By JARROD POTTER
VAFA – ROUND 6
SIX-NIL.
It’s been an emphatic start to the VAFA season for St John’s as the Old Collegians rolled yet another contender in Division 2.
While Old Paradians came close to upsetting the JOCs’ unbeaten start to the year, in the end a six-goal spree in the last term proved too much for the visitors to counter.
Despite the final score-line this was never a walk in the park for the JOCs, who had to battle tooth and nail to upset the Raiders by 28 points.
St John’s defence held a slender lead throughout the majority of the match as Carson Strobel and Rhys Dyker dominated the opposing centres.
CLICK HERE for all the pictures from St John’s stellar win over Old Paradians.
Strobel battered his way through to rack up the clearances while Manny Jakwot and Daniel Cattolico toiled all match against a vertically impressive Paradians’ outfit.
But eventually St John’s put the ammo back in the Amateurs, as the forward line started lighting it up and kicking straighter.
After heading into the main break at 5.10 (40) Greater Dandenong’s finest Amateurs found their range and kicked the lights out.
Relishing the dry football was Aaron Thornton (five goals) – who had lace-out reception from the likes of Strobel, Glenn Costas and Kane Arnold.
His was the major tipping point through a barren third quarter in the JOCs forward line as he snagged all three-goals-one of the side’s scoring.
Corey Ely (three goals) also had the ball on a string in the second half, slotting a pair of match-tipping goals to push the JOCs out by 30.
Coach Ben McGee thought Ely, Anthony Brannan and 100-gamer Adam Bourchier all stood up in the crunch moments and the boys have kept the hammer down strongly throughout the first six weeks.
“It’s a great feeling and we said we were going to be a club that strived to get early wins,” McGee said. “I said that at the club launch and being an organised club, we’ve been able to facilitate some really positive results.
“But we don’t want to take the foot off the pedal – we just want to keep making sure the next challenge is always on our minds and next week there’s always another game of footy to win.”
In another top-of-the-ladder showdown, first place St John’s battles third ranked Eltham Collegians away on Saturday.
Masala’s run of form in Division 4 continues to trend downwards, with Box Hill North delivering a 126-point barrage. Despite kicking 11 goals of their own, the Tigers’ defence could not match pace with the visitors, who slammed on 31 of their own through Daniel Penny (11 goals) in particular.
For Masala, Josh Kyle (four goals) led the way while Zachary Kelly and Jordan Toikalkin were also in the best. Sitting 10th in the 11-team division, Masala will hope to double its wins this season when it heads to Westbourne Grammarians.
