BFNL REVIEW | Taxman Troy delighted with Bloods audit

The coach would walk away from Saturday's contest more than content with the way the Bloods accounts are shaping up for season 2024 after a 119-point demolition job against a team, that itself had an 80-point round one win.

On a day where three matches in the Ballarat Football Netball League senior football were decided by seven points or loss, it was this game, between two predicted finalists, that on paper at least looked the most likely to go the distance.

But by quarter time, it was clear it was going only in one direction as Melton opened up a 29-point lead, and from then on it was party time for the visitors, who won in a canter 25.13 (163) to 6.8 (44).

It was Melton's clean ball movement that was the feature. While the Burra weren't bad in that regard, the spread and speed of the Bloods was at another level as they found gaps all over the field and got the ball at pace to the likes of Ryan Carter, Braedan Kight and Kyle Borg who between them combined for 19 of their side's 25 goals.

After the match Scoble rubbed out the white board and wrote 'SYSTEM' in capital letters. That was all he needed to say after a performance that sets the bar for a big tilt at this year's finals.

"That's how you sort of get a test out of your system, very, very happy, very pleased," he said.

"From our side of it, it just gives us a little bit more of a belief in what we are trying to build.

"I thought that the way we approached the game was in a really professional manner. We know that Sebas is probably one of the better contested footy sides in the competition, so we had a really big focus during the week to match system with system in that area.

"We played better today than last week, to come up here, with conditions a little bit better than last week, I thought our transition play was really good."

It wasn't all roses for the Bloods with defender Tom Button hurting his knee in the second quarter with Scoble saying hoped it was a jarred knee, rather than something more serious, but the defender was unable to put weight on it as he was helped from the ground.

For the Burra it wasn't just costly on the scoreboard, with young forward Jacob Fletcher dislocating his shoulder in the marking contest in the first quarter. To that point, the 18-year-old had looked the most likely for his team to score with his loss leaving a hole in the Burra attack

"You never want to see a young kid go down like that, he'll be assessed, but I'd expect he'd probably miss about four weeks," coach Tony Lockyer said.

Lockyer chalked it up to a bad day at the office, but said his side would need to learn a lot from the way Melton went about the game.

"They had a day where they executed everything they wanted to, even things down to kicking for goal, they just didn't miss," he said.

"I thought early in the third quarter we had a few moments where we might have been able to build something, but we hit the post three times, they took it straight down the other end and snapped one through.

"I thought it blew out in the end, I don't think the final margin was a reflection of the gap between the sides, I hope not anyway."

Sebastopol 2.1, 3.4, 4.6, 6.8 (44)

GOALS (Melton) B Kight 7, R Carter 6, K Borg 5, B McGee 2, R Davis 1, J Hickey 1, J Kight 1, A Minitto 1, L Walker (Sebastopol) J Fletcher 1, A Forbes 1, J Hill 1, T Hutt 1, L Kiel 1, J McDonald 1 BEST: (Melton) J Hickey. J Cotter, B Kight, J Walker, R Carter, R Davis (Sebastopol) T Lockyer, R O'Keefe, B Hutt, R McNally, D WIdgery, L Cassidy

A last-gasp win to Ballarat has come at a cost with leading goalkicker Jake Drever hurting his shoulder in his side's three-point win over Redan .

And with just a five-day break before hosting Lake Wendouree on Anzac Day, the Swans are going to have to re-jig their forward half quickly against a plucky opponent this week.

But that's for the future as nothing could be taken away from both clubs in a classic contest that ebbed and flowed throughout the day.

Drever's injury was the only downside to a thrilling win, which was only secured in the dying moments of the contest when Rhett Mongomerie produced two towering marks deep in attach in the last few minutes, snapping the winning goal with just on a minute.

Redan had one last chance to steal the win, but were denied late as the Swans held on for a critical win.

Ballarat coach Chris Maple said it was terrific game to be part of, saying it could have gone either way.

"Last year this was a game we probably would have lost due to our youth and inexperience, so to have a few cards to pull out of your sleeve at the end was handy," he said.

"It was a tight game the entire day, credit to Redan, they came to play and had a huge dip. They've got some great young kids, you have Grant Bell kicking five, they are a quality unit."

Despite two narrow losses, Redan coach Gary Learmonth said he was happy enough with the way his side was playing, but agreed his team needed a win to get that reward of a win soon.

"We had our chances, but made a couple of blues late," he said. "We just couldn't match them in the air in the last 10 minutes.

"We had enough chances through the course of the day and I think we probably left a couple out there, but I'm sure they'd say the same.

"We were pleased with the way we played, but just disappointed we didn't get the reward for effort."

Ballarat 3.1, 9.5, 9.7, 13.12 (90)

Redan 5.2, 8.5, 11.7, 13.9 (87)

GOALS: (Ballarat) A Hooper 3, J Drever 2, B Wardley 2, A Bade 1, W Liston 1, J Niicholls 1, R Perry 1, P SImpson 1, R Montgomerie 1 (Redan) G Bell 3, B Carroll 2, H Lawson 2, D Bond 1, T Bond 1, M Boyer 1, Z Lee 1, Z Mortlock 1 BEST: (Ballarat) R Perry, L Rinaldi, T Maple, P Simpson, W Garner (Redan) To come

Bacchus Marsh is on the board is on the board in season 2024 and Lake Wendouree will have to quickly dust itself off after a narrow defeat at home to the Cobras.

While the Lakers had plenty of chances in the dying moment, it was Bacchus Marsh who celebrated coach Dennis Armfield's first victory in the 11.16 (82) to 11.9 (75) win.

While there was a breeze, it wasn't strong enough to have the scoring as lop-sided as it was in the first half.

Bacchus Marsh looked to have almost kicked itself out of the game in the first quarter with six straight behinds to start the match. They should have led by much more than the 14 points at the first change.

The Lakers stepped up a gear and made the most of the opportunities in the second quarter with seven goals to take an eight-point lead into half time.

The second half became a goal-for-goal contest with neither side really able to break away. Bacchus Marsh led late in the contest, before Lake Wendouree peppered the goals late, but couldn't quite hit the target to close the gap and create a grandstand finish.

Cobras coach Dennis Armfield said it was a great feeling to get the win on the road.

"I would have liked it a little bit less stress free, but we'll happily take the win," he said. "2.8 in the first quarter, 0.6 to start the game was a bit concerning, they went down once and slotted one.

"To the Lakers credit they hung in all day and made the most of it when it was their turn to shine.

"I don't think we were ever in control, but I thought we handled the little moments well. We were able to lock it in and find the free player when necessary. We managed to get a couple in a row which got us up to that 12 or 13 point buffer. Lakers finished strong, It was a tight battle, it was a great win for us."

Lake Wendouree coach Rohan Brown said while his side had some opportunities late, it was a classier players at Bacchus Marsh which ultimately proved the difference between the sides.

"We had three opportunities from the 29 to 31 minute mark of the last quarter, but it was a really good contest," he said.

"We gave ourselves a great opportunity at three-quarter-time, we just couldn't quite get there."

Bacchus Marsh 2.8, 5.11, 8.13, 11.16 (82)

Lake Wendouree 1.0, 8.1, 9.3, 11. 9 (75)

GOALS: (Bacchus Marsh) J Owen 3, A Craig 2, D Armfield 1, J Hehir 1, E McKercher 1, I Nixon 1, J Parente 1, C Salmon 1 (Lake Wendouree) T Collins 4, B Thomspson 4, F Fogaty 1, H Hicks 1, J Jarred 1 BEST: (Bacchus Marsh) T Shea, J Parente, A Craig, J Kovacevic, D Armfield, E McKercher (Lake Wendouree) B Helyer, N Pring, T Collins, F Fogaty, W Clark, L Koliba

"Two bulls going at it" was how Darley's Dan Jordan described Saturday night's slog between his Devils and North Ballarat in one of the more physical contest seen in the BFNL in many years.

North Ballarat got a slither of revenge for their one-point grand final defeat, holding off Darley 5.11 (41) to 5.8 (38) in a game, that while not full of highlights, was incredibly tough, contested and physical from the outset.

The Roosters got the jump on the contest in the first quarter, with Jordan admitting his team had probably been caught slightly off guard.

It was nip-and-tuck the whole game with each team scoring just one goal in the second half, the Roosters doing enough to hold on for a three-point win.

"It was true wet weather football," he said. "I thought if the dew came in and it was to get slippery it's how the game would be, just an arm wrestle, contest, contest, contest. They are a very very good contested side and we had to step up.

"There were a few little moments here. I thought we were on top in the last quarter but we couldn't capitalise on opportunities when we needed to. They had their chances as well. It was just an enormous pressure and contested game, even standing on the boundary you could hear all the thumps on the body, neither team gave an inch."

North Ballarat 3.6, 4.8, 4.10, 5.11 (41)

Darley 1.3, 4.4, 5.6, 5.8 (38)

GOALS: (North Ballarat) L Deering 2, M White 2, J Quick 1 (Darley) J Bewley 3, W Johnson 2 BEST: (North Ballarat) N Cockerell, R Polkinghorne, I Carey, B Leonard, S Artz, S Howard (Darley) B Myers, D Cadman, B Bewley, J Bewley, J Ancrum, L Baker

Sunbury made it two-from-two with a convincing victory over Melton South, dominating from start to finish to win 26.8 (164) to 3.2 (20).

While the Lions were always expected to win, for coach Matt White, it was his side's ability to focus all night that pleased him most.

"To keep them to 3.2 was fantastic," he said. "The boys did everything we could have asked for and played really good footy all throughout the night.

"Just the fact we were able to stick to our structures, the way we set up around the ground, we defensively moved well, moved the ball well into 50. We were able to see some things we worked on during the pre-season which we probably didn't do so well in the first game, we were able to rectify that."

White praised the performance of Cody Bramble on the wing. "He's been very impressive on the wing for me, Jake Sutton is leading the forward line and Mitch McLean I was wrapped with, he kicked four after not really getting a look at it last week. He kicked four but it's everything else he's doing, I was really happy for him to get the rewards," White said.

For Melton South it's been a tough start to the season up against arguably two of the best and most in form teams in the competition. Ryder Rousch continued his strong start to the season being named his side's best.

Sunbury 7.0, 12.5, 20.7, 26.8 (164)

Melton South 1.0, 2.0, 3.1, 3.2 (20)

GOALS: (Sunbury) J Sutton 6, M McLean 4, P Scanlon 3, F Ampulski 2, J Egan 2, L Urbon 2, C Bramble 1, N Doyle 1, J Guthrie 1, M Lewis 1, R Miller 1, J Newitt 1, H Power 1 (Melton South) J Geddes, J Morrissey, D Zajac BEST (Sunbury) B Cameron, J Newitt, H Power, M McLean, J Sutton, F Ampulski (Melton South) R Rousch, D Donaldson, L Pritchard, S Hobjin-Allen, J Welch, B Collins