EAGLEHAWK halted Golden Square’s four-game winning streak with a convincing 21-point victory at Canterbury Park on Saturday.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The Hawks ended the match with 11 individual goalkickers compared to the Bulldogs’ six.
And as club officials and spectators said more than once at game’s end, the home club’s bottom six players are superior in ability to the Square’s last half-dozen.
RELATED – SATURDAY SCOREBOARD
The Dogs would have finished further in arrears if skipper Jack Geary and midfield ace Adam Baird hadn’t been on the park, but the Hawks still booted three vital last quarter majors in their 15.9 (99) to 11.12 (78) win.
Geary got the Square away to a flying start. He booted a major in the first two minutes of play before Brenton Conforti converted from an Eaglehawk free kick.
Had the Dogs been a touch more accurate in the opening quarter they would have been further in front at the first change.
They led 3.6 to 3.1 at quarter-time before the Hawks banged home six goals to two in the second stanza.
Jack Fallon and Sam Harper were hard-running forwards, while swingman Cam McGlashan along with midfielders Ben McPhee and playing coach Josh Bowe worked tirelessly to pump the ball into attack.
Eaglehawk landed 6.2 at the town end goals, with four of those majors nailed after a mid-term scoreline of 5.2 to 4.6, which saw Eaglehawk leading by just two points.
Justin Bateson, the Hawks’ club-high scorer with three goals, nailed a pair, while Fallon and Sean Williams added two more, with Eaglehawk drilling four of the concluding five majors of the first half.
RELATED – GOLDEN SQUARE V EAGLEHAWK | PHOTOS
That ensured the Hawks held a handy 20-point lead at the long break.
The Dogs needed a key player to step up and that’s just what Jayden Burke did in the third quarter.
He booted three goals – the Square’s total – from a set shot following an accurate Geary pass, another from a tumbling, juggled mark and the third following a pass from Dale Lowry.
But with Bateson, Lachie Atherton and Riley McIvor with a high, spinning shot all on target the Hawks still had a 20-point lead at the last change.
The Dogs would have fallen further in arrears had it not been for their two key forwards.
Burke and Dylan Johnstone (four) landed seven of the Square’s 11 goals as Johnstone nailed his final two majors in the last quarter.
Eaglehawk’s McIvor had sent a perfectly weighted kick over the head of on-rushing Square defenders to find Riley Saunders on his own near the town end goal square before Johnstone broke clear.
It wasn’t nearly enough, with Hawks’ coach Bowe delighted with his players hanging on to avenge the previous week’s disappointing loss at Gisborne.
“We’ve always been pleased with our spread of goalkickers. Without (Matt) Gretgrix and (Shaun) Knott, two really handy forwards, we’ve always had faith in our other boys to bob up and kick our goals,” Bowe said.
