KILMORE registered its first win of the Northern Football Netball League, NFNL, division three season in emphatic style, knocking off Reservoir by 116 points in front of a home crowd on Saturday.
The Blues dropped their first two contests against top-three sides Laurimar and Kinglake, but emerged from a round three bye reinvigorated, putting Reservoir to the sword in the 20.17 (137) to 2.9 (21) rout.
Kilmore’s seven-goal last quarter was its best of the season and nearly surpassed the Blues’ point totals from each of their first two games.
Jake Beattie ran riot on the wing, while Ethan Derrick was outstanding with five goals.
Derrick was far from a lone hand in the Kilmore forward line as Michael Fenech, three goals, Grant Paxton, three, and Liam Salter, two, each kicked multiple goals, while Ethan Fitzpatrick, Bailey Derrick, Jaden Smith, Liam Monaghan, Hayden Phillips, Chris Barton and Beattie all had singles.
Kilmore president Ben Egan said the benefits of Kilmore’s youth movement were becoming evident on the field.
“My takeaway from it was the impact of our young players, which has been the big push for us,” he said.
“The best three or four players on the ground were under 21.
“It’s setting us up in really good stead for the future. We’re not relying on ‘Barto’ [Chris Barton], Leigh [Irons] and Mick [Marrett] to drive everything for us. The young players were all our best players on the day.”
On Saturday Kilmore fielded only two players worth more than one point under the NFNL’s player points system, which Egan said was the lowest across all three of the league’s divisions.
Players are designated one point if they have played at least 40 games at an aligned junior club at under 17 level or younger.
“There were 18 ex-Kilmore juniors who played and we had 17-year-old Josh Hart make his debut in the ruck,” Egan said.
“Those are the signs we’re aiming for.”
Kilmore will play away this week, taking on Heidelberg West at Heidelberg Park.
Whittlesea
Whittlesea came close to notching its first win of the NFNL division one season, falling eight points short of Hurstbridge in a low-scoring affair.
Despite the efforts of hard-running wingman Mitch Andrews, key defender Matthew Atta and captain Xavier Dimasi in the centre, the Eagles were unable to capitalise on a strong start.
Whittlesea led by 13 points at quarter time and five at the long break, but kicked only one goal in the second half as Hurstbridge overran them for a 6.6 (42) to 5.4 (34) win.
A positive for the Eagles was the senior debuts of Kane Johnson and Alek D’Arro, the latter of whom kicked a goal and was named among the side’s best.
Whittlesea will aim for its first win of the year when it travels to take on Macleod on Saturday, with the Roos sitting only one spot higher than the Eagles on the ladder.
