Impressive Demons belt Eagles by 106 points in Loddon Valley league

This time it was against Maiden Gully YCW Eagles as the Demons won by 106 points. 22.9 (141) to 5.5 (35), at Marist College.

The victory that improved the Demons to 11-0 followed a 125-point thrashing of Inglewood the previous week.

Key forward Bryce Curnow was again influential for the Demons in bagging nine goals and has now taken the lead in the league goalkicking with 51.

Curnow was on fire early as the Demons raced to a 41-point lead at quarter-time, 7.1 to 0.2.

Curnow had five of his nine goals by quarter-time.

“Our confidence is high at the moment, but we know there’s always areas to keep working on,” Calivil United coach Anthony Dennis said.

As they have done so often this season, the Demons made the most of their opportunities in front of goal with their conversion in which they kicked 7.1 in the first quarter, 4.1 in the second, 6.6 in the third and 5.1 in the last.

Outside of the third term, the Demons kicked a remarkably accurate 16.3 across the other three quarters.

As well as best-on-ground Curnow’s nine goals, the Demons also had another of their recruits in Vincent Rodi (four goals) impress.

“He has been a really good pick-up for us… he’s a nippy forward pocket who can also play through the midfield and won some clearances for us today,” Dennis said.

Ruckman Chris Down and skipper Ben Knight (three goals) were other standouts for the Demons, who in the past two weeks have outscored their opposition 95-3 in first quarters and bolstered their percentage from 171.9 to 199.4.

In what was their fifth loss in a row, the Eagles kicked four of their five goals in the second quarter, while they were held scoreless during the third term.

“Calivil is a quality unit and there’s obviously a good reason why they are undefeated,” Eagles coach Daniel Francis said.

“They have really good structures in place, use each other well and unfortunately, we were only able to play 30 minutes of good footy in the second quarter.”

The hard-working Max Grant in the back half and Eljah Naylor, who has put together a string of five top games in the midfield, were the Eagles’ best. Captain Cohen Kekich kicked three of their five goals in his return from injury.

• Mitiamo coach Justin Maddern doesn’t need any reminding that bad kicking is bad footy.

His Superoos kicked atrociously at goal and as a result, suffered a 19th-straight loss against their nemesis, Bridgewater.

In a game where the wind played havoc, the Mean Machine had one less scoring shot than the Superoos, but prevailed 10.7 (67) to 4.14 (38) at Mitiamo.

The game included a goalless opening quarter in which the Superoos led 0.7 to 0.0 at the first break.

The Superoos were still goalless at half-time as they trailed by 14 points, 4.0 to 0.10, while at three quarter-time Mitiamo had eight more scoring shots on the board, but was two points in arrears as the Mean Machine led 5.2 to 3.12.

Kicking with the aid of the breeze in the final term, the Mean Machine more than doubled their three quarter-time score, adding 5.5 to the Superoos’ 1.2 to win their fourth game in a row.

“They were some of the most challenging conditions for footy that you would come across with the wind,” Bridgewater coach Marc Lindsay said.

“There’s no doubt it would have been an ugly game to watch, but I thought we were really good around the ball all day and had another good spread of contributors.”

The Mean Machine’s four best players were all defenders – Tristin Nalder, Xavier Henderson, Daniel Nalder, who had the job on Maddern, and Darren Clutton.

On a day where goals were at a premium, Alex Collins slotted four for the Mean Machine.

On-ballers Jarryd Wiegard and Luke Scott led the best players for the Superoos, who have now dropped two games outside the top three.

“It was a really scrappy game of footy. I was happy with the intent of our boys, but we just couldn’t execute with the ball as well as what Bridgey did,” Maddern said.

“To kick 4.14… we had a lot of opportunities that had we taken it probably would have been a different outcome, but bad kicking is bad footy and that cost us.”

The Superoos’ chances of stifling the Mean Machine in the final quarter weren’t helped when Ash Benbow was yellow carded.

• Pyramid Hill dished out the biggest hiding of the Loddon Valley league season so far, belting Marong by 127 points at Mitchell Park.

Coming off three losses in a row, the Bulldogs moved back within one game of the top five as they dismantled the Panthers 25.10 (160) to 5.3 (33) – Marong’s heaviest defeat since 2011.

It was all one-way traffic in particular during the second and third quarters when the Bulldogs kicked 14.5 to 0.1.

“We spoke about if we are to get anything out of the season we need to start getting wins on the board from today,” Bulldogs co-coach Brad Fawcett said.

“The boys responded really well in what was a confidence-boosting win.”

The Bulldogs’ spread of 11 goalkickers included Joe McGrath, Billy Micevski, Adrian McErvale and Sean Gallagher all kicking four.

Midfielders Steve Gunther and Micevski and Matt Klein-Breteler off half-back were the Bulldogs’ three best players.

Corbin Fleming and ruckman Justin Hynes were named best for the struggling Panthers, whose six losses in a row now include three by at least 100 points.

Meanwhile, the reserves game was abandoned following an injury to Marong player Tom Lake during the second quarter.

The Panthers confirmed on Sunday Lake was home from hospital and okay.

The Bulldogs were leading 8.6 (54) to 0.2 (2) at the time, with the game to be declared a draw under AFL Victoria rules.

• Newbridge held Inglewood to just two goals up until three quarter-time on the way to a 65-point win.

The Maroons ran out 14.18 (102) to 5.7 (37) winners at Inglewood in another step towards securing their first top-three finish since 2012.

“We controlled the game well for three quarters and generated a lot of ball for our forwards in what were fairly tough conditions today,” Newbridge coach Matt Dillon said.

Veteran Brad Comer kicked four goals to be one of the standouts for the Maroons, along with in-form ruckman Tyler Romeril, who continued his outstanding form, and Billy Price.

The Blues’ tally of 5.7 rounded out a quartet of results on Saturday where all four losing scores were in the 30s – 33, 35, 37 and 38.

Shane Harris and Nathan Philpotts were named best for the bottom-placed Blues.