De La Salle vs St Bedes / Mentone Tigers

Match Report

Qtr 1: Blustery cross wind, possibly favouring the Chadstone end, to which St BMT were kicking, but otherwise conditions were good. Neither side were making most of their promising forward entries. Christian Algeri, on return from Collingwood VFL, was prominent, coming under notice with his run & handball game. At the 8-minute mark, Liam Wood passed to Lachie Gawel deep in the FP for DLS’s 1st goal.
Play was going end to end with some speed. Seb Filipovic kicked deep to where Will Mackie marks, on a tight angle & converts for DLS’s 2nd at the 11-minute mark. DLS were now clearly on top, but stout St BMT defence repelled many forward thrusts. Against the flow, a turnover saw St BMT race the ball forward for their 1st at the 14-minute mark.

A superb, contested mark by Nathan Scollo, who subsequently passed to the leading Tom Stanton, whose strong mark deserved a better outcome than his kick landing short. From a rolling scrum between centre & CHF, a long St BMT kick rolled through the unguarded goal square for their 2nd at the 19-minute mark. With DLS in control now, goals flowed at the 22 Minute mark (Curtis Day), 26th (Jake Williams snap from a ruck handpass from Sean Fisher), 28th (Tom Lyngberg, strong contested mark close to goal) to establish a 20-point lead.
St BMT, although being outplayed, continued to contest strongly & were rewarded with a goal at the 29-minute mark. Algeri, showing superb dash, ran out of defence with 3 bounces & kicked to Lyngberg who marked & converted at the 31-minute mark & establish a DLS lead at ¼ time of 20 points
DLS 6.3=39 St Bedes Mentone Tigers 3.1=19

Qtr 2: From the 1st minute of a 33-minute quarter, DLS was totally dominant! Kicking 10 goals to St BMT’s 2, epitomises that dominance! I think that with 4 straight goals to end quarter 1 & 7 straight goals to start quarter 2, DLS had kicked 11 straight goals.
Although this was a complete team effort, the exuberance & give & go run of Algeri was infectious & brilliant to watch! The high defence lead by Tom Deane-Johns & Luke Healy, smothered any St BMT infrequent forward thrusts.
All players contributed & it was good to see the return of Nathan Bowden to the Senior team & the solid contributions from Hamish Curtis, Steve Karvellas & Curtis Day. By ½ time DLS had established a 70-point margin
DLS 16.7=103 St Bedes Mentone Tigers 5.3=33

Qtr 3: Remarkably, St BMT, to their credit actually won the 3rd quarter & but for their woeful kicking for gaol, would have made the game quite tight. They kicked 1.8 =14 : DLS 2.1=13.
While St BMT kicked the 1st goal at the 1-minute mark, it took until the 17 minute mark for DLS to register its 1st by Pat Bohan. It came about through a brilliant chain of running & handball by Wood, Gawel, Wood again, to Bohan. A minute later, a courageous ground ball intercept by Steve Karvellas, taking on 2 opposition players, then kicking cleverly to Trent Shannon for DLS’s 18th goal. The quarter ended with a St BMT kick on goal falling short. A defiant quarter by them which reduced the DLS margin by 1 to 69 points!
DLS 18.8=116 St Bedes Mentone Tigers 6.11=47

Qtr4: DLS re established control in the final quarter, adding goals at the 6-minute mark (Algeri freed), 10th (O’Meara mark & 50 meter penalty), 11th (Gawel quick run out of centre bounce), 19th (Mackie tackle at top of GS), 24th (Aitken Tackle & 50 meter penalty), 27th (Algeri, pass from T Filipovic) to run out winners by 104 points
DLS 24.14=156 St Bedes Mentone Tigers 6.16=52
The margin does not do justice to the efforts of the St BMT players. Had they kicked straighter, the game would have been significantly tighter. They kicked 1.13 in the 2nd half to DLS 8.7. 14 scoring shots to 15!

Best: .Luke Healy, Christian Algeri, Jake Williams, Hamish Curtis, Lachie Gawel, Tom Deane-Johns.
Goals:. Algeri 5, Ryan O’Meara 3, Will Mackie 2, Pat Bohan 2, Tom Lyngberg 2, Curtis 2, Gawel 2, Tom Stanton, Charlie Aitken, Sean Fisher, Williams, Curtis Day, Trent Shannon.