By JARROD POTTER
VAFA DIVISION 2 – Round 13
AN UP-AND-DOWN performance wasn’t enough for the JOCs to book their 11th win of the season.
Old Paradians had to toil to take the points – fighting their way back into the clash after St John’s opened fire with a three-goal first term.
Tim Edwards (2 goals) and Aaron Thornton (1 goal) held up the forward line, but the usual spark from Thornton was absent as the mercurial forward couldn’t replicate the form that has earned him 54 goals this season.
Rhys Dyker and Liam O’Connor locked down a couple of Old Paradians’ best and brightest – excelling in the challenge set for them. The bookends stood out for St John’s as it matched its first-term intensity in the last after two absentee quarters through the middle of the match – letting the home side boot eight goals without much response.
Roaring back into it through the final term, St John’s kicked two-goals-four and will rue the missed opportunities in the dying stages as the visitors had all the possession and should have mounted a better case for victory.
“One of those ones that you could have, would have, should have… but it didn’t work out that way,” St John’s coach Ben McGee said.
“Had a bit of a lapse through the second and third quarter and they carried that momentum through the rest of the game.
“What was pleasing was that we came back hard in the last quarter – if it had gone for another minute I reckon we could’ve drawn it.”
McGee thought Manny Jakwot excelled through the midfield and the efforts of Gerald Ennis and Edwards were also highly commendable.
The JOCs have faltered over the last month or so – winning two-from-five and slipping two-games behind Ivanhoe AFC at the top of the table.
St John’s holds its past player’s day and 10-year premiership reunion on Saturday at its home clash against Eltham Collegians – another big test for the JOCs en route to the Division-2 finals. For more information on the reunion, contact the club via its Facebook page “St Johns Old Collegians Football Club”.
Masala had a bye over the weekend as the Tigers now begin the run home this weekend against Point Cook AFC.
