A 10-goal haul from young forward Lachie Horniblow has propelled Geelong West to its second win of the Geelong Football League season.
Horniblow starred in the 25.11(161) to 9.3(57) win against Lara and finally looks to have shrugged off persistent injury concerns.
“I think he played four games at the back end of 2023 and he kicked fourteen goals or something,” Giants’ coach Greg Mellor said.
“And then last year he only played 10 games of footy and I reckon he would have kicked around 30 goals. So for a young kid, he’s just been injury prone.
“He missed the start of preseason in (20)23 and then he got injured the back half of last year and just couldn’t get going and even this year he missed most of preseason.
“And then he got injured leading into round one and didn’t play and he’s been pretty good. Oscar Murdoch did a good job on him at Newtown, but he’s played pretty well.”
The Giants booted nine goals in the opening term on Saturday and Mellor was pleased with the fast start.
“We got some really good looks out of centre bounces, which is an area that we’ve been working on and improving,” he said.
“I thought our efficiency inside forward 50 was pretty good and we were able to make good use of the looks that we had inside 50 early. We were able to stamp our authority on the game early.”
Lara managed to hit the scoreboard more regularly after half-time.
“Lara structured a little bit differently after half-time and they were a lot more competitive,” Mellor said.
“They got a bit of a run on. I think they kicked three in a row and so there’s certainly a couple of areas that we need to just continue to work on and tidy up.”
Geelong West faces a tough assignment against South Barwon this weekend.
“They’ve been pretty strong for a couple of years now,” Mellor said.
“(They are) well drilled, have some experience throughout their club and got some big bodies and strong down back so it just represents another area of how we want to play the game.
“How we can nullify or beat their strengths and make a really competitive game.”
Mellor said success at the end of his side, which had 11 players under 20-year-olds on the weekend, would not be defined by the wins column.
“For me success is always about improvement,” he said.
“The scoreboard can be one of those indicators, but sometimes when you’ve got a young group it’s about making sure that our players develop throughout the year and continue to improve. So we need to be a better side at the end of the year than what we are at the start of the year. Ultimately the more you get that right the more wins that you get on the board, but I’ve found in the past that bypassing on outcomes rather than processes you can lose your clarity, your message. So for us it’s about making sure the processes are followed and clearly articulated and understood.”
NEWTOWN & Chilwell knocked off Leopold by 19 points with Mitch Diamond best.
ST MARY’S shrugged off a spirited Grovedale after half-time to win by 69 points with Sam Bourke booting five goals.
SOUTH Barwon defeated North Shore by 228 points with Matt Caldow kicking seven goals and Fraser Fort and Harry Cunningham six each.
PADDY De Grandi kicked five goals for St Joseph’s with a VFL bye allowing him to suit up in GFL for the first time this season. Joeys won by 83 points against St Albans with Sam Donegan the Supersaints’ best.
