Liam Durkin
SALE City and Rosedale played out a thrilling draw, the first of the North Gippsland football season, on Saturday.
The Blues kicked two more goals than the Bulldogs, but also had 11 less scoring shots, meaning the 7.16 (58) to 9.4 (58) draw may have been a fair result.
Rosedale made the early running at Stephenson Park, and skipped to a 17-point lead at the first change. It was more of the same in the second quarter as the Blues kept the same margin heading into the long break, however, the six behinds kicked by the Bulldogs for the term told the story of what could have been.
Sale City got its system clicking in the third quarter, kicking 3.6 and keeping Rosedale to a single behind.
Trailing by six points at the final change, the Blues lifted in the fourth, with a late behind levelling the scores before the siren prevented a side claiming victory.
The Bulldogs and Blues both had genuine reasons to believe they should have won. Sale City will no doubt feel as though it kicked itself out of it, while one bad quarter from Rosedale in the third potentially cost it victory.
Brandon McDonald kept Rosedale alive with seven goals, while Luke Stuckey, Jake Suter, Rohan Diamond, Bobby Marshall and Joel Bristow put in solid efforts.
Best players for Sale City were Ben Chivers, Troy Carstairs, Kerrod Macgregor-Davies, Justin McLay, Bohdi Walker and Blake Safstrom.
HEYFIELD held on to defeat Traralgon-Tyers United by 10 points at Tyers, 10.18 (78) to 10.8 (68).
The Bombers made the early running, kicking five goals in the first quarter, and kept Heyfield at arm’s length throughout the first half.
Heyfield hit back in the third and dominated most facets of the game, kicking 3.10 to 1.3 to go into three-quarter-time ahead by nine points. Those in the Heyfield camp would have been hoping the 16 behinds the Kangaroos had registered up to three-quarter-time would not come back to bite them, and fortunately for those in blue and white, it didn’t.
The two teams traded three goals each in the final term, with Heyfield able to see out the match with a win.
Matt Bedggood, Daniel Burton, Tyson Birss and Brayden and James Woodland stood out for the Kangaroos. The Bombers were well-served by Jack Brown, Liam Willaton, Kieran Jones, Dougal Williams, Jake Cashmore and Jacob Albanese.
GLENGARRY took it right up to Yarram at home, but fell short in the finish, 8.8 (56) to 12.18 (90).
Glengarry took a one point lead into quarter-time, and was well in the match at half-time, trailing by just seven points.
Yarram hit its straps after the main break, slamming on five goals to two to take a comfortable, but by no means match-winning, 29-point lead with one quarter to play. The Demons did enough in the fourth, holding off a determined Glengarry to win by 34 points.
Adam Parry, Boadie Motton, Chris Bruns, Roland De Biase, Daniel Vardy and Tyler Chisholm stood out for the winners.
Ben Britten, Travis Patten, Hamish Busk, Spencer Poulton, Tom Harris and Colby Schmidt were best for Glengarry.
WOODSIDE put in a blistering second half performance to send Cowwarr packing.
The travelling Wildcats added 83 points to a solidary behind after half-time, on their way to a 19.12 (126) to 5.4 (34) shellacking.
As Saints and Woodside players walked into the rooms for the main break, no one in their right mind could have envisaged the onslaught that was about to unfold.
Cowwarr went into half-time only 10 points adrift, and would have been left scratching its head at how the margin blew out to 92 points in the finish.
Woodside coach Michael Duncan kicked six goals, and found good support from Jordy Cameron, Brett Waddell, Josh Kennedy, Ryan Foat and Chris Mitchell.
The win puts the Wildcats on top of the ladder with a percentage of more than 400 after two rounds, ahead of tougher matches against TTU and Sale City.
GORMANDALE had the bye.
