NYAH-Nyah West United claimed consecutive wins for the first time this season, putting on a first-half clinic in a 62-point win over the Mallee Eagles.
NNW United booted 12 unanswered goals between midway through the first quarter and half time, to put the game out of reach of the home side.
The Eagles had no answer for the Demons’ outside run, with half of the United side all splitting the big sticks in the 20.10 (130) to 10.8 (68) victory.
The result lifted NNW United to fourth on a congested Central Murray ladder, while a fourth loss in five games struck a major blow to the Eagles’ finals hopes.
Victorious coach Corey Daniels full of praise for his team’s first half.
“It was very pleasing to put in a performance like that, we probably started the game a bit slow and were a bit reactive, but once we started to work from the contest, we played some good footy,” Daniels said.
“We just tried to keep the ball moving and kick it into space – our big strength is our leg speed, so we really wanted to keep the ball moving and managed to keep it going our way.”
Champion Marong full forward Brandyn Grenfell pulled on the red and blue for a one-off appearance, kicking five goals to be the dominant forward on the ground.
For Daniels, he was more pleased with his team’s ability to hit targets going inside the forward line – something that hadn’t been quite so easy over the opening rounds.
“The most pleasing element was our ball movement going inside 50, which has been a lot better over the last few weeks,” Daniels said.
“It was great to have (Grenfell) in the side, but for us it was really an extension of how we played against Tooleybuc-Manangatang – we started to find our feet inside forward 50 with Hassan (Ahmat-Watkins) and Alex (Erlandson) back in the side last week, and then having (Grenfell) just added to that height.”
While the Eagles held their own on the inside, they simply didn’t have the leg speed to keep up with their opposition when the ball got outside the contest.
Harry Allen, Brent Macleod and Beau Bennett tried their hardest in what was ultimately a losing battle, while NNW United defender Joel Walsh was a clear best on ground with a dominant display in the Demon back half.
Walsh not only latched onto any errant forward entry by the Eagles, but ran and carried the ball from half back, with the home side having no answer for the key defender.
Jarrod Stokes, Ethan Savile and Dom Gallo were also among the Demons’ better players, along with young forward Charlie Boulton, who used his speed to great effect in United’s forward half of the ground.
FINAL SIREN
| MALLEE EAGLES | 3.1 | 3.2 | 7.7 | 10.8 | 68 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NNW UNITED | 4.2 | 12.3 | 14.6 | 20.10 | 130 |
VOTES
3 – Joel Walsh (NNW United)
2 – Jarrod Stokes (NNW United)
1 – Harry Allen (Mallee Eagles)
