IN FRONT OF Collingwood legend Tony Shaw and a big crowd at Waterview Reserve, Mernda produced a solid performance to deal with a struggling Kinglake outfit in division 3 of the Northern Football Netball League (NFNL).
The Demons entered the match with strong form this season, dropping only the one game to Laurimar in round 2 but they found themselves in a dogfight early with the Lakers taking a one-point quarter time lead.
A four-goal-to-one second quarter got them into a little bit of a lead at half time with the scoreboard reading 43-20, but inaccurate kicking was holding them back from pulling away properly.
Two goals each from James Sekulovski and Lincoln Coffey in the third term alongside singles to Bradyn Thomsett and Lachlan Taylor meant the game was wrapped up heading into the last but the home side made sure of it, kicking 7.7 in the final quarter.
An 80-point win probably didn’t paint the full picture of the day, with the Demons putting through 42 scoring shots to Kinglake’s 12.
The win takes Mernda to 3-1 for the year and it sits just below the ladder-leading duo of Ivanhoe and Laurimar.
More inaccurate kicking held the Demons back from an even bigger win against Kinglake in the reserves, running out winners 16.26 (122) to 1.6 (12).
Down the road in Laurimar, the Power once again showed their premiership credentials with a comfortable 67-point win over Heidelberg West.
Hosting the Hawks at Laurimar Reserve on Saturday, the home side slammed on three goals in the first six minutes to set the tone for the day, and already had five individual goalkickers going into the first break.
The game looked like it would get away from the Hawks during the second, but they clawed their way back with the final two goals of the quarter to keep the margin at 12 points.
Although Patrick Fitzgerald had already kicked three in the first half, his third quarter effort proved the difference in the game.
In a six-goal-to-one quarter, Fitzgerald nailed four of his own to take his tally for the day to seven, and he added another in the final term to take his yearly total to 35 in just five outings.
Hayden Trim added four to be named alongside Fitzgerald in the best, while Jesse Donaldson and Luke Wilson continued their streak of being named in the Power’s best.
In the reserves, Zac McMahon put on his best Fitzgerald impression to bag seven for himself as the Power surged to a 109-point win.
It wasn’t to be for the under-19.5s who fell to a powerful Whittlesea side by 19 points as the Eagles solidified themselves on top.
Up in division 2, Whittlesea’s senior men fought out a low-scoring battle with Panton Hill to win by eight points at AE Cracknells Reserve.
The visitors led at all breaks, but needed to hold on in the last quarter to keep a Panton Hill comeback at bay.
It was another inaccurate game with the first half offering a combined four goals to go with 18 behinds.
Caden Allen was brilliant once again and held on to his lead on top of the division 2 goalkicking leaderboard with another four goal performance, but it was Khaled El-Leissy’s performance that really caught the eye of onlookers.
The Eagles won a tight one in the reserves as well, out-pointing the Redbacks when it mattered most to win by five points.
A bag of five for Jarrod Lees and some clinical work from Mitch Taplin powered their side to a last quarter comeback which saw them kick four of the last five goals, including the final three on the trot.
South Morang sit just percentage behind Northcote Park at the top of the table after a solid outing in Thomastown to win 80-55.
The Lions took the lead after eight minutes but Thomastown scrapped together the only two goals of the second term to tied the scores at the half-time break.
The away side fought back hard in the third, pulling away thanks to five straight goals of their own.
They put another four goals on the Bears in the last quarter to hold them off, sealed by Ben Peterson’s second snag of the game.
Ben Power, Dean De Propertis and Christian Mardini were all standouts for South Morang, while Noah Cumberland continued his good form by kicking three and earning his spot alongside the others in the best.
It was an even more convincing result for the reserves side who knocked off Thomastown to move to 5-0 for the season, while the under-19.5s added another to the win column with a 71-31 win over Bundoora.
It will be a big day of footy this Saturday when the Lions host Fitzroy Stars in what should be a good matchup.
Whittlesea and Mernda will host Lower Plenty and Lalor respectively, and both sides will be looking to put some good footy together against lower ranked teams.
Laurimar will be hoping to continue their unbeaten start to the year when it heads to Reservoir to take on the Mustangs. But all eyes are on the upcoming round 8 clash with Ivanhoe to see who the true favourite of division 3 is.
In the netball, the season got properly underway across all grades with the conclusion of the grading rounds.
The top three grades have been set for a month now, so those competitions are starting to take shape.
Whittlesea 1 moved to 2-2 in division 1 with a 19-point win over the Heat, while down in division 3 their second team fell to North Heidelberg 35-17.
South Morang 1 couldn’t get over the top of Thomastown, but it was better news for Laurimar’s top two sides, winning by four in division 4 and 11 in division 6.
Wins were harder to come by in the lower grades, with South Morang 4 and Laurimar 4 the only of the remaining sides securing a win.
