Bacchus Marsh 12.9 (81) d Redan 4.6 (30)
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Bacchus Marsh gave Redan a reality check in the Ballarat Football League at Maddingley Park on Saturday.
The Lions took on the reigning premier on the back of three consecutive wins.
They found out though that those performances against East Point, North Ballarat City and Ballarat – all outside the top six – did not stack up as they lost by 51 points.
Redan was thrown off balance when ruckman Orren Stephenson was forced out of the game with a strained hamstring early in the first quarter.
Too big for the Cobras’ Daniel Burton, Stephenson had already asserted his authority on the game.
While this allowed Burton to get the upperhand, Redan’s problems went much further than this as it managed just four goals for the day.
The Lions had their share of the football, but had no focal point in attack and continually broke down under the pressure of the Bacchus Marsh defensive unit as a whole led by dominant tall Trent Angwin and Jackson Bolton.
Third-placed Bacchus Marsh put the game out of Redan’s reach in the first half, with 44 points always going to be too much for the Lions to peg back after kicking just two goals.
Redan did manage to halt the Cobras in the third quarter, but that was short-lived as Jarrah Maksymow rediscovered his accuracy to finish with four goals.
While describing the overall performance as “terrific” given the magnitude of the test against an in-form Redan, Bacchus Marsh coach Travis Hodgson said he had real concerns about the Cobras’ third quarters.
He said the Cobras had only won one third term for the year.
Hodgson said the way they finished against Redan ruled out a fitness issue.
He said it was “above the shoulders” and needed to be remedied.
Bacchus Marsh captain Tyson Shea led the early charge with an outstanding opening half – dominating the on-ball battles and controlling stoppages as he liked as Redan’s midfield was unable to match his pace and ball use.
Nathan Horbury was clearly Redan’s best in his 100th senior game as he attempted to ignite life into the Lions in various roles.
Patrick Britt and Jarrett Giampaolo combined well in defence under a barrage of attacks, although they were ultimately worn down by weight of numbers.
Teenager Todd Douglass kicked two goals on debut for the Lions.
Lake Wendouree 23.12 (150) d North Ballarat City 11.12 (78)
Lake Wendouree warmed up for a Ballarat Football League top-of-the-table clash with Darley in convincing fashion at CE Brown Reserve on Saturday.
The Lakers added to North Ballarat City’s woes by pushing it aside by 72 points.
Lake Wendouree and Darley will each go into battle striving to remain undefeated and taking hold on outright leadership.
The Lakers look like being without coach and defender Tim Malone for the encounter though, with him having strained a hamstring against North Ballarat.
That was about the only down side for Lake Wendouree as it took the visitors apart bit by bit to leave City ninth with just the one win.
Malone was happy, although he touched on a lapse of concentration in the third term.
“We spoke about it at half-time - about us going to the next level as a footy side. That’s about capitalising when we are in winning positions.
“We probably took our foot off the pedal a little bit, but to the boys’ credit we were able to steady it at three quarter time.”
Malone said this had been a trend all year. “We just haven’t played four quarters of footy. I’m not sure exactly what it is.”
After conceding the first goal, Lake Wendouree managed to get going it’s familiar attractive running game and with a forward line boasting Nathan Pring, Jack Elkington and Lucas Anderson the danger signs quickly emerged.
City stuck fat to remain within 12 points at quarter time, but with Lake Wendouree’s midfield clearly on top the margin blew out to 41 points by half-time and the foundation was set.
Lucas Anderson proved his worth as a permanent forward for the Lakers, finishing with seven goals.
Daniel Jones put his best foot forward for North Ballarat, but the likes of Jordan Alexander, Nathan Pring and Angus Kirby had the major say for Lakers.
The magnitude of the loss was not lost on North Ballarat City coach Jordyn Burke.
“The difference between our good patches and our bad patches is too severe.
“To have ten scoring shots and kick 3.7 against a quality side, and the way they use the footy it really hurt us.
“It was very deflating to not be able to kick straight,” he said.
With City searching to turn around their fortunes, it debuted two more youngsters – Lachlan Simpson and Harry Loader, who kicked three goals.
It does not get any easier for North, which now faces Bacchus Marsh.
Darley 23.16 (154) d East Point 9.6 (60)
Darley exerted its authority with a 94-point demolition of East Point in the BFL at the Eastern Oval on Saturday.
East Point went into battle against the unbeaten ladder leader fresh from a win over North Ballarat City, but came back to earth with a big thump in being completely out-classed by the Devils.
Although Darley lost Chris Graham as a late withdrawal owing to illness, it made little difference.
Power forward Kyle Docherty continued his fine form for the Devils and took over the major goalkicking duties with a bag of nine.
Dan Roy also had an eye-catching return to the midfield after injury.
Kangaroos coach Jake Bridges said while out-pointed in many areas, one small “win” had been for the first time this season kicking more goals than behinds – indicating making better use of what opportunities in attack they had had.
He said despite the margin East had stuck to its task and continued to learn.
Andrew Maconachie and Clay Bilney were among its better players.
Melton South 21.13 (139) d Ballarat 10.9 (69)
Mark Lynch, Nick Kommer and Mitch Banner were the architects of a commanding 70-point victory over Ballarat in the BFL at Melton Recreation Reserve on Saturday.
The Swans fought their way through a sluggish start to be just in touch at half-time – trailing by 26 points.
The rest of the day belonged to the Panthers with 12 goals to two.
Ballarat had no answer to Lynch and Kommer, who were each credited by Melton South with 50-plus disposals, and had the unlikely offsider in the midfield of Brendan Fevola as the Panthers tried a few different things after being stung by Darley the previous week.
Then from there it was the classy Mitch Banner who put the polish on the game with seven goals.
Swans coach Shane Hutchinson said there were good signs early, but an inability to stop Melton South when it had a run-on had hurt. He said they had enough of the football, but could not do enough with it.
Sunbury 17.11 (113) d Sebastopol 7.6 (48)
Sunbury has moved into the BFL top six after defeating Sebastopol by 65 points at Marty Busch Reserve on Saturday.
The Lions flexed its muscles to have control for the most of the day.
With Grant Valles and Patrick Macdonough providing effective targets up forward, Sunbury made the most of some costly Sebastopol skill errors and hurt the Kookaburras on the scoreboard.
Dangerous Sebastopol midfielder Brett Goodes was well held by youngster Will Healy, while Marshall Cain and Ben McLeod did respectable jobs on Sunbury stars Benjamin Said and Alik Magin.
Dwain Sanderson was a stand-out for Sunbury in defence
Lions coach Ben Jordan was reasonably happy with the overall performance and will urge his side to continue playing the same brand of football against Redan next round.
“It wasn’t clean and it wasn’t pretty, but definitely a four-quarter effort in a game we just had to win and get the job done.
“The boys ensured that they came to play early which was a good thing.
“Redan will be on the rebound and are always hard to beat up there,” he said.
“We’ve had some great hit-outs against Redan over the years so there is a great rivalry there.”
Sebastopol coach Shane Snibson was not entirely disappointed by the Burra’s performance, but lamented some poor passages of play that resulted in turnovers - particularly in the last quarter.
Snibson was reasonably impressed with the efforts of some of his senior players, such as Marshall Cain and Ben McLeod with their shutdown roles on some key Sunbury playmakers.