By Justin Flynn
Stung by a one-point defeat to St Joseph’s in round 7, St Mary’s responded in devastating fashion to annihilate St Albans by 208 points on Saturday June 8.
While that loss was St Mary’s first for the season, there was no letting up as the side slammed through 36 goals in a true four-quarter performance that pleased coach Glenn Keast.
“When you play a game like that it’s easier to have a quarter or a period of time when you drop off, but I think our guys were good enough just to stick to the task and play the way we’ve been coaching them so that was probably the most pleasing part of it,” he said.
“It was fairly even across the board and we didn’t really have a dominant quarter. It was just four quarters of pretty consistent effort, which sort of ended up with the scoreboard being the way that it was.”
St Mary’s had 17 of its 22 score goals on Saturday with Lachy Peck booting eight in the 36.19(235) to 4.3(27) win.
“In the last quarter we threw a few backs forward and things like that, but I suppose when you have a win like that, everyone does get a bit involved,” Keast said.
“We’ve got lots of good avenues to goal, like even Sam Dobson, who kicked two, probably could have kicked a few more, but he passed a few off. We probably have been at times a bit focused on him. I think on a ground like St Albans, it probably enables our running players to really get moving and they’re not as constrained as on small grounds. So we’ve seen our mids all sort of hit the scoreboard on the weekend.”
The Saints face an in-form Colac next up and then North Shore, which has improved, but should pose few problems. Then it’s a testing three-week block with Bell Park, Newtown & Chilwell and Leopold.
“Certainly Colac have looked like they’ve really got their game together over the last month after a slow start, which is unlike Colac, and Bell Park have obviously been pretty strong all year,” Keast said.
“I think certainly the next month or six weeks gives us a pretty good indication of where we’re going to be.”
BELL PARK overcame a tenacious Grovedale to win by 28 with Ben Worme again among the best and Tyler Pidgeon booting five goals.
COLAC was 115-point winners against Geelong West with Dustin Walters (five goals) best while Tobyn Murray kicked seven and Adam Garner five.
SOUTH BARWON disposed of Newtown & Chilwell by 73 points with Harry Cunningham starring while Matt Caldow (five goals) and Fraser Fort (four) also hit the scoreboard.
LEOPOLD defeated North Shore by 107 points with defender Tevan Nofi best afield while Connor Giddings kicked six goals.
ST JOSEPH’S thrashed Lara by 105 points with Oscar Morrison kicking seven goals in a superb display and Paddy De Grandi booting five.
