Leopold’s chances of three consecutive Geelong Football League premierships remained intact on Saturday, but still hangs by a thread.
The Polders produced a seven-goal third quarter blitz at home to defeat Geelong West by 39 points, but still have work to do to even make finals, let alone achieve a threepeat.
Leopold sits in 7th spot on the ladder, half a game behind Bell Park and a game adrift of South Barwon in 5th.
Leopold faces St Joseph’s (2nd), Lara (12th), Grovedale (10th), North Shore (11th) and Bell Park (6th) in the run home.
The Polders will likely field their strongest side for quite a while against Joeys this weekend, and they’ll need it. They had 19 unavailable for the round 11 clash against St Mary’s.
“They’re probably still the benchmark,” coach Luke Kelly said.
“It’s a good time to test ourselves and see where we are. I think just getting the team back together…all these games are important.
“So the opponent doesn’t necessarily matter – if we’re going to make it, we will. And then every week after that is going to be important to build ourselves hopefully towards another September campaign.”
Leopold has an array of experienced stars, but the injury list has meant exposure of senior footy to younger players.
“The troops are starting to get back,” Kelly said.
“I think we’ll almost be back at full strength this week. We should get Tom Feely in and Bill Ritchie back this week and that probably puts us at the strongest we’ve rolled out this year to be honest.
“It’s the first time in back-to-back weeks we won’t have a debutante. I think we’ve debuted 13 so far.”
The silver lining in having players out is that others can step in.
“You can see the future on full display and even though right now we say we’re full strength, we’ve still got Lachie McLean and Charlie Alexander, both 19, playing their first year of senior footy holding down key posts at half-back because we’ve been able to give them the opportunity,” Kelly said.
Taking over from dual premiership Garry Hocking this year, Kelly said he hasn’t tinkered with the game plan much at all.
“It was really sound in a lot of areas,” he said.
“From a defensive point of view we’re really strong so it’s more just probably throwing some little areas for improvement and keep adapting to where the game goes.
“I’m trying to find an offense that can score a few more points, but you obviously need continuity for that. So nothing major. It was more just some tweaks in a couple of other areas, but for the most part just keep trying to develop and grow and what’s been in place.”
COLAC made a statement with a two-goal win against St Joseph’s, coming from 10 points down at the last change. Zach Zdybel was named best and booted the goal to put the Tigers two goals up at the 33-minute mark of the final term.
NEWTOWN & Chilwell kept Grovedale goalless in a ruthless 172-point win with 15 players booting goals. With Joeys suffering a loss, it put the Eagles on top of the ladder with a percentage of 197.15.
ST ALBANS defeated North Shore by 73 points with Fletcher Keck again getting plenty of it in the midfield. Seagulls’ mid Connor Walmsley was superb.
SOUTH Barwon shrugged off Bell Park to sit safely in 5th spot with Matt Coldow (three goals) and Tom Barlett important contributors.
ST MARY’S thrashed Lara by 123 points, but didn’t have things all their own way. Five players each booted three goals (Jack Blood, Sam Bourke, Charlie Sprague, Elijah Wales and Fletcher Hughes). The Cats hit the scoreboard with accuracy, booting five majors with Ryan Bell (two goals) playing a starring role in the ruck.
