SANDHURST consolidated second place on the BFNL senior ladder with an emphatic 50-point win over Gisborne on Saturday.
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An excellent crowd was on hand at the Gardiner Reserve to support the young Bulldogs and welcome back veteran star midfielder Ollie Messaoudi.
When the Dragons burst away with a seven-goal-to-two first quarter it was going to be a huge task for the Dogs to get back on even terms.
Galen Munari, lurking in a forward pocket, was a nightmare for the Gisborne defence. He finished with four goals as the Hurst roared home 17.17 (119) to 10.9 (69).
With on-ballers Kristan Height, Lee Coghlan and Joel Wharton pushing the ball goalwards, the Dragons bombarded the pavilion end early on, with their first six goals all from set shots.
Matt Thornton, Height and Matt Gray were on target as quarter-time loomed. The Dogs’ only replies came from Tom Wood and Tom Cassidy, both of whom worked hard match-long.
Then after a brisk second quarter major from Munari at the 45-second mark the Dragons went quiet.
Gisborne attacked consistently for 10 minutes. Yet only Callan Haynes was able to slot a major during this period.
The Dragons came out fired-up after the long break. When Seb Greene found Lee Coghlan mid-term the midfielder’s major handed Sandhurst a lead of more than 40 points.
Gisborne’s Cassidy, Wood and follower-forward Matt Wilson (who finished with three goals) were all on target at the creek end, although, the Dogs were still down by six goals at the last break.
Away went the Dragons again in the final term.
A blistering burst of 5.5 resulted with Koe Ngawati (two) and defender Luke O’Sullivan both adding their names to Hurst’s expanding list of goalkickers.
Gisborne did manage to add 3.3 in the final term, with Jake Conolan slamming home the Dogs’ ninth major.
Coach Wayne Primmer said his Dragons hadn’t capitalised on their forward 50 entries in the second quarter.
“Especially when you compare it with the first. We started the game with 13 inside 50s and we scored 10 times - then to take it in 15 times in the second quarter and only score five (1.4), I wasn’t very happy with that.
“It was good that we had an even spread of goalkickers, but then we had a player who kicked 2.5 (Lee Coghlan) and another few who kicked extra points, too.”
