PREMIERSHIP fancies Moulamein confirmed themselves as one of the teams to beat with a comfortable 66-point home victory over Murrabit.
The Swans controlled the game from the opening bounce, holding the Blues scoreless for the opening term, while producing 11 scoring shots of their own to lead by 41 points at the first break.
From there, the home side were never headed, extending their lead by another 25 points in the second quarter and going on to run out 18.14 (122) to 8.8 (56) winners.
Moulamein coach Heath Moloney was pleased with how last year’s grand finalists started the season, the Swans finding the wet conditions very much to their liking.
“I was definitely happy with the way we played as a team, we had five new players come into our line-up this off season and having a couple of practice matches gave us the chance to gel,” Moloney said.
“We just wanted to focus on our one-percenters, play good team footy and put everything from pre-season into practice as best we could given the conditions, which I think we did.”
Khy Stovell on the wing was a class above in his first game in the red and white, while reigning best and fairest Daniel Aarsman and the returning Andy Silva were also strong contributors up forward, kicking three goals each.
A lot of the talk pre-game centred around former Essendon and Brisbane Lions player Damian Cupido making his debut for Murrabit.
While the Blues’ midfield was competitive around the stoppages, they were at times found wanting going forward with poor finishing making life hard for their forwards, despite Cupido’s six-goal haul.
Moulamein on the other hand had no such problems, finishing the day with 10 individual goal scorers in an ominous warning to all Golden Rivers clubs of their firepower in attack, given the conditions.
“We just played good team footy and unselfish footy, which was perhaps the most pleasing aspect of the game for me,” Moloney said.
“The boys were happy to give the ball off to a teammate in a better position and it felt like everything clicked.
“This group’s been together for a number of seasons now, but I feel as though we’re just starting to play our best footy.
“(Murrabit’s) midfield worked really hard and their pressure was first rate – when we turned it over, their transition from defence to attack was strong, but our backline just held up really well.”
The closest match of the weekend was at Hay, where a much-improved Ultima came from behind to record a six-point win over the Lions.
After trailing by 16 points at the three-quarter time, the Roos turned it on, booting four unanswered goals to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat, with recruits Jake Foster, Tyler Makepeace and Mitch Makepeace all dominating for their new club.
At Wandella, the first upset of the season took place, with Macorna recording a 15-point win over the home side.
The Tigers led from start to finish, with a four goal to one opening term setting Macorna on the path to victory.
From there, Scott Wishart’s men never relented, with key players Lachlan Ritchie, Malcolm Neiwand and Shaun Haffenden controlling the contest against their more fancied rivals and securing Macorna their first four points of the season.
