By Justin Flynn
St Joseph’s goes into this weekend’s clash against Newtown & Chilwell full of confidence after an unblemished start to the Geelong Football League season.
Joeys defeated South Barwon on Anzac Day in a pulsating contest while Newtown & Chilwell is coming off a 26-goal to none win against St Albans.
St Joseph’s coach Ron Watt said the game against the Eagles would be a good test.
“I think Newtown is always a tough opponent, no matter what stage of the season or position on the ladder for either team, they always seem to find something,” he said.
“It was a terrific performance from them last week and I’d expect they’ll be full of confidence and they’ll be hard to stop with their attacking game, but they also have to stop our attacking game.”
St Joseph’s will need to negate the goalkicking power of Flynn Young, who has bags of seven and nine this season.
“I would expect Zac Knights would probably get the job on him or Gus Humphries, but we might throw one of our ball users onto him, too,” Watt said.
“It will also depend on how close he is to goal and how far he works up the ground as to who will finish up on him, but I’d say he will have a couple of opponents during the day.”
St Joseph’s led by 43 points early in the second term before South Barwon reduced the margin to two goals in the third.
“You always want to start like that, but the times that you do start like that are few and far between,” Watt said.
“I think we dominated that first quarter and a half and then South Barwon showed that they’re a pretty good team and were able to come back and challenge.”
With Jack Buckley (34 disposals) dominating and Paddy De Grandi booting four goals, St Joseph’s ended up winning by 18 points.
“I think it’s been good for Paddy this year, having a couple other big guys alongside him all the time,” Watt said.
“He’s one of those guys who doesn’t need much opportunity and he can sort of get himself free.”
NEWTOWN & CHILWELL demolished St Albans, keeping them to just two behinds for the day. Flynn Young had 26 touches and booted 9.4.
BELL PARK defeated North Shore by 36 points with Ben Lloyd racking up 29 disposals while young ruckman Ollie Bridgewater continues to impress at the level.
LEOPOLD dug deep to knock off Colac by 21 points. Defender Trent Thompson was good as was Brock Williamson (25 touches). Darcy Lang and Adam Garner each booted four goals for Colac.
STAR midfielder Jack Blood was instrumental in St Mary’s 58-point win against Geelong West. Blood has 29 possessions while Brayden Ham 30 and Harry McMahon kicked five goals.
LARA opened its account with a 34-point win against Grovedale. Daniel Weigl was best and Mitch Day kicked five for the Cats was best for Grovedale.
