A FOCUSSED and determined Casterton/Sandford moved a step closer to solidifying a final four position with a 42-point win over an undermanned South Gambier in testing weather conditions at Blue Lake Sports Park.
The visitors lined up with a near full strength compliment of mature, strong-bodied combatants who were fixed on reversing the two-point loss incurred by South at this venue back in Round 2.
In contrast, the Demons outfit featuring a group of developing novices were forced to step up and perform specific negating/team roles as part of their ongoing senior grade football education.
With deteriorating weather conditions on the horizon, both camps knew the importance of early goal strikes and hunted the Breast Cancer Awareness Pink ball with reckless abandon from the first ball up.
It was the Cats who gained early control with the likes of Michael Cummings and Josh Searle generating cleaner forward movement away from the stoppages, which saw hungry forward Tom McArlein clutch a mark and kick accurately.
With the Cats defence led by interceptor Daniel Wombwell stonewalling any spasmodic Demons advances, the driven visitors started to control play through the midfield zone.
With roaming outer forward Trent Nesbitt providing the visitors with a reliable pathway into the 50 metre arc, McArlein made the most of his chances with two further goals as the rain fell and the wind howled.
A late-term snap shot full-pointer by robust contributor Justin Carlin to the elation of his Cats teammates completed the desirable scoreboard picture in the rapidly deteriorating conditions.
With the lights now on, South faced a 25-point deficit entering the second quarter, but they dug deep in an effort to halt the now buoyant Cats’ emerging strangle hold on proceedings.
While the Demons constructed some promising forward thrusts aided by the sustained input of Scott Fleming, Tye Opie and the Bryant brothers – Ash and Brad – they failed to fully convert the resultant gettable scoring opportunities.
In contrast the Cats harnessed the creative play generated by the hard-working group of Dylan Ayton, Hamish Jarrad, Billy Galpin and Cummings to extend the margin to 40 points at the long break.
The second half saw the common sense addition of a new yellow ball, but with the surface now deteriorating, the game lapsed into a grind, featuring ugly rolling packs as tiring players struggled to maintain solid footing and effective disposal skills became the exception.
The Demons, under pressure from the relentless harassing Cats, once again wasted hard earned attacks on goal to end up with a dismal final 1.11(17) game tally.
The foundation for the Cats tenacious and disciplined 42-point victory was laid in the first term as planned and should provide a strengthening of collective team belief in each other going forward.
The Victorians will host East Gambier at Island Park next round with the aim to improve on the drawn result in their last encounter.
“I was really pleased with the effort as pre game we focused on getting the score on the board early and taking the game away from South before the conditions deteriorated too much,” Cats coach Hamish Jarrad said.
“I thought we did that and then the second half was just a slog.
“To South’s credit they never stopped trying and made us earn every kick all day.”
South coach Heath Mitchell suggested the result did not reflect the contest.
“Unfortunately for our boys the final margin did not reflect their effort, but good kicking is good football and credit must go to the Casterton/Sandford boys for being able to score efficiently in those conditions,” he said.
“Our third quarter was our best, going six scoring shots to one, but ultimately when you’re scoring efficiency is below 10pc you’re never really going to be in the game for long.
“We had some really strong match ups across the ground that I felt we halved with Bryant v Cummings, Ridding v Stephenson, Broome v Nesbitt, to name just a few.
“The positive is that our destiny is still in our hands.
“We’re not yet in a position where we’re solely relying on other results.
“If we can regroup and get a win against Millicent our finals hopes are still alive.”
