By Trevor Jackson
Hatherleigh 24.23 (167) d Kongorong 6.3 (39)
HATHERLEIGH continued its march towards September with a strong victory over Kongorong in Round 7 of Mid South East football on Saturday.
It was one-way traffic from the outset, despite the first goal of the day going to the Hawks.
From there the Eagles began to pepper the goals and build a substantial lead by the first break.
Luckily for the Hawks, Hatherleigh was off line with many shots, with a quarter-time total of 9.9 (63) to Kongorong’s 1.1 (7).
The Eagles continued to push hard for the remainder of the game but the opening term was the most productive.
Kongorong managed to slow the momentum somewhat but was unable to make inroads into the margin, as Hatherleigh simply went about its work.
At the end of the day to winning margin could have been far worse, was it not for the 23 behinds kicked by the victors.
Jack Skeer led the list of goal kickers for the Eagles, with seven to his name, while Brad Mitchell (5), coach Jake Dowdy (4), Joe Ferguson-Lane (3) and Zach Jones (2) all with multiple majors.
Dowdy said he was pleased with his side’s intent across the whole game.
“We had a big focus on trying to play four quarters,” he said.
“Our first was our best by a long way.
“We came out firing and with a bit more goal accuracy, it would have been a big win but it is something to work on.”
Dowdy said he had made some change pre-game to ensure his side gets off to a strong start, which seemed to play out well on Saturday.
The end result is more play inside 50, which at times saw missed opportunities but the ability of the Eagles to still kick a big winning score was certainly impressive.
Kongorong certainly brought plenty of heat to the contest but Dowdy’s boys were able to weather the storm and control the game.
Much of that came from a strong mid-field, with crisp delivery up forward to the likes of Skeer and Mitchell.
“It was probably the most physical game we have played this year,” Dowdy said.
“They didn’t really lie down and kept the intensity up all game.
“But we have plenty of contested-ball winners through the mid-field so it was good for us to match that intensity and still have pretty clean ball use.”
With a 92-point advantage at the final break, the Eagles could have been excuses for backing off but that certainly was not the case.
Dowdy said there were several reasons to keep the pressure on.
“We had the first three quarters done and just wanted to finish the game off well,” he said.
“We had a pretty big day, sponsorship day and past premiership players in attendance, so we were keen to run it out and have a pretty big final term.”
