By Trevor Jackson
KALANGADOO 28.15 (183) D GLENCOE 3.7 (25)
KALANGADOO needed a percentage booster to claim a second chance in the Mid South East finals and achieved that on Saturday as they made short work of the Round 18 clash against Glencoe.
The result pushed the Magpies up to second position on the ladder, with Robe slipping down to third after a tough outing against Nangwarry.
On their home deck the Magpies were threatened early, as the Murphies banged on a couple of early goals, but from there it was all about Kalangadoo.
After settling, the Mag;pies went about the work which provided a premiership flag last season and looked untouchable.
They banged on 40 points thanks to six major scores, while the Murphies early flurry resulted in just two major scores and two minors for the term.
Unfortunately for Glencoe that number remained the same after the second term, but in contrast, the Magpies better-than doubled their score with another six majors to lead by 67 points at the main break.
While the Murphies found a bit more possession in the third quarter and added to their score, the Magpies still controlled the contest and extended the margin to 88 points.
The final stanza again saw a scoreless Glencoe, while the Magpies saved their best for last.
Despite a huge lead there was no time to relax and they banged on 11 major scores to run out emphatic 158-point victors.
With so much possession and time up forward there was always going to be a big bag of goals kicked.
In fact, there were two bags, one from Dylan Bromley and one from Scott Agnew.
Bromley was a major focal point and finished off well to put on 10 goals, while Agnew was just as handy, with eight majors to his name.
Coach Alex Lyon kicked three goals, with the remainder spread among seven individuals.
In the end the result had the desired effect, as the Magpies moved up to second position on the ladder by just a tough more than one percentage point from Robe.
The move up the ladder was something Lyon did not expect.
“It was very unexpected,” he said.
“We needed a bit to go our way in the other games.
“We were just concentrating on trying to get a good brand of footy and carry a bit of momentum into the finals.”
By the final term it was clear the move could be on and the result was 11 major scores, while holding Glencoe to no score.
“I started getting whispers of what the other results were and thought we might have a chance to boost our percentage a bit,” Lyon said.
“We made sure the boys didn’t take the foot off the throat at all.
“We really wanted to finish that game hard and if it came down to a couple of goals as to whether we finished third or second, we wanted to make every post a winner and give ourselves a chance to finish top two.”
Lyon said the result came from a whole team performance, playing for each other to set up a percentage-boosting victory.
“Our back six was extremely good with the run off the half-back line,” he said.
“The mid-fielders were fantastic and our forward line probably worked the best they have all year.
“And we were able to kick a bit straighter and take our opportunities a lot more.”
Up forward the stand-out performances were from Bromley and Agnew, with a lot of team work thrown in.
“It was unreal up forward,” Lyon said.
“But on top of that we had 10 individual goal scorers.
“Scotty Agnew got us going … he kicked four in the first quarter.
“Dylan Bromley was fantastic.
“He was playing up a little bit higher and I think he kicked seven last-half goals.
“He dominated that half of footy.”
What transpired throughout the contest was more than just percentage boosting, but also confidence boosting, with each player taking on his role and performing as expected.
“I was pretty happy when I brought the boys in at half time,” Lyon said.
“I thought our skill errors exposed a bit and we turned the footy over, but what we were trying to implement with our game plan, the boys were making the right decisions.
“We were able to roll on with that and we did dominate play.”
