St Joseph’s emerged triumphant after an absorbing contest against South Barwon at McDonald Reserve, Belmont on Anzac Day.
Joeys’ forward line handled the wet conditions brilliantly with Oscar Morrison booting four goals and Hunter Lewis three in a low-scoring game.
St Joseph’s booted three goals to one in the final term to run out 9.8(62) to 6.15(51) winners.
Joeys coach Ron Watt was pleased with the way his side ran out the game after leading by just two points at the final change.
“Extremely proud of the contest that they brought, just being able to stick to a pretty simple formula across the day,” Watt told krockfootball.live after the match.
“Compete hard but set themselves into the right spots especially when challenged (to) be able to stand up.”
The versatility of Watt’s team was on show.
“Probably the three years I’ve been coaching we’ve always made sure people can play a couple of different positions because if something’s not working for them, they’ve got to be able to go to something else and you don’t want to have a terrible day if you start with a bad day,” he said.
“It’s important to have flexibility and we probably had Liam Betson who could have played in the ruck today and we could have put Morrison down back or (Zac) Knights could have played full back.
“Knights finished up playing as a defender but came onto the ground as a midfielder at the start of the game.
“We’re lucky that we can throw things around but we have to be careful that we don’t try to get too creative and inventive and just let players settle a bit.”
It wasn’t all good news for St Joseph’s, however. Jack Mullen tore a hamstring and will miss several weeks.
“That was the worst hamstring injury I’ve seen for a long time,” Watt said.
“He’s been our best forward this year and he really developed into that running forward role over the last 18 months.
“We’ll find it hard to replace him but it gives some other guys an opportunity to play.”
Watt said Oliver Hanneysee “probably would have been next cab off the rank” to replace Mullen, but he too suffered a hamstring injury in the reserves match.
Joeys’ skipper Alex Hickey was his usual consistent self while Josh Nurnaitas played well. Watt said Nurnaitas is a “hard little unit”.
South Barwon will take a lot of positives from the game.
Fraser Fort booted two goals and loomed as a danger man all day while ruckman Ben Kellett and star midfielder Doyle Madigan were superb.
Geelong West won an absorbing contest against St Albans, 11.14(80) to 10.13(73). Both sides can look forward to the rest of the season and look to be in good positions going forward. But it was the Giants, through Lachie Horniblow’s five goals, that prevailed. Tom Higgins kicked four for the Supersaints.
Bell Park got onto the winner’s list with a 25.24(174) to 2.2(14) win against North Shore. North Warrnambool recruit Jett Birmingham was brilliant for the Dragons while skipper Jacob Sammut-Milijevic was best for the Seagulls, who despite the scoreboard, had their moments.
St Mary’s made a statement with an 18.16(124) to 8.8(56) win against Newtown & Chilwell. Michael Rudd booted three majors and was best for St Mary’s while former Kyabram young gun Mitchell Dodos was best for the Eagles.
Leopold showed that it will be thereabouts again with a 21.8(134) to 8.10(58) win against Colac. Midfielders Tate Porter and Marcus Thompson ran riot while Billy Ritchie and Will Howard each booted four goals.
Grovedale ran right over the top of Lara to win 24.13(157) to 6.1(37). Joe McCarthy was best for the Tigers and Leigh Ellis booted five goals while Darby Henderson starred through the midfield for the Cats.
