With just two weeks before finals footy hits Division 3 and 4, and only three before it encompasses the whole of the Eastern Football League, Saturday gave us a real indication of who has what it takes to play a part in finals, and who is merely making up the numbers. Here’s five things from the weekend’s action…
Eagles pluck Hawks’ feathers
Rowville arrived at Terrara Road on the weekend with the backing of a fair chunk of the Eastern Football League.
The Vermont Football Club was in an unfamiliar position of having lost three of its last five games, and in danger of falling out of the top three.
Rowville had a chance to claim a massive scalp, and more or less guarantee itself a look at the double chance come finals time.
The Hawks however didn’t seem to replicate what South Croydon, Blackburn and Doncaster had done before them, when they were successful against the Eagles. Rather than increase the numbers around the footy and increase the importance of contested footy, the Hawks went short, sideways and played a lesser version of the Eagles’ blueprint.
By the end of the first quarter, the game was over as the Eagles ran riot, enjoying the open spaces they hadn’t seen against a top five side since the halfway mark of the year, reminding us all of how deadly they can be.
Brett Eddy kicked four majors, while big man Liam Buxton continued his stellar season, and Riley D’Arcy impressed in a losing side, kicking five goals showing how dynamic the Hawks can be when they move the ball quickly.
The Hawks will still play finals footy, and with their run home may still find themselves within the top three. But if they want to win the premiership, they’re going to have to beat either South Croydon or Vermont at least once, and slow sideways ball movement won’t be the answer.
Falcons on the board, Panthers nervous
The South Croydon Football Club is making a genuine habit of second half comebacks.
A fortnight ago, the Dogs overturned a nine-goal half-time deficit against the Norwood Football Club to grab their 11th win of the season. This time the Dogs kicked 10 goals to four in the second half to run away 20-point winners over Blackburn. Not only will the Burners be ruing the fact they missed a chance to knock over the reigning premiers, they’ll be getting nervous about this weekend’s clash with Balwyn.
The Tigers held off Norwood after jumping out to a five-goal lead at the main break, ending up 15-point victors with Cam Manuel (pictured below) returning to the peak of his powers kicking four goals in a best on ground performance.
This win moved Rodney Eade’s men to 36 points, just one game and four percentage points behind the Burners.
Should Balwyn win, it’ll level the points and close the percentage gap, before facing Knox (home) and Noble Park (away) in the final two rounds whilst the Burners face Montrose (away) and Vermont (home), giving Balwyn the box-seat should it win.
It’s the test that Brendan Allen’s side will relish, disposing of an old warrior heading into the finals is the perfect way to announce that there is a new big cat in the EFL.
Congratulations are in order for the Knox Football Club, whose fortunes seem to be changing. After re-signing more or less all of its playing list for season 2019, the Falcons put the icing on the cake as they ran out 32-point winners over East Ringwood, Harrison Greaves kicking three goals and Robert Maibaum finishing best afield. In the process, Knox ensured that the Roos will join them in Division 1 next season.
Mooroobark musters important win, Sharks have one last chance
Mooroolbark coach Heath Black would be joyed, but also frustrated after his side’s easy 30-point victory over premiership fancy Lilydale at the weekend.
Joyous at the fact the Mustangs have all but confirmed their Division 1 status next year, but frustrated by the fact his side hasn’t come near replicating this performance enough.
They have done it on occasion, defeating Doncaster East and Wantirna South as well this season, but those performances have been few and far between. The talent is evidently there, and they must now figure out whether it is the system or player application that is causing the problem.
The Mustangs still have games against Mitcham and Croydon to come, which they will see as winnable and must look to create some consistency as they look to forget about 2018 and look forward to 2019.
When the first quarter ended on Saturday, Park Orchards fans could be forgiven for thinking about finals footy.
Five goals to the good against one of the best sides in the division on home turf, the Sharks looked like they could beat anyone around. An hour and a half later and they’re looking at a do-or-die ‘elimination final’ against Bayswater this weekend.
Sitting four points and 20 percentage points behind the Waters, Park Orchards will have to defeat Bayswater and then go on and better the Waters’ performances in rounds 17 and 18, however this could be the easy part.
The Sharks face Mulgrave and Mooroolbark in the last two rounds, whilst Bayswater battles Upper Ferntree Gully and Wantirna South. Win this weekend and Park Orchards should be contesting finals, lose and it’ll be an admirable first crack at Division 2.
Dockers wait patiently
Division 3 threw up absolutely no surprises in Round 16.
South Belgrave showed us once again how far it’s come this season, pushing The Basin close, but alas could not cause the upset Templestowe was waiting for. The Dockers completed another shutout keeping Donvale to just two majors, whilst Heathmont, Scoresby, Boronia and Ringwood completed routine wins over teams in the lower half of the table.
This weekend sees the likely elimination final preview just two weeks out from the real thing as Heathmont hosts The Basin. No doubt there will be a fair bit of interest from our friends at Fitzsimons Lane as well.
The Dockers will be hoping Heathmont win, and win big over the Bears whilst they do the same to Warrandyte and thus close the massive percentage gap between the sides, also levelling the points before a shootout in the last round.
Although the Bears have shown that they are the fifth-best side in the competition all season, the Dockers have managed something they couldn’t – a top five scalp. Should Heathmont win on the weekend, it could just be rooting for the Bears to hold off the Docker charge.
Cougars, Cats look the goods for 2019
Things are looking very bright for the Coldstream and Silvan football clubs.
At the halfway point of the season, Silvan had just one win on the board and Trent Martin looked like he could be struggling with the change in style from Division 2 to Division 4.
Just seven weeks later and the Cats now have six wins on the board and have knocked over Nunawading, Kilsyth, Coldstream, Fairpark and Forest Hill whilst their losses were to the Whitehorse Pioneers by just three points and Surrey Park by just seven.
It is a truly incredible patch of form, which indicates that Martin has well and truly made the move from Croydon to Silvan with success. The coach himself has appeared in the best eight times from 14 games, whilst recruit Daniel Lemon has appeared 10 times from his 16 appearances.
Their counterpart Coldstream has only won two games in that same stretch but in another reality could easily have won six. Chad Rogers’ young troops have lost four games by 13 points or under. In Round 10, the Cougars lost to East Burwood by one point, followed that up with a five point loss to Whitehorse, went down to Silvan the next week by eight points and a fortnight later, they lost to Forest Hill by 13.
Their win over Kilsyth on the weekend will help re-enforce the coaching staff’s messages as this young group look towards the future. If they can learn from these numerous tight losses, the Cougars could be back amongst it a lot sooner than we thought.
All views expressed in this article remain those of the author and not of the Eastern Football League or its affiliated clubs.