A NEW-look West Gambier took to the ground at Malseed Park on Saturday, as it engaged in a tight battle with the Cats on its home turf.
Both margins and tempers were short, as the two teams fought to the final siren for the Round 1 bragging rights.
Casterton/Sandford 11.9 (75) d West 9.13 (67)
WESTERN Border Football League 2017 preliminary finalist Casterton/Sandford held off an improved West Gambier to secure an eight point victory in a competitive and entertaining round one encounter at Malseed Park last Saturday.
Each team took to the arena with notable inclusions from their last season’s playing list, with many players returning to their respective club.
For the Cats these included champion Mid South East ruckman Will MacDonald, classy on-baller Callum Currie fresh from a premiership with Southern Districts in the NTFL Premier Division, defender Gus Cleary, versatile Tom Sullivan and promising youngster Daniel Richardson.
While the Kangaroos welcomed home coach and former WBFL Brian Hennessy Medallist Brad Wilson, “muscled up” assistant coach Tom Holmes, key forward Tyson Ploenges and 2014 Port Lincoln Football League Mail Medallist Kynan Betts.
In near perfect conditions the season opener commenced at a hectic pace as overly enthusiastic players vigorously contested for clean possession of the ball, resulting in some “short fuse” heated exchanges.
The play rapidly see-sawed between respective 50 metre arcs for the first six minutes, with the only score registered being a behind by the visitors until rookie Cat Noah O’Brien safely marked and kicked truly a couple minutes later.
With the game featuring desperate “crash and bash” attacks towards the ball, a healthy component of “niggle and feeling” emerged oval wide.
The Cats settled better and via fast movement of the ball with good skills into the scoring zone live-wire Josh Stephenson pounced and slotted the next two goals to secure early game control.
After more intense play, visiting coach Hamish Jarrad goaled late in the term, which was finally responded to by one from Kangaroo Holmes solo “run and carry” effort.
The Cats three-goal buffer in a torrid contest from more efficient utilisation of forward 50 thrusts effectively put the wasteful home side in “catch up” mode for the rest of the game.
The following two mid-game quarters produced a spirited “arm wrestle” tussle between the combatants with the Kangaroos improved sharing of ball possession allowing them to outscore the Cats six goals to four to trail by five points at the final changeover.
With the victory up for grabs and even though players begun to tire due to the physical rigours, so far each side equally orchestrated positive movement into their respective scoring zone.
It was finally the Cats ability to rapidly transfer play forward compliments of surprisingly unmarked team mates that saw them outscore a once again inefficient Kangaroo unit 3.1 (19) to 2.4 (16) to reap the game points.
In an interesting competitive contest featuring frequent skilful passages of play it was simply the Cats more effective conversion of similar scoring shots that allowed them the win.
Standout players for the victors were classy playmaker Currie, whose two final term majors sealed the game result, disciplined contested ball specialist Dylan Ayton and MacDonald with his ruckwork and vital possessions in the hectic final stanza.
Other Cats who consistently carried out their designated roles were Stephenson, Ben Guthrie and Josh Searle, while youngsters O’Brien and Daniel Richardson provided promising input at various stages.
West was best served by the creative play of Holmes and Lawrie Bradley-Brown, while Tom Zeitz was tenacious in defence.
Wilson worked hard to lift his charges in his first game as coach and workhorse ruckman Todd Lewis negated big Cat MacDonald’s influence on certain occasions.
Kangaroo prime newcomer Betts, who spasmodically displayed his obvious “outside” ball getting and distribution talents, will be a vital cog when he adjusts to the tempo of Western Border football.
“I was really impressed with the way our boys fought it out to get the two points,” Cats coach Jarred said.
“It was a hard and intriguing battle, with both sides trying to play the same style of football and having momentum swings during the game.
“West Gambier to their credit applied good coverage and pressure on the ball which made it hard for us to open the game up.
“I thought our execution was down and there were times during the game where our structures fell down enabling them to get some easy goals.
“To show some heart when we weren’t playing great football and grind out a win in round one away from home was a great start to our season.
“West Gambier have added some quality players and are really well coached.
“They’ll win a lot of games this year.”
His Kangaroo counterpart highlighted the the disappointment of the result.
“It was a disappointing loss for our side as we made some costly errors in front of goal, which they were able to take full advantage of and proved to be the damage that won the game,” Wilson said.
“Our areas to improve were clear, so we will address them during the week leading into the South game.”
Next round Casterton/Sandford travels to McDonald Park for an early season indicator versus the reigning premiers East, while West head to South where both teams will seek a vital first win.
