Kerang have set up a mouth-watering top-of-the-table clash against Cohuna this weekend after defeating an injury depleted Tyntynder by 130 points on Saturday.
The Blues dominated from the opening bounce – with an 11 goal to one first half killing the contest before the main break. With the exception of a four goal, 10-minute burst in the third quarter, the Bulldogs were completely outplayed, highlighted by the fact they kicked just one goal across three and a half quarters of football.
Tyntynder did have some excuses, however, as they were missing seven first choice players missing, including Josh Stone, Jason Eagle, Tom Gilbert, Brodie Bennett and Solomon McKay all absent through injury.
Kerang’s Nicholas Stagg again showed why he’s widely considered this season’s best recruit with another dominant display – contributing four goals while rotating between the midfield and up forward.
It was Stagg – and his fellow midfielders’ ability to contribute on the scoreboard – that pleased co-coach Troy Coates the most when he spoke with The Final Score post-match.
“The best thing for us is that we’re getting a good even spread of goal kickers again – I think ‘Duck’ (Bryce Curnow) only kicked three from memory, so we’re not relying on him to kick us a winning score every week which is what we want if we’re going to be successful,” Coates said.
“If we aren’t focused on one player going forward, then I think that only makes us stronger – plus, a big factor compared to our last couple of weeks was probably our accuracy in front of goal because we’ve been pretty ordinary in the aspect of our game these past couple of weeks to be honest.”
Troy Davis returned to the ruck, giving his midfielders first use around the stoppages – with Ryan Gillingham, Brad Pay and Stagg the main beneficiaries. Colts player Tyson Clingan was another to benefit from the ruck dominance, with the youngster putting his case forward to remain in the seniors’ team with a break out performance.
Coates reserved special praise for the efforts of his back line – which will no doubt be an area of focus ahead of the clash against the Kangas.
“I think defensively we have a really strong back six or seven, but not only that, our on-ballers were also working back hard defensively to help them out as well – to keep a team like Tyntynder, who are a finals contender, to one goal for three and a half quarters was a real positive for us and shows that defensively we are on the right path,” Coates said.
While it turned into a day to forget for the Doggies, there were still some positives for them to take out of the game – including the efforts of midfielders Isaiah Bull and Tom Sala and the promise that new recruit Elia Ware continues to show for his new club.
The other big positive was the game of Andrew Bennett, who not only was named among Tyntynder’s better players on the day – but also got through the game unscathed in his first game back from injury for his new club.
VOTES
3 – Nicholas Stagg (Kerang)
2 – Ryan Gillingham (Kerang)
1 – Troy Davis (Kerang)
MATCH RESULTS
KERANG 4.7 11.12 15.12 25.14.164
TYNTYNDER 0.1 1.2 5.3 5.4.34
GOALS – KERANG – Troy Coates 6, Bradlee Pay 4, Nicholas Stagg 4, Bryce Curnow 3, Caleb Nitschke 3, Ryan Gillingham 2, Hayden Hall, Brandon Hayes, Martin Kelly 1.
TYNTYNDER – Angus Crowe, Zac Denham, Ben Derbas, Thomas Sala, Marcus Wattie 1.
BEST – KERANG – Nicholas Stagg, Ryan Gillingham, Tyson Clingan, Troy Davis, Troy Coates, Bradlee Pay
TYNTYNDER – Isaiah Bull, Elia Ware, Thomas Sala, Andrew Bennett, Ben Derbas, Marcus Wattie
