West’s comeback – South dominate

Round Nine of the AFL Broken Hill Men’s A-Grade saw two very different fixtures as West prevailed in a come-from-behind victory over North, while South dominated from the outset against Central.

NORTH V WEST

West came back in spectacular fashion at Jubilee Oval on Saturday afternoon to beat North by 16 points as the final siren sounded as both sides now hold a 5-4 record on the regular season.

Trailing by two straight goals at quarter time, the Robins managed to cut the margin to two points at the main break before restricting their opponents to two goals for the remainder of the game, while kicking five second half goals themselves to take the lead and the victory.

Lachlan Harvey was the target up forward for the victors, kicking a season-high four goals. Cooper Burke kicked two majors for the Robins. For North, Jayden Kelly and Logan Ferguson kicked five goals between them, while Bailey Adams and Brayden Dalby kicked one goal apiece.

“I think it just came down to attitude,” West coach, Nathan Pearce, said.

“I thought we started off okay, even though the scoreline probably didn’t say that, they jumped us. I thought our 10 minutes before quarter-time was really good, and then we talked about attitude and belief at half-time, [and] I think we came out after half-time and really controlled the game.”

North coach, Mark Pitt told us he was “pretty disappointed”, adding “there’s probably four principles – discipline, energy, decision-making, and situational awareness – [that] if we don’t execute those, well, theoretically, our brand of footy breaks down. We had plenty of the ball, but we just couldn’t hit targets. In saying that, I think the boys did dig deep in areas, but we’ve got to hit targets and move that ball.”

Goals: Lachlan Harvey (West) 4, Jayden Kelly (North) 3, Cooper Burke (West), Logan Ferguson (North) 2

 SOUTH V CENTRAL

It was pure dominance from the outset for ladder-leaders South, beating Central at Alma Oval by a margin of 142 points. The Roos kicked 11 goals in each half to contribute to the huge victory that now sees them three games clear on top with a month and a half to go in the regular season.

The Magpies were unable to trouble the scoreboard in the first half, and by then the Roos had already jumped out to a 78-point lead. Central found its first score of the game by way of a solitary behind in the third term, but South still had control with a nine-goal quarter. With the lead 133 points at three-quarter time, it was more of an even fourth quarter as Central found the big sticks for the first time to not end the game goalless.

Goals came aplenty for South who shared the ball around to have 11 different goalkickers, with Rourke Turner kicking a game-high five goals. Alex Johnston and Joel Van Kemenade each kicked three majors for the Roos. Liam Alderdice was the Magpies’ lone goalkicker on the day.

“I was so proud of the boys, they played such a team game, “South coach, Craig Thomas, told us.

“The guys that came in didn’t look out of place at all. The output, no matter who’s in our side now, is working really well. This is our second game in a row where we put four quarters together as well, so it’s really pleasing leading into the backend of the season, everyone’s doing their job and the team is performing very well,”

Central coach, Sheldon Hall, said, “it was a tough one, going up against the best side” adding “there were still good things [to come] out of it. You can only take so much out of a big loss like that, but positives, we had a good fourth quarter and the boys didn’t give up, we were still pretty hungry at the contest, trying tackles and creative turnovers, so it was still pretty pleasing, that last quarter.”

Goals: Rourke Turner (South) 5, Alex Johnston (South), Joel Van Kemenade (South) 3

This week’s Round 10 fixtures see West host Central at Jubilee Oval, while South and North will do battle at Alma Oval. Both matches get underway from 2.30pm Saturday.