A SIX-goal first quarter has helped Balranald secure their first win of the season, with the Roos holding on to beat an inaccurate Tyntynder by four points at Greenham Park on Saturday.
The Bulldogs were ultimately left to rue a game of missed opportunities, with their slow start combined with inaccuracy in front of goal seeing them fall short, despite having six more scoring shots.
The 9.5 (59) to 7.13 (55) victory was set up in the opening quarter, with Balranald’s Lachlan Collihole and Tanner Coulthard combining with ruckman Daniel Harris out of the middle to obliterate the Bulldogs.
Balranald co-coach Jack Salau said it was the perfect start after his team’s disastrous performance against Cohuna last game.
“You want to get on the winner’s list as early as you can and it was good opportunity for us to get a result we felt,” Salau said.
“We came out of the blocks pretty well after having a pretty big break although we might have felt the effects of not having played for a fortnight later in the game.
“Centre clearances were the big thing, we got on top early in that area until they evened that back with their pressure.
“Having the ball come out of the middle and straight into the forward line makes a difference especially when you turn into scores more often than not.
“To Tyntynder’s credit they turned up the pressure after the first quarter and even though I thought we matched it with them, but we probably fell down a little with a bit of game sense and fitness later in the game.”
The Bulldogs pressure was a key factor in them getting the game played on their terms after quarter time, with the visitors forced to play catch up for the rest of the match.
Having reduced the margin to just eight points by three-quarter time, it was very much game-on in the final term, with Balranald failing to make the most of their time in possession over the final half hour of the match.
“We were winning plenty of the ball and clearing it a lot, but we were just hacking it out and they were set up behind the ball for it,” Salau said.
“We’d get it out and it would come back straight back in and it was just messy repeat stoppages for most of the quarter to be honest.
“We just needed to pick a few shorter targets or soak up a bit of time by possessing the ball, but we also could have shut them out of the game a bit earlier as we had a fair bit of the play in the last quarter.
“We switched the ball and we got it going forward a few times, but our disposal going inside forward 50 let us down two or three times and instead of it turning those opportunities into a goal which would have won us the game, we let them rebound and put the pressure back on us.”
Bradley Hartman was one Roo who had no such issues, with the running defender playing a key role in defence in the final quarter for the home side.
Cody Henness and Ryan Middlebrook also won plenty of the ball in the Roos defensive half throughout the day, while youngster Jack Helgeland had a breakout game and was particularly influential in the last quarter when the game was there to be won.
Tyntynder’s Josh Potter ultimately won the ruck battle against Harris across the four quarters, with the Bulldogs big man among the best for his side, along with full-forward Elia Ware, who kicked three goals, midfielders Charlie Ford and Darcy Bibby and defenders Jahmahl Jenkins-Clive and Angus Crowe.
“It was a very disappointing result from our end, we didn’t show enough respect and as a result we were too far behind and our effort simply wasn’t there in the first quarter,” Tyntynder co-coach Darcy Bibby said.
“We challenged the boys at quarter time and they responded extremely well and we played the rest of the game mostly on our terms.
“We showed we can play our brand of footy for long periods, but we didn’t get the win at the end of the day, so for us we take it as a big learning curve in putting together a consistent four quarter game and capitalising on our opportunities.”
VOTES
3 – Bradley Hartman (Balranald)
2 – Bailey Reeves (Tyntynder)
1 – Josh Potter (Tyntynder)
SCORES
| Team | Q1 | Q2 | Q3 | Q4 | Final Score |
| Balranald | 6.2 | 7.2 | 7.4 | 9.5 | 59 |
| Tyntynder | 0.3 | 3.7 | 5.8 | 7.13 | 55 |
