CASTERTON Sandford all-but ensured a Western Border football finals berth after a stunning 35-point win over East Gambier on Saturday.
The Cats used the home ground at Island Park to perfection, controlling the game for much of the day.
Apart from an early final-quarter burst from the Bulldogs, it was all the Cats, with the victory set up on the back of a first-quarter run.
The day saw a stiff breeze blowing across the ground, slightly favouring the Cats in the opening term.
After an arm wrestle early, the Bulldogs claimed the first major score of the day, but the Cats soon responded, with a high kick forward from coach Hamish Jarrad finding Trent Nesbitt with a tough mark to go back and kick truly.
Shem Balshaw was finding plenty of the ball for East and threatening to break through, but the Cats defence was up to the task.
Justin Carlin was also finding much of the ball, clearing from the centre, while Travis Robertson again lined up, drifting from the backline up forward.
But the Bulldogs were using the handball well in the tough conditions, threading the ball along the wing via the likes of Matt Willson, Frazer Scanlon, Jack Dawe and Giancarlo Cooper.
Dylan Ayton had an early impact, kicking another high ball up forward where Tom McArlein was awarded a free kick inside 50.
The play-on advantage was allowed, with Tynan Shannon running in for the Cats’ second.
When Josh Stephenson marked, played on and bent a ball through the middle, things were looking dangerous for the visiting Bulldogs.
The second term saw Carlin break free for an early major and again East was under attack.
The stifling defensive effort from the Cats forced errors from East heading out of the danger zone, adding to the difficult day.
Ben Guthrie was intercepting many balls that came his was on the Bulldogs’ 50-metre line, while those chances that did make it to hand were off line.
Michael Cummings and Billy Galpin were tearing East apart from the back half further forward, feeding the ball to the likes of Dylan Ryan and Ayton.
By the long break a scoreline of 7.6-48 to 1.2 8 saw the home side well in command.
East needed something special in the third quarter, but it took until the 24th minute for a major score to be found, with Kev Thomson splitting the middle and giving the Bulldogs some hope – albeit slight.
Trailing by 55 points, it was always going to be a tough task to come back.
However, the previous draw between the two sides suggested East could chase down the margin and that appeared to be the case early in the final stanza.
Within 20 seconds of the first ball up, Jesse Fry cleared from the centre, kicked long into Matt Dempsey who duly goaled.
Another couple of shots were offline, but suddenly the Bulldogs were up and about.
When Dempsey snapped another goal three minutes in, shades of that draw became apparent.
With 41 points still to recoup, it was doubtful East could do the job, but when Dawe chipped to co-coach Matt Scanlon for another major it appeared the Cats could roll over again.
Another major soon after had the hosts on the back foot, but Ayton combined with Jarrad and Carlin to push back up the ground, with a behind the result.
With the ball in hand, the Cats appeared to slow the game down early, with a big lead allowing them to control the game.
With 16 minutes gone and a difference of 30 points, time was now the enemy of the Bulldogs.
The Cats had weathered the storm and looked home.
Little changed from there and 25 minutes in Galpin rolled a goal through to add to his impressive day and seal a solid victory.
As a result the Cats cemented their hold on fourth spot, with fifth-placed South Gambier going down to the third-placed Millicent.
For Jarrad it was a good result from a focused effort.
“Against a team like East Gambier, they are very dangerous when they can run and overlap with the linking handball,” he said.
“Our real focus was to shut down their run, to make them kick under pressure and basically get the game played on our terms, which we were able to do.”
Jarrad said he was pleased with the defensive effort from his back six, with Guthrie earning a special mention.
“They were able to get their run but we still put pressure on the guy with the footy,” he said.
“They weren’t able to get a lot of clean entries going forward and I was really happy with our pressure on the ball and the defenders to cut it off.
“Ever since Ben Guthrie went into the back probably a month ago – and he’s only an 18 year old kid – he has really stepped up and done the job every week.”
Likewise the likes of Cummings, Nesbitt, Ayton and Ryan were all mentioned by the first-year coach, along with Carlin in just his second senior game of the year.
But in a game where the final quarter could have been the decider, Jarrad said he was pleased to see the whole team standing up and squashing a Bulldogs attack, which could easily have seen a similar scenario to the Round 8 draw, where East came back hard in final term to tie the game up.
“We know East is a quality side with some good offensive weapons, so we knew at some stage they would come at us and get a run on,” Jarrad said.
“What impressed me Saturday was when they had that run we could close it down.
“We couldn’t get our hands on the footy and do what we wanted to do early in the last quarter, but once we did that we slowed it down and played it on our terms.”
With three rounds to play the Cats head the Demons by five points, but South faces a tough challenge on the run home, unlikely to claim the six points required for post-season action.
