Seagulls push Burra

By Brad Kingsbury
KEYSBOROUGH had to find another gear to defeat winless cellar-dwellers Tooradin at the Western Port Oval on Saturday.
The Seagulls gave last week’s reappointment of coach Cristian O’Brien a tick of approval by producing a competitive effort against the Burra and although the scoreboard indicated that the Seagulls went down by 44 points, the Burra was not expected to be challenged to the extent that it was.
The hosts surprised Keysborough with their early intensity that did not allow them to dictate the pace of the game and visiting coach Greg Siwes paid credit to O’Brien and the Seagulls afterwards.
“They’ve improved a lot and they were competitive for the whole game,” he said. “I’m a bit surprised that they haven’t won a game.”
Tooradin matched up well in the opening term with Mark Griffiths, Matt Grouios and Rod Cochrane getting plenty of the ball, supported by big ruckman Steve Arvanitis who took advantage of the absence of injured Burra big men Shaun Witherden and Dean Gentle to control the air.
The Burra upped the ante after the quarter-time break and Shaun Daly and Chris Capsalis started to dominate around the ground, creating opportunities for key forwards Luke McGuinness, Matthew Freeman and Tyson King, who Siwes rotated through the forward 50 for most of the game.
At half time the margin was 20 points and Keysborough gradually increased that gap to 38 points at the final change, thanks to the run of Kris Fowler, Corey Wilkinson and mobile big man Keiran Morland.
The Seagulls never threw in the towel and matched their more seasoned rivals in the final term, with Denee Lalouette, Adam Splatt and David Tremowen doing their best to keep their side in the contest.
Siwes said that, while it was always good to win games of football, significant improvement was required before the Burra could hope to match it with the big guns of the league.
“I was a bit disappointed. We moved the ball all right but our decision-making was ordinary and we kept kicking the ball to Arvanitis. Just dumb footy,” he said.
“We were handballing the ball to flat-footed team mates and the lack of quick movement caught us out a bit.
“When we moved it properly we scored goals but we need to improve on that effort in the next two games.”
Other round 16 results went the way of Pakenham over Berwick by 81 points, Doveton over Cranbourne by seven points, Narre Warren over Beaconsfield by 14 points and Hampton Park over ROC by 107 points.
This week round 17: Doveton v ROC, Devon Meadows v Hampton Park, Keysborough v Cranbourne, Beaconsfield v Pakenham, Tooradin bye, Berwick bye, Narre Warren bye.