CASTERTON Sandford has left no doubt about its premiership favouritism in the 2018 Western Border football season after crushing the reigning premiers on Saturday.
The Cats hosted East Gambier at Island Park and we’re simply ruthless in their approach.
After kicking out to a handy lead early, the Cats were in the box seat to run on with the game, increasing the margin at every break.
However, it was a dominant last quarter that was the game in the end, with the Cats simply running rampant around the ground and driving home their ascendancy in the final term to run out convincing 65-point victors.
And it was not another dominant performance by Callum Currie that was the difference, but rather a full team effort, including a four-goal haul from the returning Will Macdonald, along with three majors and a solid effort around the ground from Michael Cummings.
With 16 major scores on the board, it took the Cats 10 individual kickers to reach that total, with Josh Stephenson also chipping in with two, while all others were shared equally.
Cats coach Hamish Jarrad had a big influence on the outcome, finding plenty of the ball and moving forward with precision.
The Bulldogs struggled around the ground to have an impact at all, with a brief period in the second term that saw a couple of early goals bring the margin back to nine points.
East missed the run through the middle of Jesse Fry, with few centre clearances.
The likes of Jayden Eldridge and Frazer Scanlon worked hard early, with coach Matt Willson delivering his trademark accurate chips around the ground, but play continued to break down close to the attacking 50, with the Cats backs such as Ben Guthrie and Trent Nesbitt holding strong.
The Bulldogs were off to a good start in the opening minutes of the match, with Nick Lock banging the first goal of the day, but the Cats soon responded to level the game.
When Cummings snapped another major the Cats looked dangerous and East was unable to respond before the first break.
A couple of early goals in the second term saw the Bulldogs back in the fight, but again the Cats responded and a long 50-metre penalty saw an easy goal to consolidate.
Eldridge was still working hard around the ground, with a strong mark inside 50, but the missed attempt did nothing to ease the Bulldogs’ pain.
A similar scenario in third term saw Macdonald claim a mark and goal.
Nine minutes into the term the Cats were 29 points clear and the writing was on the wall.
However, a goal to Brad Rathjen soon after provided some hope, but Stephenson responded and the Cats were again on top.
When Jarrad gaoled from the boundary late in the term it had become almost a formality, with the Cats out by 36 points.
Macdonald added the first goal of the final term in the opening minutes and the game was all-but over.
Any forward forays by the Bulldogs returned few rewards throughout the game, with the Cats defensive pack simply too strong.
It was a similar scenario through the middle of the ground, with East unable to create any productive play heading forward.
The result leaves the Cats one game clear at the top of the ladder and clear premiership favourites, the only team undefeated after seven rounds of play.
For Jarrad it was a welcome result after withstanding an early push by the Bulldogs.
“I thought early East brought a really good intensity and we withstood that pretty well,” he said.
“We knew if we could withstand that we could open it up later on.
“Probably what impressed me the most was we were able to limit their ball movement.
“They had a clear plan to try to move the ball laterally and shift our zones and I thought we adjusted to that really well.”Jarrad said the defensive pressure his group brought to the game built the foundation for the victory, which has sometimes been missing from their game.
“I am big on our group having a defence first then attack mind set and controlling the source of the ball,” he said.
“There has been a lot of talk about our offensive play, but that other stuff is what our game is built on – effort and pressure is what I judge our team on.
“Even though we have had some pretty good wins this year, when we have not brought that pressure on the ball we have struggled.
“I thought the last two weeks we have been down in that area.
“We had a focus this week to keep pressure on the ball for four quarters and we knew if we did that at some stage the game would open up for us.”
Another standout was how the Cats finished the game off, with the result all-but decided by the final break.
“Our fourth quarters have not been great this year,” Jarrad said.
“Typically our third quarters have been very good and I told the boys at some stage we would have to stand up in that last quarter.
“I said let’s not leave it until we have to do it.”
Despite that, Jarrad said he was not overly impressed with the opening term, considering his players were “sucked in” to the heat of the moment.
However, he said he was pleased with the overall performance across the board.
And while the Cats would surely be flag favourites at this early stage of the season, Jarrada said they were not getting ahead of themselves.
“With this group we need to constantly challenge ourselves, that is the only way we are going to reach our potential,” he said.
“I firmly believe we have not played the footy we are capable of yet.
“As a playing group our goal at the start of the season was to finish top two to give ourselves a double chance.
“If we lose to Millicent on Saturday we will be even on points with them.
“West Gambier is only three games behind.
“A lot of the games we have won there has only been one quarter that has separated us, so the results could have been much different.
“We are well aware of that and we are not thinking we are going better than we are.”
