NULLAWIL have narrowly avoided their second consecutive loss, defeating Wedderburn by just six points at Donaldson Park on Saturday afternoon.
A third-quarter comeback delighted the home crowd, before the Maroons rallied in the final term to solidify second position 11.9 (75) to 9.15 (69).
The match started in scrappy fashion as both teams vied for control, with the Redbacks failing to make the most of their opportunities in front of goal, despite the strong hands of forward Sam Barnes.
While Wedderburn held a two-point going into the second term, the match was quickly turned on its head when Adam Thomson booted his first goal from the goal square.
Tough, competitive football then took over for the remainder of the half, with Kyle Doran and Zac Caccaviello leading the way in defence for the Maroons and Luke Brown dominating across Wedderburn’s back line.
The Redbacks, down by 23 going into the second half, came out hard and kept the ball almost solely in their attacking half of the ground.
But while they held their opponent to just one goal, they also squandered opportunities, kicking just four goals from 11 scoring shots to lead by only two points with a quarter to play.
A Tom Campbell goal pushed the margin out to eight points early in the final term, making it look as though an upset was well and truly in the making.
That would be as far as close as they would get however, with Nullawil making a late charge through goals to Thomson and David Isbister, before Jordan Humphreys responded to Wedderburn’s Danny Benaim levelling the scores by sealing the win.
Doran and Dean Smith, along with Thomson, who finished with six goals, were among the Maroons better players, while Jordan Rosengren, Luke Brown and Tom Campbell also impressed.
The team all are chasing, Sea Lake Nandaly, comfortably accounted for the in-form Donald by a whopping 120 points.
A nine-goal to one opening term effectively ended the match as a contest before quarter time.
It didn’t get any better from there for the Royal Blues, with the visitors piling on another 15 goals after the first break to run out 24.20 (164) to 6.8 (44) winners.
Sea Lake Nandaly’s Bryce Delmenico was full of praise the performance of his team, who he said were now back to their best.
“It was a pretty pleasing win to be honest, especially after the way we played against Wycheproof-Narraport the week before, which was the opposite way we want the boys to play really,” Delmenico said.
“We played our brand of footy on Saturday and I think that showed with a solid four-quarter performance.
“We want to be clean at the contest and get our running game going, by focusing on those areas it helps us open up ground to switch the footy and allows us clean entry to the forwards, which is what we were doing in the first quarter – instead of having shots from the pocket, we were getting them directly in front.”
One of the main beneficiaries of the Tigers’ ball movement was Josh Jenkins, who finished with six goals, with Will Simpson and small forward John Summerhayes helping spread the load up forward with five goals each also.
Austin Mertz provided plenty of run through the midfield, as did Trent Donnan and Bryce Delmenico. A knee injury kept Matt Elliott from returning to the game, however.
For the Royal Blues, Jesse Wallin, Eddie Landwehr, Ryley Barrack and Rian McGough were among the better players.
After last week’s loss to the Tigers, Wycheproof-Narraport returned to the winners’ list – and the top four – with a 69-point win over Charlton.
The Demons extended their lead each quarter to win 14.12 (96) to 3.9 (27), with Ben Fraser booting six goals.
At Boort Park, the Magpies secured their third win of the season by 63 points over St Arnaud.
The 12.14 (86) to 3.5 (23) result kept Boort in the hunt for finals, just half a game outside the top four at the halfway mark of the season.
Shane Biggs and Natnael McLaren both kicked four goals for the winners, with Ryan McGhie, Jonathan Lanyon and Nathan Twigg among the better players.
