DEFENDING premiers Sandhurst kept its push for a 2017 finals spot alive with a hard-fought nine-point win over arch-rivals South Bendigo on Saturday.
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On a rain-swept QEO the Dragons used their first half turn with the four-goal breeze to much better effect than the Bloods.
South wasted its chances kicking to the favoured city end in the second stanza, adding just six behinds whereas the Hurst had banged home half-a-dozen majors in the opening quarter.
Sandhurst hung on long enough in a frantic 31-minute final term to win 12.13 (85) to 11.10 (76).
The Dragons set up their victory with a sparkling opening quarter.
Prime mover Lee Coghlan nailed three majors, with South struggling to send the ball inside 50m.
Finally Blair Whelan’s long high shot held up in the breeze, but managed to float over the line.
Just before the siren South’s Brock Harvey sent a long ball into the goal square and Liam Bartels grubbered it through.
The Dragons’ defence ruled the second term. They locked in the ball across South’s half-forward line allowing no space for long kicks forward.
And then when the Hurst worked the ball towards the Barnard Street end Andrew Collins twisted and turned and finally snapped a major off his left boot.
There was one positive for South, though. Brad Wright had been moved into attack during the second quarter and he added three goals in a top closing half effort.
Kicking against the wind in the third term South outscored Sandhurst four goals to two.
Tom Brereton and Leroy Miller sparked the Bloods’ revival and although Lachie Ross restored some momentum to the Dragons with a fine running goal, South was on the march.
A high shot from Wright bounced and skidded through followed by a long, straight kick from Mitch Hocking from the pool flank.
With 20 minutes gone suddenly the gap was just two straight kicks.
Sandhurst full-back Luke O’Sullivan nailed the goal-of-the-day when he grabbed the pill from a ball-up and drilled a long, high shot to hand the Dragons a 19-point three-quarter time lead.
The last term was a thriller. Three times the Bloods got back within eight points and on each occasion the Dragons were able to answer the challenge.
Wright (two), Whelan and Mitch Rogerson hammered home South majors. The Hurst replies came from Joel Wharton, Oscar McKinley and Thornton.
The Dragons had fine running players in Brodie Montague and Lee Coghlan, with the Bloods sparked by skipper Aaron Connaughton and Rogerson.
“We’ve been playing only two quarters a game for the past four or five weeks. At least today I felt we turned in three pretty good quarters,” Sandhurst coach Wayne Primmer said.
