Keysborough’s Shaun Daly was at his silky best in the weekend’s VCFL Pool B Country Championships.By Brad Kingsbury
KEYSBOROUGH playmaker Shaun Daly showed his absolute class with a best afield performance for the Mornington Peninsula Nepean League (MPNFL) Sharks in the first of three VCFL Pool B Country Championship matches at Sale on the weekend.
Daly was a prime force, along with Narre Warren rover Ricky Clark and Beaconsfield forward Andrew Williams, as the Sharks demolished the neighbouring West Gippsland Latrobe Football League (WGLFL) by nine goals on Saturday.
The Sharks took home the inaugural Pakenham-Berwick Gazette Cup with the victory over the WGLFL, which was part of the round robin series also involving the Bendigo and Geelong Football Leagues.
Playmakers Daly, Clark, Brad Scalzo and big ruckman Don Epa were simply too good for their opponents, while slick defenders Jared Goldsack and Adam Hunter ran off their rivals to set up attacking moves time after time.
The home side had no answer for the dangerous Sharks attack, led by former AFL sharpshooter Williams, who booted five goals, and tall forward Ben Shultz.
In the second game of the series, the Bendigo Football League jumped the MPNFL and booted away to a five-goal lead in the first half before Casey Cardinia league counterparts Clark, Luke Walker, Jared Goldsack and Williams combined to lead a great second half comeback.
The Sharks hit the front by three points when Williams slotted his fourth goal of the game (his ninth for the day) from the 50-metre line at the 27-minute mark of the term, and hung on desperately for the next three minutes to win the crucial match.
In the final game the MPNFL challenged the Geelong Football League (GFL) but made errors at critical times that proved costly.
At half-time the Sharks trailed by two goals and, despite superb efforts from Clark, Beau Miller and Brian O’Carroll, the GFL proved too strong and went on to win the championship title by 22 points.
