By Matt Fotia
Surrey Park have put their hand up to be the number one challenger to Coldstream’s throne in Division Four of the Eastern Football Netball League, downing Forest Hill by 49 points 10.17(77) to 4.4(28), in front of vocal home crowd.
In blustery and almost freezing conditions, the Panthers were the lesser of two evils, dominating territory and the scoreboard, without putting together a particular tantalising display, with James Pritchard and Paul Collopy two of few real standout performers.
The win moves the Panthers to a 7-2 record, the same as their opponents.
The two likely semi-final combatants are now even at one convincing win a piece in their two encounters so far this year.
The home side came out breathing fire in the first quarter, with the opening centre clearance the only time Forest Hill had any real handle on the play.
Mid-sized forward Harry Lacchiana opened his sides account converting after a strong contested mark and the Panthers didn’t look back from there on, their inability to convert the only thing keeping the Zebras in the contest.
Their second came in controversial fashion, with one of the Zebras best for season 2021 Jack Borrack going down following a stray elbow – suffering concussion and to play no further part in the game.
In confusing circumstances the free-kick was awarded to Surrey Park and Paul Collopy needed no second invitation, sliding home the second with a nice draw shot inside the right goal post from the left forward pocket.
From there the Zebras were harassed within an inch of their lives, under pressure at every turn, with only the coach Scicluna and stalwart Rowe looking assured with the ball in hand.
The Panthers won multiple free-kicks for holding the ball, with Pritchard slotting the Panthers third thanks to a 25 metre penalty, putting the Panthers 24 points up at the first change, with 10 shots to just one.
If the alarm bells weren’t already ringing for the Zebras, they started blaring almost immediately after the start of the second quarter, with the Panthers walking it out of the centre clearance and finding their fourth of the afternoon through Collopy once again.
When winger Nicholas Snibson added their fifth later on via classy running finish, the Panthers had extended their lead out to 39 points, with 15 scoring shots to just one.
Forest Hill started to level out the contest later in the second quarter, getting their first goal through the avenue of Jake Rowe after some nice play from Cameron Banfield and David Smyth and were starting to halve the clearances and link up nicely, with Michael Casey the most notable improver.
When Nelson Payne grabbed their second the afternoon looked a little brighter for the green and white, the margin trimmed to 29 points and half time approaching.
Their hope was short lived, with Oliver Anderson converting his opportunity, after a questionable free-kick, to put the Panthers a comfortable 35 points up at the main break.
Any chance of a miraculous win by the Zebras was quashed when Mitchell Molnar waltzed into an open goal to start proceedings in the third term before the home side went back to their preferred method of death by a thousand cuts, peppering the behinds and slowly pushing the margin out past 40 points – when it felt like it should be 80 – before they finally produced a goal worthy of their scoreboard dominance.
Jack McLaren took a lovely intercept mark in his defensive goal square and immediately moved the ball to the outer side, for the Panthers multitude of runners to collect, before an incisive 45 degree kick found young Callum Garvin in the middle of the ground, who drove it deep to Matthew Pollock in the pocket, who rather than look for his second, squared the ball to Hamish Burrill to kick a well-earned major.
The Panthers team goal proved to be the telling blow, finally taking all the air out of an already meandering contest, with the most interesting moment coming late in the third quarter when the Surrey Park runner was awarded a yellow card as part of scuffle in the Forest Hill forward pocket, before Surrey Park shared around some of the junktime fun in the last quarter.
The Zebras will look to regain their early season form over the next fortnight in some very winnable games against Kilsyth and Croydon North MLOC, whilst Surrey Park will sharpen their swords ahead of a duel with current Division Four heavyweight champions Coldstream.
And if today’s performance is anything to go by, their swords will need one hell of a sharpening to get close to the Cougars.