Darley  2.2,  3.4,  4.7,  8.11  (59)

An inspired North Ballarat City shocked Darley in the BFL at Darley Park on Saturday.

City has not had a lot to get excited about this season, but this third success was one to savour.

Coach Jordyn Burke was rapt with all aspects of the 20-point win, hailing it as the best in two seasons in charge at North Ballarat.

He is hoping his players can feed off this performance for the rest of the year.

Burke said City had been building to a win of this ilk and as he had spoken about previously his players deserved the reward for the effort they had put in through tough times.

He put the win down to getting an edge in clearances and an ability to stifle Darley’s want to control play – a big factor the Devils’ early unbeaten run of six games.

North Ballarat City took the game up to Darley from the outset with 24 tackles in the opening quarter and then at the will power to dig deep after losing Nathan Olver and Mitch Gilbert to concussion in the second term.

Burke pointed to the leadership of Simon McCartin and Daniel Jones, and work-rate of Sam Bromley-Lynch and Martin Curtis is getting City through this setback.

The match was up for grabs well into the last quarter, when fives goals was enough to keep North in front despite a concerted Darley effort led by Heath Scotland and Chris Graham.

MEANWHILE, Darley’s Brian Graham was among AFL Victoria Country’s best in a big loss to the VAFA at Frankston on Saturday. Jarrah Makysmow (Bacchus Marsh) also wore the Big V.

Scores: VAFA 24.8 (152)  d Vic Country 10.10 (70)

AFL Vic Country under-19s, with Bacchus Marsh’s Hamish Coulton, defeated VAFA 9.13 (67) to 9.9 (63)

Redan  2.2,  7.7,  8.11,  11.14  (80)

Melton  0.7,  4.9,  8.11,  9.13  (67)

Redan held strong to stave off Melton by 13 points in the Ballarat Football League at MacPherson Park on Saturday.

And what a victory it might prove to be in the context of the season.

Redan is now fourth as a consequence of Sunbury’s loss to Melton South and within percentage of a shaky third-placed Darley.

Melton was brave in pursuit of a win it needed to stay in the top six, but paid the price for early inaccuracy – 0.7 in the first term and 4.7 at half-time to trail by 16 points.

Redan still had to work hard though and has a lot to thank defender Patrick Britt and Liam Hoy in attack for, with each being prominent figures for the second week running.

Despite being wasteful, Melton looked for a while like repeating its come-form-behind win of the previous round against East Point – with the scores deadlocked at three quarter time.

Melton could only add one goal though and this proved to be shoted of what it needed.

Redan assistant coach Tom Jess spoke post-match on the importance of getting such an important win down the highway.

“It was good to see after we really got challenged, with Melton having all the momentum, that we were able to grind out the win. 

“It’s a pretty tight top six, so anyone on their day can beat anyone. That’s exciting and makes it important to keep winning.” 

Melton coach Brad Murphy could not help but feel disappointed about the way that his side failed to implement its game plan. 

“One of the things the coaching staff put a lot of time into working out is how the opposition play and their ball movement, and in particular with Redan, how they  rely on chipping the ball up the ground and taking uncontested marks. 

“We thought we had a plan in place in order to counter that and we didn’t execute that which was disappointing,” he said.

“A couple of our defenders got a touch up today with Liam Hoy, who is obviously a really good player. So a lot of the little things that we didn’t execute cost us in the end.

“It certainly doesn’t help when you kick seven points at the start either.

“Scoreboard pressure is such a massive part of footy and it probably hurt us in the end,” Murphy said.

It does not get any easier for Melton, with its next assignment against in-form reigning premier Bacchus Marsh.

Redan backs up with another road trip to a stung Sunbury.

Lake Wendouree  4.3,  5.4,  10.7,  11.10  (76)

Ballarat   3.3,  7.6,  9.6,  10.10  (70)

Lake Wendouree coach Tim Malone is still scratching his head after Lakers fell over the line against Ballarat Football League at Alfredton on Saturday.

While admitting he is repeating himself week after week, Malone continues to search for the trigger to get a genuine four-quarter effort out of his players.

He described the first half as Lakers’ worst of the year.

Lake Wendouree has had just the one loss in 10 games and remains on top of the ladder, but Malone is far from satisfied.

A six-point win over the Swans was a long way short of what he wanted to achieve.

As far as Malone is concerned all the Lakers got out of the match was four premiership points, and they were lucky to do that.

Ballarat led by 14 points at half-time after adding three goals in as many minutes in time-on in the second quarter.

An inability to stop Lake Wendouree doing something similar in the third stanza was ultimately the undoing of the Swans. Lakers scored the opening four goals – the last three of them in four minutes – to wrest the lead back and then won a dour battle to the line.

Ballarat still had plenty of chances, closing within four points with eight minutes to play.

However, as was an issue all day for the Swans turnovers hurt.

Ballarat coach Shane Hutchinson was again both encouraged and frustrated. The Swans also pushed another premiership contender in Darley two rounds previously, but missed out on a win.

Hutchinson said Ballarat was still being hurt by an inability to rivals getting a run on, as Lake Wendouree did in the third term.

“We’ll just keep working on it.”

Jordan Alexander was instrumental in keeping Ballarat at bay.

The small onballer, who is at his best in and around numbers, led the way for Lakers with Ben Hayes and Jack Elkington in the first half when there was inconsistency across the board.

Ultimately it was the ability of big names such as Ben Taylor, Nick Peters and Lucas Anderson (three goals when it counted most) who found something extra when the acid test was on that made the difference.

Dan O’Farrell (three goals) continued his strong form in attack for Ballarat, while Sam James and William Garner battled hard with defender Bailey Van de Heuvel.

Melton South  3.4,  4.5,  8.7,  13.7  (85)

Sunbury   0.3,  3.7,  5.9,  7.9  (51)

Melton South is back in the winners’ list and back in the Ballarat Football League top six.

Without Brendan Fevola owing to work commitments, the Panthers finally rediscovered a heartbeat in a quest to play finals by defeating Sunbury by 34 points.

It snaps a three-game losing streak for Melton South and also ends a four-game winning run for the Lions, which lose fourth to Redan and drop to fifth.

Panthers joint coach Sean Triplett said after doing so much wrong for so long, their game had finally clicked into place with initially an improved effort and also better ball use. “Everyone played a role.”

He highlighted the debut of under-16 player Aaron Clarke, who kicked two goals.

Sunbury coach Ben Jordan said the Lions never fully recovered after being jumped by three goals in the opening term by a cleaner Melton South.

Sunbury lost prime mover Alik Magin with the concussion in the first quarter.

Bacchus Marsh  7.5,  11.7,  19.13,  22.19  (151)

Sebastopol  3.0,  6.4,  10.5,  11.7  (73)

Bacchus Marsh delivered another tough outcome for Sebastopol in the BFL at Marty Reserve on Saturday.

The second-placed Cobras raced away to a 78-point win with an even spread of work. 

Sebastopol was always going to hit the ground full of fire and for the opening 15 minutes had Bacchus Marsh doing it tough.

By quarter time though the Cobras led by 29 points and there was no coming back for the Burra as the second half largely replicated the first with 11 goals to the reigning premier.

With usual spearhead Jarrah Maksymow and Hamish Coulton representing AFL Vic Country, Alec Del Papa stepped up in attack with six goals for the Cobras.

Ryley Stuhldreier (5 goals) and Scott Sherlock (4 goals) made productive returns from injury. 

Just as Tim Malone did at Lake Wendouree on Saturday, Bacchus Marsh’s Travis Hodgson handed over the job of head coach for the day to assistant Michael Suban. He also oversaw the team preparation in the week leading into the game.