BFNL REVIEW | 'We had to win it three times' Melton's great escape, East Point on the charge

THREE games in, three completely types of games, but three wins is all Melton coach Troy Scoble could have asked for after his team held off a surging North Ballarat in a cracking contest on Saturday afternoon.

Two big wins over Melton South and Sebastopol may have given the Bloods a false sense of security in just how well they were going in the early part of the season, but now they know they are in for a fierce battle for this year's premiership after North kept fighting and nearly snatched it late, as they did against Darley last week.

Melton led for essentially all the game, getting away early, but each time it did, the Roosters fought back, nearly snatching it at the death.

"We had to win it three times," Scoble said. "It was pretty combative to be honest, they are a really good side.

"We found we were able to get away early, but they were able to draw it back late. Their game style, their contest method is as good as it gets in the competition I would think.

"What we learned, and I said this the first week as well, is that we need to play every minute of every game.

"We also learned that we planned well for the day in terms of how we went about the contest. We knew we were coming up against one of the best sides. It highlighted when you're playing against the best sides in the competition, you have to be really resilient to end up in front."

North Ballarat coach Brendan McCartney now has a guide of where his team sits in the pecking order having played arguably his club's two biggest challengers in the first two weeks for a close win and a close loss.

"We do want to be a club that fights and when you play good opposition like that you rarely get it your own way," he said. "We couldn't contain it early but we kept fighting.

"I don't think we're the sort of team that will get smashed or we'll roll over, I'm really proud of how tough our boys are.

"It's a good measuring stick for us and we know we've got a little bit of height to bring in. I think a bit more height will anchor us a bit, while it's not the be-all and end-all, it offers us a meeting point.

"I'm a believer that aerial competitiveness is a good marker on the outcome of games, not necessarily the marks you take, but the way you make a contest, so I think that will help us going forward."

Melton 4.3, 6.6, 9.8, 12.15 (87) d North Ballarat 2.1, 6.2, 8.6, 12.9 (81)

GOALS: (Melton) B Kight 5, R Carter 2, R Davis 1, L Ericsson 1, C Farragia 1, J Kight 1, B McGee 1 (North Ballarat) N Nash 3, H Loader 2, S McCartin 2, J Quick 2, J Curran 1, R Polkinghorne 1, M White 1 BEST (Melton) L Watkins, J Kight, L Heaney, K Borg, J Walker, L Walker (North Ballarat) R Polkinghorne, B Leonard, I Carey, N Nash, F Loader, E Lamb

EAST POINT v SEBASTOPOL

BOTH East Point and Sebastopol had a lot to prove heading into Saturday night's contest at Eastern Oval after both suffered big losses in their last hit-out.

At the end of the game, it was clear that one team can put the previous performance behind and move on, the other, while improved, still has plenty of work ahead of it to be a finals threat this season.

It was East Point's night, leading throughout the contest to a comfortable 10.16 (76) to 3.11 (29) victory.

While it was a game that never reached any great heights, due mostly to the dew on the ground on a bitterly cold Ballarat evening, what was most notable about the contest was the way the Kangaroos were prepared to spread the ball.

With a slippery ball, the game was always going to be won at the contest, which for the most part was pretty even.

The difference was that when Sebastopol won it, they had nowhere to go as their midfielders had been drawn into the play.

When East won the contest, they could flick it out wide, often going as wide as they could on the expanses of Eastern Oval to find a loose man. That run and gun would give the home side field position and ultimately led for too much the Burra defence to combat.

East Point coach Joe Carmody, in his first game in charge, said he was thrilled with his team's application to the contest.

"We made an emphasis to improve on round one, obviously that game was disappointing, but there were a lot of learnings from it," he said.

"The intensity, the effort for the whole four quarters tonight was sensational.

'We're such a young side and we do have a lot of athletes in the side. We knew we had that spread on the outside to trouble them."

Sebastopol coach Tony Lockyer said his side had shown a greater willingness for the contest this week, saying the performance was vastly improved from what they showed against Melton the previous match.

"It was a significant step up," he said. "The night games can be difficult, sometime you get reward for your efforts, sometimes you don't.

"We probably broke down across half forward. I thought East Point were outstanding in the way they cut us off and rebounded from there.

"I don't feel the scoreboard reflected our intensity and effort around the contest.

"One a night like this, it can be very difficult to read the ball, sometimes it pings out in a certain direction, they were very quick across half back to rebound and get it in, it's something we'll need to go to work on."

East Point 1.4, 4.8, 7.13, 10.16 (76) d Sebastopol 1.1, 2.5, 2.8, 3.11 (29)

GOALS: (East Point) B McDougall, S Robinson 2, L Tebble 2, J Johnston 1, M Johnston 1, B Jones 1, J Taylor 1 (Sebastopol) L Cassidy 1, T Hutt 1 BEST (East Point) J Merrett, M Rotumah-Onus, L Howard, A Molan, M Johnston, B McDougall (Sebastopol) L Cassidy, R McNally, T Lockyer, T McDonald, B Medwell, R Birthisiel

DARLEY v BACCHUS MARSH

Darley survived the fright of its life against a rapidly improving Bacchus Marsh, who according to their coach, needs just to find a belief it can win games against the best teams.

The Devils held on for a 12-point win against a surging Cobras outfit that slammed home five of the last goals of the match to come from 39-points down at half time to almost snatch the most unlikely of victories.

Bacchus Marsh's form stacks up in the opening three weeks of the season having lost narrowly to two unbeaten sides in Ballarat and now Darley and having scored a win over Lake Wendouree.

Darley looked to be in control throughout Saturday's match, but Bacchus Marsh would not go away and in the end, had it not been for some rushed chances missed late, could have taken the points.

Bacchus Marsh coach Dennis Armfield said he had mixed feelings after the game, on one hand, proud of his team's willingness to fight the game out, but on the other disappointed not to have taken the opportunity that presented itself.

"It's mixed emotions, but in the end it's a missed opportunity against a quality opposition," he said. "Our first quarter hurt us again, we had more inside 50s but they captialised with 5.1 from 10-or-so entries.

"Confidence and momentum is big. I don't think you could say we were overwhelmed by who we were playing, but I wish some of us had have really built ourselves into the hype.

"The talk before the game was if Bacchus Marsh could be competitive, it would be a positive, but sometimes it's about learning to win and believing you can win.

"To keep the reigning premiers to just three goals after half time is a real positive for us, it shows we've got our defensive structure to work and we could clamp the best going around.

"There was a couple of missed opportunities late, a couple of set shots we missed, we probably got a little edgy, as the excitement kicked in that we were close, maybe the jitters started to set in and in the end, like a good side, they took it down and scored a goal."

The Cobras will wait on a couple of concerns with injuries to both Alex Porter who will need scans on a quad injury while Josh Huxtable has some soreness after a hit on the shoulder and neck and will be a wait and see over the coming days.

Darley 5.1, 9.5, 11.8, 12.9 (81) d Bacchus Marsh 2.1, 3.2, 5.3, 10.9 (69)

GOALS: H Inglis 3, W Johnson 3, L Spiteri 3, M Brett 1, R Matricardi 1, B Wright 1 (Bacchus Marsh) To come BEST: (Darley) H Inglis, Z Le Huray, L Baker, B Bewley, L Spiteri, M Denham (Bacchus Marsh) J McCreery, R Penny, J Parente, T Shea, J Kovacevic, C Gates

MELTON SOUTH v REDAN

Redan went into Saturday's clash with Melton South almost on a hiding to nothing given the new look that the Panthers were going to show with a host of new players coming into the squad.

But the Lions held firm, scoring their first win of the season by 53 points against a much more competitive Melton South unit.

Despite the hype around the debuts of Jeff Garlett, Harley Bennell, Brendan Kanilla and Sam Darley for Melton South, this was a game Redan just had to win and it was the stars that led the way with Lachie George best on field and Grant Bell kicking five that ultimately proved to be the difference between the sides.

Melton South can be well please with the performance of the new brigade with the four new players contributing seven of the club's nine goals on the day.

The club would also be happy to get wins in both the reserves and the under-19s, the under-19s picking up their first win since June 8, 201 9 (1785 days).

Redan coach Gary Learmonth said it was a difficult day for his side, but it was all about sticking together and making sure they picked up the four points.

"I watched a bit of vision of how Jeff Garlett played on Thursday and had a bit of watch of what we were doing as well, so I felt like we just had to focus on what we wanted to do," he said.

"I thought we controlled most of the game, I think the guys they brought in kicked seven of the nine goals they got.

"I thought we improved on what we've been doing the past couple of weeks, we linked up a bit better than we have, we kicked better.

"We're getting games into guys. I think we had 10 under-19s play this round, so we're seeing them improve every week and when we get some senior players back over the next month, I think we'll see a greatly improved outfit going forwad."

Redan 5.1, 9.6, 13.9, 17.16 (118) d Melton South 3.1, 4.4, 7.7, 9.11 (65)

GOALS: (Redan) G Bell 5, B Green 5, T Bond 1, B Carroll 1, L Farnsworth 1, L George 1, J Jess 1, H Lawson 1, Z Mortlock 1 (Melton South) H Bennell 2, J Garlett 2, B Kantilla 2, S Darley 1, S Hobjin-Allen 1, L Pritchard 1 BEST (Redan) L George, S Broadbent, J Short, Z Mortlock, R Gunsser, D Bond (Melton South) S Darley, B Kantilla, J Bibby, R Lee, C Chapman, J Garlett