By: Matt Fotia
Twitter: @fotiamatt
It was a massive weekend of footy across the whole of Victoria as Melbourne served up a calm afternoon for teams to do battle. Here’s five things to emerge from the weekend.
We’re Top of the Pops!
The Eastern Football League is where it belongs taking out the number-one place in the AFL Victoria Community Championships 1 v 2 play-off against the Geelong Football League on Saturday.
We ran out seven-goal victors, with Norwood talisman Leigh Williams slotting seven of his own, whilst Vermont ruckman Liam Buxton (pictured below) kicked three in a best on ground performance. A victory that has been put down to a willingness of the Eastern players to play their role, rather than looking for glory on the Etihad surface.
The EFL’s ability to ensure the game was played in tight, high-pressure situations meant that Geelong was never able to move the ball with its usual freedom and thus shut down the way they like to score.
This win is not only due to the efforts of those players involved, but to all players, volunteers, coaches and EFL staff who have seen the League continue to grow and develop into the best metropolitan football league in Victoria, if not Australia.
Lions’ experience holds firm, positives for the Sharks
A fast-starting Park Orchards shocked Doncaster East in the first quarter at Zerbes Reserve on Saturday. Its speed from half back and crafty smalls across the half forward area saw them skip out to a five-goal lead at the first break.
Despite this, a genuine effort to make the game more physical, get their own forward pressure going, and a massive lift from players such as McLean (pictured), Locke and Gold saw Doncaster East steadily chip away at the Sharks lead before running over the top in the last quarter. A professional performance, from an experienced side.
However there are plenty of positives for Park Orchards at this point of the year. A win against Wantirna South and its three losses have come against Upper Gully (third), Doncaster East (second) and Lilydale (first). Plus all of those games have been hotly-contested. The youthful age of the Sharks, plus the players on their injury list (Feher, Prosenak and Wright) should give them confidence about the season ahead.
Youngster Jaye Witnish can take a boost from his game as well as he won respect from his opponents. After a strong performance in the third term, where he won plenty of clearances, the Lions sent Aaron Ceravolo to the young Shark to stop his influence. High praise I’d think.
Croydon shows signs
Croydon made wholesale changes to its list heading into season 2018 and despite only having won two games this season it showed once again this weekend that it is a few steps ahead of Mulgrave and Mitcham at the bottom of Division 2.
Four goals apiece to Justin Ficorilli and Jarrod Clark, along with a best on ground performance from the youthful Luke Harrington, saw the Blues run away with it in the second half winning by 35 points over the hapless Lions.
Croydon is probably not bothered whether or not it pushes for finals this year and may be more worried about developing its youth. However with Mooroolbark failing to live up to its pre-season hype it could be another big chance for victory this weekend for Croydon and a chance to sneak into finals calculations.
Big weekend in Division 3
What was billed as a massive weekend of Division 3 footy well and truly delivered this weekend.
We discovered that Fin Brown has the makings of an absolute star for Heathmont kicking four goals in the Jets’ thrilling loss to Boronia that see-sawed all day. That’s 12 in the past fortnight for the teenage forward.
Ringwood keeps on keeping on, brushing aside Scoresby at Fred Geale Reserve to remain unbeaten. Trent Farmer kicked six, three down on last weekend, while Daniel Collier is starting to warm to the occasion after a cricket-interrupted pre-season.
The Basin solidified its fifth spot ambitions putting a valiant Donvale to the sword. The Basin has scored 299 points in the last two weeks, which is 123 more than its opponents over the same period of time. With this form, the Bears should be in the five come the end of the year.
Waverley Blues got back-to-back wins. After shutting out Templestowe last weekend, they put away a wasteful Ferntree Gully side this time around. It’s very worrying signs down at the Gully now, after touting a top-six finish this season, the Eagles have only beaten the bottom two sides and seem to have forgotten how to hit the scoreboard.
Warrandyte’s third win of the season shows the impressive work that Anthony McGregor has done for the Bloods in his short tenure thus far. Another big chance to show what they’re made of next weekend as it faces the Waverley Blues on its home patch. Win here and the season targets might have to change.
Templestowe continues to do enough against teams below and around them, bouncing back from its one-goal game last weekend to boot 15 against South Belgrave. Dockers fans will need to be patient this season as their new look side will be a lot more inconsistent than previous seasons, but will pay dividends in the long run.
Fairpark goes full Jekyll and Hyde, whilst Coldstream sneaks up on everyone.
Six goals to Sean Mercer headlined a shocking change of fortune for Fairpark on the weekend as it knocked off the Whitehorse Pioneers. Mercer kicked the same amount of goals as his whole side did last weekend against the Glen Waverley Hawks.
Coach Sean Stanton swung the axe bringing in six new faces and changed the structure of the forward line as James Gough played higher up the ground (still kicking two) to allow Mercer to swoop.
Despite the injuries to the Pioneers, you would’ve been a brave person to tip the Lions this weekend, but they’ve proven once again to be the hardest team to predict in the division. They’re 4-3 and knocking on that top four door.
Joining them is Coldstream, whom in the past fortnight has gone from re-development to plausible finals contenders yet again. It continued Kilsyth’s slide down the table, winning a scrappy hard-fought game at Pinks Reserve. Darcy Carrigan continued his unreal form, finishing best on ground. It’s his fifth time in the best this season to accompany his 11 goals from the midfield.
Whilst one set of Cougars is building into the year, Kilsyth is losing control and quickly. A 3-0 start has turned into 3-4 and they need to figure out what’s going wrong. One goal in the second half of this game is probably something to start with…
All views expressed in this article remain those of the author, and not those of the Eastern Football League or its affiliated clubs.