Mind the gap: it’s now smaller

FOR years Pyramid Hill has been dominant against Inglewood - the top Dogs from Mitchell Park always the more polished and skilled outfit.

This year’s Loddon Valley season indicated things would be no different when the Dogs romped home by 10 goals in May.

Fast forward to the final fortnight of the home and away season and Pyramid Hill has had one of its worst injury runs in that two decades of superiority over Inglewood and many other teams in the league.

And while the team is coming back at the right time - Steven Gunther, Billy Micevski and Lachlan Sidebottom were weekend inclusions for the league match of the round - the Dogs had key players like Dylan Collis and Zac Dingwell missing.

The Blues are building momentum and that showed on Saturday when they came within three goals mid-way through the quarter before going down by 25 points.

Every time they started to get a run-on, usually through the work of Fergus Payne who kicked three goals and was named the Blues’ best, Pyramid Hill responded.

Seb Relouw was crucial in defence for the Dogs, snuffing out multiple forward lunges by Payne, Lowe and Cotchen.

Will Perryman, Steven Gunther and Billy Micevski linked in around the midfield and up forward to keep the buffer.

Cotchett, Bowen Cauchi and Payne

League adopts new vote count format

LODDON Valley football and netball best and fairest count will be pre-recorded this year.

The league has ended its arrangement with a Bendigo radio station and will instead upload the pre-recorded count to its online platforms on August 28.

Votes will be counted and the recording made that afternoon.

Discussions are continuing to include the AFL Central Victoria under 18 football competition in the count presentation.

And the league this week decided to also name teams of the year across its top netball and football grades.

These will be announced later this month.

Seniors

GOALS - Maiden Gully: B. Dimech

2, C. Walsh, J. Doolan, D. Wust. Calivil: M. Avard 3, T. Piazza 2, B. Mensforth, J. Lawry, J. Lea.

BEST Maiden Gully: T. Miles, S. Keneally, B. Dimech, C. Walsh, H. McCartney, M. Crooks. Calivil: J. Lawry, C. Thompson, M. Avard, R. Lourie, K. Newton, J.

GOALS - Inglewood: F. Payne 3, A. Lowe, K. Payne 2, T. Kilcullen, J. Leach, D. Polack, C. Wright. Pyramid Hill: W. Perryman 6, Z. Alford, J. Woodward 2, A. Holland, H. Goodes, B. Micevski, S. Gunther.

BEST - Inglewood: F. Payne, D. Polack, B. Cotchett, C. Stobaus, J. Leach, J. Wendels. Pyramid Hill: S. Relouw, W. Perryman, Z. Alford, T. Mcgregor, T. Hetherington, L. Sidebottom.

(121) teamed well for Inglewood to secure a much-needed goal for Inglewood late in the third only to see Perryman feed the ball to Jack Woodward for a quick Bulldog response.

Perryman booted another from 45 metres out coming off the bounce and Harrison Goodes showed his top skills near the siren, scooping the ball from the ground and giving Pyramid Hill a six-goal lead at the final break.

Inglewood, after recovering from a sluggish start to the match, was facing a customary blowout against Pyramid Hill.

They started the final term peppering goals - kicks falling short or being rushed through.

Alex Lowe broke the ice for a goal that would be the first of four for Inglewood as the Blues outscored Pyramid Hill.

Daniel Polack was dynamic in defence but the Dogs were delivering effective tackles with Zach Alford on fire.

The super 50-metre roost from Jayden Leach put Inglewood back within three kicks before Alford kicked his second for the day and, for now, kept Pyramid Hill as top dogs.

Just enough may spell danger

THE scoreboard showed Bears Lagoon Serpentine easy 10-goal winners over Mitiamo on Saturday.

Looks good against a team that has improved from a disastrous start to the season but was without Kobe Galvin, Rhys Varcoe and veteran Doug Thomas.

The Superoos matched Justin Laird’s Bears in the first quarter where Luke Lougoon, a likely frontrunner for the league best and fairest, was setting up another strong performance in a losing side.

Accuracy in the second term allowed the Bears to skip to a three-goal lead.

Laird was leading the way again with Gadsden, Bailey and Roy-Clements making important contributions.

It would be the same story in the third quarter when Mitiamo actually had more scoring shots but could not convert.

The Superoos ran out of legs in the final term. Not enough depth and pace to match the Bears who did enough to win but with a performance that triggers questions of whether that will be enough in the highoctane pressure cooker of finals.

Brandyn Grenfell brought up his 100th goal of the season in the first quarter against Bridgewater.

Grenfell had a dose of the nerves early in the term with multiple shots only bringing up one flag.

The Panthers brought up another 100-point plus win and has now defeated every side in the league by such large margins in the past two months.

Maiden Gully pulled off a minor upset to defeat Calivil. The Eagles were two goals down at the first change as fortunes went on to fluctuate before breaking clear in the final term.

The win, however, was not enough to lift them off the bottom, only drawing level on points with Calivil.