BN
| starcommunity.com.au
Connecting people and communities
Thursday, 30 April, 2015 Page 67
Sport ROC's Sarah Smith handled the wet conditions with ease at Toomuc Reserve during the Kangaroos' B Grade win over Pakenham. 138109 Picture: STEWART CHAMBERS
Eagles’ cracking win By DAVID NAGEL
Doveton ruck-recruit Russell Gabriel will lock horns with Beaconsfield star Scott Meyer in one of the real highlights of the South East Picture: JARROD POTTER Football League season on Saturday. 137227
Answers on the field By DAVID NAGEL CRANBOURNE and Pakenham may have scored impressive Anzac Day victories on the weekend but this Saturday’s part-two of round three in the South East Football League will provide us with a clearer understanding of the season ahead. The split-round of matches began with Cranbourne suffocating the life out of Tooradin, conceding just two goals on its way to a 44-point victory at Casey Fields, while Pakenham continued a perfect start to the season with a clinical 57-point dissection of ROC at Toomuc Reserve. Cranbourne’s midfield of Mat Fletcher, Brad Hermans and Max Gearon proved too strong for the Seagulls, who had Michael Wallace and Adam Galea play terrific games down back to limit the damage. Meanwhile, Pakenham had too
many stars for the Kangaroos to nullify, with forwards Daniel Fry and Jake Smith joining defender Nathan Brown on the best players’ list. Matt Clarke was a shining light for the Kangas with four goals. But both of those results were expected, this week we get answers to some intriguing questions when Beaconsfield host Doveton at Holm Park Reserve and Berwick rolls out the welcome mat for Narre Warren. Is Doveton any good? The Doves, who took top honours in the recruiting stakes this preseason, are undefeated after three rounds but could quite easily be languishing. Having survived a scare against Hampton Park in the season opener they’ve fallen across the line against Tooradin and ROC, and that form, let’s be honest, it didn’t stack up too well on the weekend. The obvious highlight of this
clash is going to be the battle in the ruck between Doveton’s Frankstonrecruit Russell Gabriel and Beaconsfield’s Scott Meyer - Gabriel, the winner of the Norm Walker Medal in his only season with the Doves back in 2009, against the winner of the last two years. This contest would sit comfortably on any VFL or interstate venue outside the AFL, the magnificently athletic Meyer taking on the brutestrength and ring-craft of a man who has been there and done it all before. These blokes are seriously good! Doveton will tag Beaconsfield skipper Daniel Mislicki with Jordan Temopoulos, but the spread of a group that includes Tyson Mitchem, Damien Johnston and Kane Hughes will be enough to get the Eagles across the line. Berwick will be looking for its first win of the season when it welcomes the Magpies to Edwin Flack Reserve.
The Wickers have been competitive against last year’s grand finalists -Beaconsfield and Cranbourne - in the opening two rounds of the season, but will need to turn around a seven-game losing streak against the Magpies that dates back to 2011. For Berwick to win, it needs to find more avenues to goal with Mitch Johnson the only Wicker to have kicked more than two goals for the season. They need more scoreboard pressure to be applied from their elite midfielders like Ash Smith, Michael Riseley and Ben Kearns, while Jordy Andrews should be getting back to his best after an injury interrupted pre-season. Narre’s talls, like Andrew Hunter, Corie Intveen, Jordyn Flannery and Jake Richardson should have enough of an impact to get the Magpies across the line. Hampton Park has the bye.
Coach unveils training squad for clash By DAVID NAGEL SOUTH East Football League interleague coach Michael ‘Jock’ Holland has announced an initial training squad of 52 players for the clash against Sunraysia at Casey Fields on Saturday 23 May. The game follows an under-19 encounter between the two leagues and will be followed by the VFL clash between Casey Scorpions and Richmond at 6pm. The Demons are undefeated in three outings with wins over the Nepean, Wimmera and Bellarine leagues and need to win to claim a top-10 ranking in the state. The squad will train at Beaconsfield’s Holm Park Reserve on Wednesday 6, Wednesday 13, Tuesday 19 and Thursday 21 May, with all sessions starting at 6.30pm.
THE SQUAD BEACONSFIELD Daniel Battaglin, Scott Meyer, Taylor Joyce, Troy McDermott, Ben Kerrigan, Damien Johnston and Daniel Johnston. BERWICK Jordy Andrews, Michael Harold, Madi Andrews, Ash
Smith, Michael Riseley, Mitch Johnson and Ben Kearns. CRANBOURNE Max Gearon, Mat Fletcher, Marc Holt, Michael Boland, Brandon Osborne, Stuart Morrish and Luke Bee-Hugo. DOVETON Jarrad Boumann, Russell Gabriel and Frank D’Agostino. HAMPTON PARK Billy Thomas, Nathan Allan and Luke Nunan. NARRE WARREN Dylan Quirk, Matt Lee,
Kerem Baskaya, Kain Baskaya, Ben Wragg, Michael Collins, Ryan Morrison, Jake Richardson and Ben King. PAKENHAM Russell Lehman, Steve O’Bryan, Dean Blake, Jason Fisher, Troy Toussaint, Jake Smith and Nathan Brown. ROC Blair Allan, Matt Clarke, James Canty and Matt Rogers. TOORADIN Matt Wade, Ryan White, Agape Patolo, Kyle Van Der Pluym and Adam Galea.
IT has huffed and it has puffed but it couldn’t blow the house down ... until Saturday that is ... Cranbourne finally got reward for its effort with a 32-goal win over Tooradin at Casey Fields. The Eagles - under new-coach Simon O’Shanassy - have already shown enough to suggest they’ll be there when the whips are cracking at the pointy end of the season. But a round one draw with Narre Warren, and then a three-goal loss to Berwick - both perennial finalists mind you - had left the Eagles feeling a little underwhelmed with their return. They sorted that out with a dominant performance against the Seagulls on Anzac Day. “We need to put things in perspective, and not get carried away, but it was great to get a win on the board,” O’Shanassy said. O’Shanassy has some very talented young players at his disposal. His young goal-shooting combination of Amy Paulsen and Monalisa Groom -a former all New Zealand junior - is coming together nicely, fed beautifully by Jess O’Hanlon. Natalie Sparks and Sam Kelly are two 17-year-olds on the rise, while Tara Cecil and Alanah Hardy add polish, being two of the better players in the league. “Tara’s a great defender, everyone in the league knows that, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen a player like Alanah who can play in any position on the court,” O’Shanassy said. The Eagles’ head-honcho said this could be one of the most even seasons on record. “It’s a great competition this season, with six or seven teams who have a realistic chance to play finals,” he said. Tooradin has now suffered two hefty defeats, but with Alexandra Duff, Alice Ditchfield and Shona Wells leading the way it should be back in the winners circle in no time. It was more like an Anzac Day Torvill and Dean Spectacular than a netball match when Pakenham rolled ROC by 14 goals at Toomuc Reserve. The famous British ice-dancers would have been proud, as players from both sides skated their way around a playing surface that could only be described as unsafe. The game was called off mid way through the third term when both teams agreed that the courts were far too dangerous to continue playing on. All four participants from the weekend now have a break as Berwick, Beaconsfield, Doveton and Narre Warren complete round three this Saturday, while Hampton Park has the bye.
SEFNL SCOREBOARD ROUND 3 (SPLIT-ROUND) PAKENHAM 3.2 7.6 11.9 14.14 (98) ROC 2.0 3.2 6.2 6.5 (41) CRANBOURNE 3.4 3.10 5.12 8.14 (62) TOORADIN-DALMORE 0.0 1.3 2.6 2.6 (18) RESERVES: Pakenham 10.10 (70) d ROC 4.9 (33). Cranbourne 11.16 (82) d Tooradin-Dalmore 2.6 (18). UNDER 19: Cranbourne 15.10 (100) d Tooradin-Dalmore 6.7 (43). ROC 14.8 (92) d Pakenham 8.6 (54). UNDER 18: Pakenham 9.13 (67) d Cranbourne 4.10 (34). SENIOR LADDER W L D % Pts Pakenham 3 0 0 169.48 12 Doveton 3 0 0 113.31 12 Beaconsfield 2 0 0 148.82 8 Cranbourne 2 1 0 105.05 8 Narre Warren 1 1 0 134.95 4 Tooradin-Dalmore 0 2 0 72.56 4 ROC 0 2 0 66.48 4 Hampton Park 0 3 0 52.82 4 Berwick 0 2 0 73.33 0 This week: Round 3 (Split-round) Berwick v Narre Warren, Beaconsfield v Doveton. Hampton Park - Bye. NETBALL SCORES A GRADE: Cranbourne 47 d Tooradin-Dalmore 15. Pakenham 28 d ROC 14.
Contact Star Sport with sport stories and results on phone 5945 0666, fax 5945 0777 or email: sport@starnewsgroup.com.au