A DISTINCT focus on defence has seen Nyah-Nyah West United hold Tyntynder to just three behinds after quarter time, with the Demons ending their home-and-away campaign with a 103-point win.
Both of the Bulldogs’ goals came in the opening quarter, with the reigning premiers locking down hard after the first break defensively.
Tyntynder failed to register a score after half time in the 17.19 (121) to 2.6 (18) result, with electric forward Charlie Boulton also returning to form with five goals after an injury interrupted season.
NNW United kicked 13 unanswered goals after quarter time, but it was their strong defensive play which impressed co-coach Jason Murphy the most after the match.
“We really wanted to sharpen up our defence, we’ve been conceding a few more scores than we would have liked and we really focused on it knowing what’s coming hopefully over the next month or so,” Murphy said.
“We’ve tightened that up with some key personal like ‘Walshy’ (Joel Walsh) coming back in.
“We wanted to get back to our defensive structures and I felt like we did that pretty well by conceding only a couple of behinds after quarter time.
“We set the ground up the way we want to set it up over the finals and I thought we were pretty good in that aspect.
“Defence wins premierships and we’ve put a fair bit of work into that over the last month or so and to get the personnel out there firstly was pleasing, but to actually execute it after half time was excellent.
“We were squeezing up short on the ground and making it really hard for them to move the ball and it was the best we’ve done it for a little while.”
The Demons will have the bye in the final round of the season, giving them a perfectly timed rest ahead of this year’s elimination final, with the opponent to be decided between Tooleybuc-Manangatang and Koondrook-Barham.
Among NNW United’s better players were defenders Nash Richman and Walsh, along with Brady Davidson and Boulton, with all four starting to find form after missing games with injury this season.
Murphy reserved special praise for another two players who have also had interrupted seasons, with Nick O’Neill and Ethan Saville both set to play key roles across their team’s finals campaign.
“I thought ‘Nicko’ (O’Neill) was a pretty clear best on ground and he gave us some real spring off half back,” Murphy said.
“He’s a hard match up when he starts heading forward as well and ‘Sav’ (Saville) found some really good form too which was nice to see after coming back from injury.
“He’s starting to get his hands on the ball around the clearances, which is something we’ve lacked over the last month and to get the ball going our way was nice to see.”
The highlight for Tyntynder was seeing Cayden Crowe back out on the park for the first time this season, with the defender also among his team’s better players.
Also among the Bulldogs’ best were Harry Simpson, Charlie Ford, Kyle Doran, Jack Kirby and Bailey Reeves in what was “a tough at the office” according to co-coach Darcy Bibby.
“We put on a really good performance in the first quarter, but we just didn’t capitalise on our chances early and evidently their (NNW United) ability to score got the better of us after that and they were able to kick away,” Bibby said.
“Our boys never stopped competing which has been a really good trend for us this year.
“We had some really good patches at times with locking it into our forward half, however their back line have been very good for a long time and were able to work to shut down our scoring avenues and rebounded nicely.”
Bibby will miss Tyntynder’s final game of the season against the Mallee Eagles after injuring his calf in Saturday’s defeat.
SCORES
| Team | Q1 | Q2 | Q3 | Q4 | Final Score |
| Nyah-Nyah West United | 4.2 | 8.7 | 13.11 | 17.19 | 121 |
| Tyntynder | 2.3 | 2.6 | 2.6 | 2.6 | 18 |
VOTES
3 – Nick O’Neill (NNW United)
2 – Ethan Saville (NNW United)
1 – Charlie Boulton (NNW United)
