Trevor Jackson
KNTFL 18.10 (118) d MSEFL 6.5 (41)
The Kowree Naracoorte Tatiara Football League claimed a strong A Grade victory in the 2022 Limestone Coast Regional Carnival on Saturday.
Hosted by the Mid South Eastern Football League and played at Kongorong oval, the day included an Under 15 and Under 17 round-robin style carnival, while the seniors played just one full-length game.
The senior game provided plenty of entertainment, despite the lop-sided scoreboard.
The opening half in particular saw some spirited football, with the KNTFL players able to finish off more accurately to ensure they extended their lead at every break.
It took around six minutes before a goal was kicked, with knt11 splitting the big sticks to help put his side on track.
Late in the term another two goals were added by the KNTFL before the MSEFL could make a dent on the scoreboard, which came after the 20-minute mark.
That gave the KNTFL a handy 13-point advantage at the first break.
The second term began again with a spirited display of football, with the MSEFL applying plenty of pressure to try to close the margin.
However, the KNTFL added another goal in the opening minutes of the term, before Jak Ryan claimed an impressive mark and goaled to keep the MSEFL in touch.
Unfortunately for the host league the visitors simply continued to convert opportunities and by the long break the writing was on the wall, as the KNTFL held a strong 32-point advantage.
A relatively even third term followed, as the hosts added another two majors but the visitors put on three, plus a few behinds to extend the margin further.
By the final term the visitors held a 41-point lead and it appeared the result was just a formality.
What unfolded from there was a clinical display by the visitors as the banged on eight major scores to the hosts’ two to run out emphatic 77-point victors.
Best for the KNTFL was Tom Whittlesea, while the best Under 21 was Nathan McCarthy.
For the MSEFL, Tom Wachtel received the senior honours, while best Under 21 went to Tye McManus.
For victorious coach Nick Davis it was an impressive performance by his players.
“You never know how you are going to go with a side that has trained together only a couple of times,” he said.
“I thought we moved the ball very well and put on a good display.”
Likewise, Davis said it was tough to decide final match-ups against and unknown quantity.
“It is really hard because you have no match-ups in your head,” he said.
“We just went in thinking it would be a really contested type of game, which is what you normally face with the Mid South East.
“When we arrived and saw the warming up we thought maybe they looked a bit smaller and a bit younger than us.
“But having said that, they cracked in fairly well.
“It was probably just a bit too much class for them in the end.”
That was certainly the case, with the first half a real arm wrestle but in front of goals it was a polished performance from the KNTFL.
“They were getting their hands on the ball plenty but weren’t quite hurting us when they did get those opportunities to go forward,” Davis said.
“They just missed that last final target going inside 50, which enabled us to get a bit of a lead, then it broke open a bit in the last half.”
The last quarter was impressive, on a cold day for football and at the top level in the region, to bang on eight goals to ice the game was something which pleased Davis.
“I said to the boys at three-quarter time, on that type of day you can go one of two ways,” he said.
“You can guts out a bit of a four or five goal win or we can really pile them on.
“I thought our ball movement in the last quarter was exceptional.
“We used it even better than we had in the first three quarters and piled them on.”
Davis said Whittlesea was a worthy recipient of the senior best-on-ground honours, with his seven goals.
That came from good delivery into the attacking zone, which Whittlesea finished with class.
“I think he may have kicked two or three points but he came off the oval thinking if he could have delivery like that on a weekly basis it would be a fairly easy game,” Davis said.
Youngster Nathan McCarthy put on an impressive display considering he was played out of his normal position.
“Normally in KNT he is a bit more of a defensive tagger,” Davis said.
“We put him on and he played half-forward flank and wing and I was really impressed with the way he cracked in.
“He found plenty of the footy.”
At the end of the day it was an impressive victory, with the full-game format pleasing for the KNTFL and Davis.
“The main thing for our boys was they really loved the concept of being back to a full game,” Davis said.
“We have messed around with the carnival type thing and the leagues are keen to go back to that.
“But we just had so much extra buy in from the players from Adelaide.
“They wanted to travel down for a full game and are not as keen for the carnival type set up.
“They were definitely excited to be back to a full game.”
