KERANG continued their unbeaten start to 2022 with a devastating 110-point victory over a disappointing Lake Boga on Saturday afternoon.
Having failed their first real test the previous weekend against Woorinen, the Magpies would have been hoping for a much-improved performance at home. But the competition favourites quickly set about making a statement against the young Pies.
With just two scoring shots for the first half, Lake Boga were completely overwhelmed by the Blues’ fast ball movement and ability to run the lines.
Kerang crushed the Magpies’ spirit with a devastating start, according to Blues coach Troy Coates.
“It was good to bounce back because I thought we were poor the week against the Eagles,” Coates said. “It was good to be back playing the way we want to play our footy and, to be honest, I thought it was a good performance considering we had a few out as well.
“We’ve had a bit of a focus on trying to start games well – and it’s a funny one because before the game on Saturday I thought we might have been a bit flat, but then we came out and played some really good footy right from the start.”
Seven goals to in the one opening term set the tone for the day, as the visitors dominated the home side not just in general play but around the stoppages as well. This was even more impressive given the late withdrawal of both Marty Kelly and Troy Davis from the side.
Davis’s absence left the door ajar for Lake Boga big man Jacob Simpson to exert his influence on the game. While the Magpies ruckman was the dominant big man on the ground for the day, Coates also felt that his inexperienced ruck combination of Scott Pay and Samuel Nitschke, who was making his senior debut, performed extraordinarily well too.
“(Simpson’s) a man-mountain and he would have won the majority of the hit-outs for the afternoon. Obviously he comes with huge wraps on him, but I thought our guys did a really good job of nullifying his influence around the ground,” Coates said.
“But in saying that, it was obviously a hard day for them (Lake Boga) as well, which would have made it a bit more difficult for him to influence the game around the ground when they didn’t have a lot of the footy.”
Usual suspects Ryan Gillingham, Sam Heavyside, Brad Pay, Lachie Ross and Nick Stagg were as influential for Kerang, as was the much-improved Josh Nitschke.
For Lake Boga, Simpson, along with the Filo brothers in the midfield and Daniel Dzufer, Ryan Fox and Patrick Bryan were all among the better players.
But for Coates, it was his team’s all-round effort that was most pleasing – especially the fact that they had 13 individual goal scorers.
“We were actually discussing during the week about our need to spread the goals around a bit and not be so reliant on either Duck (Bryce Curnow), Staggy or myself to score so much – so we probably had it as a bit of a focus going into the game,” Coates said.
“It was quite ironic though that we were talking about it during the week and then we come out and have 13 goalkickers. But, going forward, it’s something that we’ll continue to focus on because we can’t afford to be so Curnow-focused.”
VOTES
3 – Ryan Gillingham (Kerang)
2 – Josh Nitschke (Kerang)
1 – Sam Heavyside (Kerang)
MATCH RESULTS
LAKE BOGA 1.0 1.1 3.1 4.2.26
KERANG 7.8 10.13 16.17 19.22.136
GOALS – LAKE BOGA – Patrick Bryan 3, Oliver Rohde 1.
KERANG – Bryce Curnow 3, Michael Dalrymple 2, Ryan Gillingham 2, Rylee Smith 2, Nicholas Stagg 2, Troy Coates, Hayden Hall, Sam Heavyside, Caleb Nitschke, Josh Nitschke, Bradlee Pay, Lachlan Ross, Samuel Nitschke 1.
BEST – LAKE BOGA – Jacob Simpson, Joshua Filo, Matthew Filo, Ryan Fox, Daniel Dzufer, Patrick Bryan
KERANG – Ryan Gillingham, Josh Nitschke, Sam Heavyside, Nicholas Stagg, Lachlan Ross, Bradlee Pay
