The second half of the 2024 MC Labour Division 2 season kicked off at the weekend with the highlight being the cross-town derby between Whittlesea and Laurimar.
The Eagles were defending their unbeaten top-of-the-table spot while the pundits were predicting the biggest upset of the season with a Laurimar victory.
Sadly for the Power and happily for the Eagles, that did not happen in the hard, fast, and hotly contested game.
Across the league it was a history making Saturday with the top five teams taking on the bottom five.
To the south, bottom five teams Northcote Park and Watsonia turned the tables with their respective wins. Northcote Park beat Thomastown 108 to 41 and Watsonia took care of St Mary’s 88 to 42. But those are stories for another time and another day.
At the Reserve, Laurimar sent a strong message to the Eagles with the first three scores on the board being two goals and one behind. Whittlesea responded at the seven minute mark with a goal and completed the term with five goals and four behinds to Laurimar’s two goals and three.
The second term was a high pressure affair with players covering most of the field in their attempts to bring a win home. Both sides traded goal for goal.
The main break saw the scores at 8.7 (55) for Whittlesea to Laurimar’s 5.5 (35).
While the term three action was solid on the ground, the scoreboard told a different story with the Eagles booting six majors for the term, highlighting the domination that Garry Ramsay’s men have displayed over the season.
The final term proved to be a real cliff hanger with the Power booting four goals to Whittlesea’s zero. Laurimar’s tally jumped by 27 points to the Eagles’ five. The final scores saw Laurimar 10.10 (70) to Whittlesea 14.14 (98).
Riley Powell, Taidgh Bland, Jack Morely, and Xavier Dimasi proved excellent on the ground for the Eagles. Powell was particularly impressive with six goals to his score for the day.
Best on ground for the Eagles were Jaron Murphy, Riley Powell, Matthew Atta, Clancy Bland, Riley Carter, and Taidhg Bland.
Bland presently sits on equal top with South Morang’s Tye Hall in the MVP awards. All eyes will be on Wednesday’s MVP report to see who goes to top or whether the tie remains for another week.
Joel Lawson continued his campaign for Laurimar with two goals bringing his season total to 28. Lawson has in fact kicked almost a third of his side’s goals in this year. Best on ground for Laurimar were Luke Wilson, Josh Leather, Jacob Lawson, Cameron Maloney, Bailey Macleod, and Aidan Clarke. Next week the Eagles host St Mary’s at the Showgrounds and Laurimar travels south to face off against Lower Plenty.
Mernda walkover
The game at Waterview Recreation Reserve saw Mernda take care of South Morang in a convincing 20.4 (134) to 4.2 (26) result. South Morang was never really in the race after trailing by 19 points at quarter time. The trend continued as the game wore on with Mernda booting 20 goals at the final siren. Best for Mernda were Joel Harris, Christian Evans, Nathan Baccega, Josh Mazzarella, Dayne Kellett, and Kai Turner.
Next week Mernda takes on the Old Paradians at the Garvey Oval.
