By Marc McGowan
DOVETON has continued Sandown’s miserable season with a 30-point win at Edinburgh Reserve in its Division Three Southern Football League (SFL) match at the weekend.
With the teams bringing up the rear of the table, it was an opportunity for both to get a confidence-building victory.
Despite having more of the ball, Doveton found itself trailing Sandown by 10 points after an error-strewn opening.
The Eagles turned the game on its head in the second term, though, booting eight majors to the Cobras’ solitary goal, resulting in a five-goal lead to Doveton at half-time.
Sandown president Lew Short described it as a great start.
“I think it started to turn probably halfway through the second quarter. There was a bit of a breeze down that end,” he said.
The Cobras used the breeze to their advantage in the third term to crawl back into contention and managed to keep the Eagles goalless to cut the lead to just 15 points at the final break.
The team’s inconsistency came to the fore again, though, as Doveton, aided by the ‘double-headed monster’ of Steve Tobin and Stephen Wright, dug their heels in and extended the margin back to the half-time advantage by the final siren.
Eagles playing coach Paul Davis said they were really targeting the South Mornington game in the final round.
“If we can get a win there, considering our injuries, it wouldn’t be too bad,” he said.
Combine harvests Pumas
LYNDALE has put in arguably its worst performance of the season, in going down to towering premiership favourites Tooronga-Malvern by 71 points in their Division Two SFL game at Dunlop Reserve on Saturday.
The Pumas managed only a solitary goal through the first three quarters and were comprehensively thrashed by the Combine.
Lyndale coach Danny Scott described it as probably one of their worst performances of the year.
Tooronga-Malvern had romped through the season with just one defeat through 14 previous rounds, but the withdrawal of 11 senior and reserve Pumas did not help the credibility of the match-up.
Scott was quick to deflect the attention off the withdrawals though.
“They are a super side; no excuses,” he said. “They beat us everywhere; there were not too many positions (on the ground) that we won.”
The Combine annihilated the Pumas from the outset, jumping out to a 34-point lead at quarter-time, before it blew out to 45 points at the long break.
By three-quarter time Tooronga-Malvern had amassed 26 scoring shots to Lyndale’s seven.
In an otherwise unnoteworthy encounter, proceedings came to a halt just 10 minutes into the final stanza after the Combine’s Luke Gleeson dislocated his knee in a sickening blow to the ground.
With neither team wanting to move Gleeson and an ambulance half-an-hour away, the game was called to a mercifully early finish.
Springvale cracks top four
SPRINGVALE Districts has finally cracked the top four after its third-straight victory, this time over Caulfield, by a whopping 51 points in Division Two SFL action at Princes Park.
The Districts stormed to a commanding 32-point advantage by quarter-time and the game petered out from there.
The Bears barely won the second-term honours, before an eight-goal-to-five second half handed Springvale its important win.
Springvale coach Stephen Hughes described the win as alright, the only thing letting them down was goalkicking – referring to the District’s 19 behinds.
“We probably should have won by more,” he said.
After the Kangaroos disposed of Oakleigh, Springvale’s win catapulted them to their hard-earned position in the top four.
With both Springvale and Oakleigh having easy matches in the next two rounds, the last spot in the finals will most likely come down to the sides’ blockbuster encounter in the final round.
“They beat us last time, but we probably weren’t in the form we are in at the moment,” Hughes said. “Next time we have everything to play for.”
Demons too hot
THE Dandenong Demons have recovered from last week’s mauling against Parkmore to record a 65-point victory over South Mornington in Division Three SFL play at Citation Reserve.
It was the sixth time in the past seven matches that the Demons have saluted and the success confirmed their spot in the top four.
Dandenong set a cracking pace from the start, thumping on five goals from their 12 scoring shots in the opening stanza to open up a dominant 24-point lead.
After kicking five goals to four in the second quarter, the Tigers were not prepared for the Demons’ third-term onslaught.
Carrying a 17-point buffer into the third term, Dandenong rammed home the advantage in the premiership quarter, kicking 10 goals from 18 scoring shots, to completely quell South Mornington’s feeble two goals in the same period.
An indication of the Demons’ new-found optimism came from their coach Mick Hawken, who felt his side should have won by at least five goals more.
The Demons’ Stephen Coats was the dominant forward on the ground, amassing eight goals, and was ably supported by Adrian Piccioli and Matthew Boswell.
After Mount Waverley’s upset win over third-placed Black Rock, the race is well-and-truly on for the final spot in the top four and the Demons will have to continue their strong recent form to hang on.
