ELMORE guaranteed its first Heathcote District league finals berth since 2011 with its 36-point win over Mount Pleasant on Saturday.
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With the 14.12 (96) to 9.6 (60) victory at Elmore, the Bloods can’t be dislodged from fifth position heading into the last two rounds of the season.
“It’s pleasing for the club to get the win today and know that we’ll now be playing finals,” Elmore coach Alex Gleeson said.
“What’s really positive, though, is we’ve improved all our results in the second half of the year to the first and that’s what we need to make sure we keep on doing.”
The Bloods were forced to spend part of the last quarter with just 16 players on the field.
“There were a couple of undisciplined acts and playing two short makes it fairly difficult to try to keep in front, but to the boys credit, we were able to keep control of the play and everyone stood up,” said Gleeson, who kicked two goals.
“I normally don’t like to use the term team effort, but it really was that today.”
The Bloods won all four quarters, with Danny Brewster’s red-hot form up forward continuing.
Brewster kicked seven of the Bloods’ 14 goals and has now bagged 32 in his past four games as part of his season tally of 77.
As well as Brewster again starring, the Bloods also had Travis Mills (two goals), Luke Ryan and Jesse Smith among their best.
Mount Pleasant’s better players were led by Adam Richardson, Joseph Whiting and Riely Thiesz (two goals).
• Huntly beat Heathcote for a 10th-straight time, winning the inaugural Georgia Edsall-French Memorial Game by 77 points.
In front of a big Pigeon Park crowd and a sea of purple, the Hawks were 16.19 (115) to 5.8 (38) victors in a win that improved their record to 11-3.
For the Saints, it was their 11th loss in a row.
“The boys fired up early and had a fair bit of the play, but couldn’t capitalise, which has been a bit of a story of our year,” Saints coach Paul Kennedy said.
“I couldn’t knock the effort of the boys all day. They put their head over the footy, harassed and tackled, but were just outclassed.
“Huntly is a very good side and was able to wear us down, but I thought our boys fought the game out really well.”
The Hawks led by 31 points at half-time, before adding six goals to one in the third term to extend their advantage to 63 points going into the final quarter.
Jacob Greenwood and Chris Gleeson kicked three goals apiece for the Hawks, who were well served by Stacy Fiske, Ryan Semmel and Michael Fitzgerald.
Rikki Stephens kicked three of Heathcote’s five goals.
Better players for the Saints included the midfield duo of Jake Condon and Dale Breeding and ruckman Luke Edwards, while veteran Mick Ring was also lively in his first senior game of the season.
• It wasn’t as brutal as their first meeting this season when the margin was 183 points, but North Bendigo dished out another hiding to White Hills.
This time the difference was 120 points as the Bulldogs had 47 scoring shots to seven in their 19.28 (142) to 3.4 (22) victory – the third time in a row they have beaten White Hills by a triple-figure margin, having also won by 106 points in last year’s first semi-final.
While it was a convincing win, the Bulldogs’ inaccuracy cost them the chance of returning to the top of the ladder, with their percentage of 207.6 just shy of Leitchville-Gunbower’s 208.9, with both teams now 12-2.
“In the last quarter in particular we had plenty of chances, but our conversion (5.11) let us down,” Bulldogs coach Rob Bennett said.
“We got the ball forward a lot today, we just couldn’t get it through the right posts often enough.”
The Bulldogs played in front of their 1966 and 1976 premiership heroes, who formed a guard of honour pre-game, and later joined in the singing of the club song post-game.
Captain Jordan Ford has been renowned in recent years as one of the league’s most reliable defenders, but displayed his talent up the other end to boot five goals and be the Bulldogs’ best player.
Ruckman Brett Strange and the key quartet of Tyson Findlay (two goals), Aarryn Craig, Jarrod Findlay (three goals) and Blayne Ryan-Storey were also prominent.
White Hills was held goalless in both the second and final terms, with the Demons having now kicked just nine goals in their past three games against the Bulldogs.
Jake Dickens, Tom Credlin and Mitch Curtis, who is having a consistent season, were best for the Demons.
• Colbinabbin returned to the winner’s list with a 72-point victory over Lockington-Bamawm United at M.J. Morgan Oval.
The Grasshoppers won 15.13 (103) to 4.7 (31).
“I was really happy with today… rather than being individuals, we played a really good team brand of footy,” Colbinabbin coach Nick Knight said.
“We focused on the process rather than the outcome and that was how we got the job done.
“And to kick a score above 100 with the way the ground conditions were was really pleasing.”
A downside for the Grasshoppers is key onballer Patrick O’Brien set to join Cory Jacobs and Daniel Hill on the sidelines with hamstring injuries.
Key defender Damien Carmody, Shane Murdoch (four goals), the classy Knight and Sam Vale were the Grasshoppers’ best players, while Grant Weeks bagged five goals.
All four of the Cats’ goals – three of which came in the third term – were kicked by Zeik Johnston.
Johnston, David Ismail and Marcus Angove led the Cats’ better players.