Ballarat Football League has again succumbed to the might of the Goulburn Valley.
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Not even a stunning eight-goal performance by Bacchus Marsh’s Ben Speight was enough to get the BFL over the line in the AFL Victoria Community Championships encounter at the MCG on Saturday.
Although a vast improvement on last time they met, when the purple and gold thumped the BFL by 65 points in 2014, the 22-point loss was just as painful after Ballarat had the game on its terms in the third quarter.
Three goals in the opening seven minutes by Speight in this term allowed Ballarat to turn an eight-point deficit at half-time into a 16-point lead.
And when Lachie Cassidy goaled after getting on the end of a Speight handball on 25 minutes the BFL’s lead remained comfortable at 15 points.
From that point on though, Goulburn Valley changed the complexion of the game.
Its defence, led by coach Luke Morgan tightened the screws, and with a focus on spreading wide took the game away from Ballarat.
And just as Speight had for the BFL, Brayden Grenfell did the rest in front of goal in the shoot-out.
The former Calder Cannon was unbeatable in the air – kicking four goals to give him six for the day as Goulburn Valley put on eight of the last 10 majors of the day.
Ballarat was still close enough going into time-on in the last quarter, but looked a spent force with the GVFL full of run.
BFL coach Shaun O’Loughlin said some lapses had proved costly after the teams had gone hard at it in a free-scoring opening quarter.
He said it had been a high pressure contest and there was no particular area he felt Ballarat had fallen down in. “There was nothing major.”
O’Loughlin did concede though that it had not got the breathing space it should have through the second and third terms when it held sway.
Steve Kennedy, Scott Sherlock and Brian Graham had a lot of the football through that phase, while Tony Lockyer and Shane Page led the defence.
However, Ballarat too often missed the target going forward, allowing Goulburn Valley to release the pressure valve.
Morgan said GVFL had worked hard on intercepting marks and then puting Ballarat under pressure by spreading hard – a tactic which eventually wore down the Navy Blues.
Ballarat will learn its 2019 opponent on Monday when AFL Victoria coinfiemd new rankings.