NORTH GAMBIER 19.9 (123) d MILLICENT 8.11 (59)
A DOMINANT second half by North Gambier saw the Tigers send a statement to the competition with a 64-point victory over reigning premier Millicent in the opening round of Western Border Football at McLaughlin Park on Saturday.
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North playing coach Justin McConnell made an immediate impact on his return, to lead his side with an impressive eight-goal haul, which laid the foundations for the crushing win.
Team leaders Michael Telford and Nick McInerney also found success in front of goals with three each, Tom McLennan impressed with two majors, while Bradley Stafford, Hamish Telford and Jake Schutz all booted one each.
After a disappointing season last year finishing fifth, the Tigers’ 2019 campaign already looks far more promising with the side sitting pretty at the top of the ladder.
Although the final score makes the contest appear to be a blow-out, it was actually the home side who held the advantage at half time, leading by two points.
Both teams matched each other goal for goal across the opening two quarters, as little separated the two sides throughout the opening stages.
McConnell made his presence felt in front of goals early, with multiple strong contested marks to set up his bag of majors.
In the midfield, McLennann, McInerney and the Telfords were all fine performers, producing continuous, fast inside-50 entries, which became the blueprint behind the big win.
However, the Saints were able to match their opponents, with Tom Hutchesson finding plenty of possession in the centre, while Sam Willis, Lyndon Smith and Dylan Tincknell offered support around the ground.
After the main break, North came out firing from the first bounce to dominate all the clearances and kick three goals in as many minutes to commence the third quarter, which set the tone for the remainder of the match.
As soon as Millicent fell behind in the game, off the back of conceding a sequence of free kicks which saw two more goals to McConnell, the Saints’ players began to lose their cool and become undisciplined, giving away a total of five 50-metre penalties, while Jonah Grimes received a yellow card for abuse.
One penalty led to an impressive outside-50 set shot at goal from McInerney, while McConnell, McLennan and the Telford duo dominated the contested ball to snap a number of goals around the corner.
By three-quarter time, the result was inevitable after the Tigers out-scored the home side nine goals to just one in the third term.
The final quarter was played in the same fashion as the third, with North continuing its domination thanks to relentless gut running in the midfield and Brett Kennedy winning the ruck.
The Saints remained short tempered with a double 50-metre penalty handing McInerney his final major.
In the final moments, McConnell had a couple of set shots with a chance to push his goal tally into double figures, but struggled to contend with the wind.
However, it failed to dampen his own and North’s faultless second half performance.
McLennan was named as the top performer for the victors, followed by McInerney and Fraser Marshall, while Hutchesson received best-on-ground honours for the home team.
McConnell said the big result was created by a large amount of hard work during the off-season.
“It was a fantastic effort,” he said.
“It was a real arm-wrestle for that first half.
“But to the guys’ credit, what we have been working on and training really hard for, were are able to implement it in the second half.
“Their fitness and work rate really stood out.
“It was a big pre-season and hopefully they can see a little bit of reward for their efforts.”
McConnell put the extraordinary 66-point turnaround in the second half and Millicent’s frustration down to the team’s leaders stepping up and focusing on the game’s fundamentals.
“I think some of our leaders had okay first halves, so we put it on those guys to step up, which they did,” he said.
“In the first three clearances (of the third quarter) we were able to score and collectively we just tidied up a couple of real fundamentals in our game.
“We just really wanted to play to our strengths, trying to move the ball quickly, be brave, bold and aggressive.
“It (undisciplined Millicent play) was really a by-product of our pressure and our ability to be tougher inside the contest.”
McConnell said he was happy with his eight-goal return, but said it was created from the hard work up the ground.
“It was nice,” he said.
“To be fair, the guys up the ground did a really good job moving the ball cleanly inside-50 and our back-six really stood up.”
McConnell said his side is full of confidence after starting the season with a win, but knows there is still is a lot of work to do to make up for last season.
“It is important to instil that confidence,” he said.
“I think the boys were pretty disappointed and flat after their year last year, so to have a performance like that Saturday was pleasing.
“We still have a lot of work to do and we have got some areas we need to tidy up.
“But full credit to the guys on the day, when the game was in the balance we were able to step up.”
