However, Mahoney and Morgan’s record still comfortably stands with Jones “only” adding eight more goals after quarter-time – one in the second, four in the third and three in the last.
It was clear from the outset Golden Square would have its way against the Magpies, who didn’t get their first possession in general play until eight minutes into the game and with the Bulldogs already having 4.4 on the board.
Golden Square kicked the opening 15 goals of the game – the first after just 34 seconds through Simon Rosa.
Having kicked 15.7 in the first term, the Bulldogs added 6.3 in the second, 9.5 in the third and 10.5 in the last in a game that for much of it resembled a Saturday afternoon training run.
But the Magpies did manage to limit the scoreboard damage for a period when between the nine minute mark of the second quarter and 10 minute mark of the third, they conceded just two goals.
Despite the 238-point margin - the biggest in a BFL game since 2006 – Maryborough competed well in close to win the stoppages 20-14, and after being smashed out of the middle early, beat the Bulldogs 17-15 in centre clearances after quarter-time.
Match statistics:
Centre clearances: G. Square 27; Maryborough 17.
Inside 50s: G. Square 72; Maryborough 26.
Stoppages: G. Square 14; Maryborough 20.