THE first taste of footy at JJ Clancy Reserve didn’t go as planned for Kilmore’s seniors as they were upset by Heidelberg West by seven points on ANZAC Day.
Coming off a bye last weekend, the Blues were looking to consolidate a strong start to their campaign in the Northern Football Netball League’s (NFNL) division 3, and it seemed they would early on.
Zack Ferguson kicked the first goal of the game, a nice set shot from 40 metres out, just one minute in, and it was quickly followed up by another to young forward Emmett Clark.
The home side continued to dominate the territory for the first half of the opening term, but wayward kicking prevented them from piling on the pressure.
By the end of the quarter, Kilmore would have considered itself lucky to be in front with Heidelberg West peppering the goals for a 10-minute stretch which only resulted in seven behinds.
Kilmore coach Corey McCall tried to fire his boys up at the quarter-time break, imploring the team to lift their intensity in the second quarter.
Jared Crosbie and Jarvis Sleep answered the call, but their hard-running efforts weren’t enough to stifle the momentum that the Hawks had.
The visitors finally kicked a goal to take the lead after another two minor scores, and put another through that was quickly matched by Benjamin Doyle to keep it to a two-point game at the main break.
Goals to Chris Barton and Crosbie put Kilmore up by 10 a few minutes into the third term, but the game see-sawed once more and the scores were tied heading into the last.
Conceding the first two goals of the quarter, the Blues hit back through Crosbie’s second of the game to reduce the deficit to three.
Given opportunities to take the lead, Kilmore couldn’t capitalise, while Heidelberg West kicked truly at the other end.
A late goal to Josh Vilinskis brought it back to just over a goal the difference, but time ran out to leave the Blues with a shock 60-53 loss.
It was almost a carbon copy in the reserves matchup where the visitors won 59-53.
Kilmore held a two-goal lead heading into the last and Ryan Knight kicked the first to stretch the margin to 15 points in the Blues’ favour.
But Heidelberg West hit back with four of the final five goals to win by six.
Knight ended with three goals and was Kilmore’s best alongside Mathew Lawson, Brian Lawrence and Christopher Jackson.
The Blues will host a white-hot Ivanhoe outfit next Saturday looking to make it three from three after two dominating performances to start their campaign.
Meanwhile, Kilmore’s netballers finished their NFNL grading on Friday with mixed results. Kilmore 1 played out a thriller to draw with Northcote Park 1, as did Kilmore 4 in their matchup with Diamond Creek 5. Kilmore 2 and 7 each won their games by 10, while the remaining teams lost.