BALLARAT’S under-18.5 footballers cruised to a 42-point victory over the Riddell District Football League in their annual interleague clash, last night at Clarke Oval, Sunbury.
The navy and whites geared up for their division one interleague clash against the Geelong Football League next weekend at Eastern Oval, limiting the RDFL to just three scoring shots in the opening three quarters of the challenge match.
The emphatic victory has created selection dilemmas for Ballarat Football League’s under-18.5 interleague coach Tim Beacham, who must select an “A-team” to take on Geelong, and a second team to play the Bellarine league at Kardinia Park.
“A couple of players really put their hands up to play in our first team,” Beacham said last night.
“We feel we will have six players who will automatically come in to the side that will play Geelong, who were unavailable against the RDFL because of school footy. But there were also a few we thought might be B-grade players who proved themselves A-grade players.”
Ballarat led by two goals at the first change before kicking five unanswered goals in the second quarter. The third quarter was a stalemate with neither side able to score a major in the slippery conditions. In final quarter Ballarat edged out the margin to 42 points with three goals to RDFL’s two.
“The defensive skill and offensive running were the things we were really happy with,” Beacham said.
“They put a massive flood on in the third quarter. The opposition coach told us we’d run them into the ground and they did that to avoid opening up the flood gates.
“We probably don’t have as many seasoned campaigners as last year. We will have only six to eight guys who have played senior football playing on the weekend against Geelong compared with about 17 in our team against Goulburn Valley last year.
“But the upside of that is this group is probably faster and has better endurance.”