Matt Hewson
St Mary’s prevailed in a classic mid-winter battle on the weekend, defeating visitors South Barwon by the smallest of margins to remain two games clear at the top of the Geelong Football League ladder.
The Swans took the lead early on and led for most of the match before St Mary’s held them to a single behind in the last quarter, the home side winning 10.11 (71) to 10.10 (70).
St Mary’s captain Jack Blood booted three for the victors while Harry McMahon and Jarryd Garner added two each.
Midfielder Garner also received coaches’ votes for best on ground for his work in the contest all day.
“Jarryd’s a mature, big body, so the conditions suited someone like him,” said St Mary’s coach Glenn Keast.
“And he’s in great form at the moment, he and Maxwell Augerinos both had really strong games in the midfield.”
Keast said though his side had trailed for much of the day in the difficult conditions he and co-coach Travis Robertson were reasonably confident of their side’s ability to turn the game around.
“It was a little bit easier to score down one end, and we were kicking that way in the fourth quarter,” he said.
“In the third quarter we were quite confident that if we could hold the gap to about two goals we could get up. “Then they kicked a goal on the three-quarter time siren, which made it three and a bit goals.
“That made it a bit of a challenge, the ball was heavy and scoring in general was pretty hard, but we were confident if we could defend well and not let them score much we’d kick enough goals to win, which is how it played out.”
In a late change to the schedule, St Mary’s round 16 game against St Joseph’s will now be played the week before the finals on Saturday, August 20.
Joeys have won five of their last six games and currently sit in fifth spot, making the matchup potentially critical for both sides come the end of the home and away season.
But Keast said the scheduling change was, if anything, beneficial to his side.
“It wasn’t a planned bye, but we should hopefully finish top now, so it’s probably a good thing,” he said.
“By finishing top we’ll have the first week of finals off, so we didn’t really want to have two weeks off in a row leading into our first finals game.”
Colac held on to second place with a victory over Leopold, streaking away after a tight first half to win 13.8 (86) to 7.12 (54).
Third-placed Newtown & Chilwell dominated against St Albans at home, Lachlan Bond kicking six goals to lead his team to a 104-point win.
Bell Park celebrated their fifth win of the season, claiming the four points against North Shore 11.10 (76) to 7.8 (50).
Grovedale’s finals hopes grew dimmer after an away loss to St Joseph’s, the sixth-placed Tigers now falling two games behind the Joeys in fifth.
Geelong West Giants broke free from Lara in the last quarter of their matchup, winning by 26 points after going into three-quarter time with a margin of just one goal.
