In front of a massive back-to crowd at Lake Boga, Woorinen secured their 10th victory in a row on Saturday.
The Tigers proved too strong for the home side, winning by 62 points, despite Lake Boga dominating possession for large patches of the match.
But with former Essendon player Angus Monfries missing, the Magpies struggled to convert on the scoreboard.
The match featured the two best ruckmen in the competition in Woorinen’s Arnold Kirby and Lake Boga’s Jacob Simpson, with both players putting on a quality exhibition of ruck play during the afternoon.
Simpson and Josh Cruise-Filo combined beautifully out of the middle early, but the Pies lacked the firepower up forward to put any scoreboard pressure on the opposition.
The clever Josh Domaille opened the scoring for Woorinen against the run of play, before the Magpies were eventually able to get reward for effort when Matt Taverna marked strongly and converted from 40-metres to tie up the contest.
Lake Boga unsettled the Tigers in the opening term with Filo, Nathaniel Homes-Brown and first gamer Xavier Sherlock picking up possessions at will.
The Tigers lifted their work rate late in the quarter through the excellent work of Domaille, Aaron Cadd and defenders Nyawi Moore and Mitchell Taylor. Patrick Veszpremi kicked a long bomb to enable Rob Miller to mark on the goal line for the Tigers third, much to the frustration of the Magpies faithful.
Tigers coach Marcus Demaria seemed concerned at the first change, pleading with his players to switch on and get into the game, which highlighted Lake Boga’s dominance around the contests.
Shawn Filo, on the other hand, was pleased with the young Magpies intensity, telling his players that it would be a grind and not to relax.
But some untimely injuries early in the second term proved costly for Lake Boga, with Filo and Jarrod Taylor sustaining a shoulder injury and hamstring strain respectively. Domaille, Jye Barry, Rob Rush, Henry Thompson and Miller started to gain the ascendancy in the midfield. Goals to Lachlan Wright (two), Gardner and Kirby was only interspersed by the Magpies solitary goal for the term, when the experienced Daniel Dzufer found Taverna on a long lead for his second to give Woorinen a 26-point lead at the long break.
The third term would see the Tigers kick two unanswered goals, with Gardner becoming a target up forward kicking both majors on his way for four for the afternoon.
Tempers flared midway after Veszpremi was strongly tackled, forcing him to leave the ground. An ugly scrimmage developed as players of both sides began to remonstrate spilling out into the crowd, but the umpires regained control of a situation which could have easily got out of hand.
Simpson started to get on top of Kirby in the ruck, but Lake Boga could not capitalise on his excellent work. The Magpies defence was under enormous pressure, but great work from Dzufer, Lincoln Frost and Tyle Williams prevented the Tigers lead from blowing out.
The last term proved to be a non-event as a spectacle, as the Tigers booting four goals to the Magpies solitary major to eventually run out victorious by over 10 goals.
Demaria was in a philosophical mood after the match. While pleased to get the four points, he told his players that not everything happens on their terms in matches and concentration is the key going forward.
“We took a while to settle down today, but I was happy with our perseverance in the end as the Magpies have improved,” Demaria said.
Filo, although pleased with his team’s efforts, admitted that without Angus Monfries it is a challenge for the Pies to get any scoreboard pressure on the top sides.
“We fought hard today particularly in contested situations, but realistically kicking only two goals to half-time is still not good enough if we are to go to the next level,” Filo said.
The Tigers host Tyntynder next week in what should be a free flowing contest, while Lake Boga will be hoping that a number of senior players return for their tough assignment against Kerang at Riverside Park.
VOTES
3 – Josh Domaille (Woorinen)
2 – Jacob Simpson (Lake Boga)
1 – Henry Thompson (Woorinen)
MATCH RESULTS
LAKE BOGA 1.2 2.5 2.6 3.6.24
WOORINEN 3.2 7.2 9.3 13.8.86
GOALS – LAKE BOGA – Matt Taverna 2, Jacob Simpson 1.
WOORINEN – Lachlan Gardner 4, Robbie Miller 2, Lachlan Wright 2, Matthew King, Arnold Kirby, Jordy McInnes, Mitchel Taylor, Patrick Veszpremi 1.
BEST – LAKE BOGA – Daniel Dzufer, Jacob Simpson, Joshua Cruse-Filo, Tyle Williams, Taylor Johnstone, Nathaniel Holmes-Brown
WOORINEN – Henry Thompson, Robert Rush, Josh Domaille, Jye Barry, Mitchel Taylor, Arnold Kirby
