The Laurimar Power has suffered its first loss for the season to a talented Ivanhoe outfit on Saturday.
The first quarter started relatively even on a chilly Saturday afternoon with the first goal going the way of the Power through Patrick Fitzgerald.
Ivanhoe quickly responded, with the next three goals of the quarter before the home team steadied the ship to make it three goals apiece at the first break.
The second quarter was very much the same, Fitzgerald kicked his fourth score of the day mounting pressure on the Ivanhoe defence.
But Ivanhoe were good enough to keep the game on their side finishing the first half with a two point lead 28-30.
The Power came out to kick the first goal early, again featuring Fitzgerald, but the game then dramatically turned when the Hoers took grip of the premiership quarter kicking the last six of eight goals to close out the quarter, with two coming from Riley Loton who would go on to feature in the best.
The final break was filled with expectation of a fightback from the league leaders.
Coach Jimmy Atkins messaging was to get the ball in deep to the forwards, “make their defenders defend instead of collecting cheap touches and running from half back,”
“They aren’t going to be used to playing against a good side so force them to be better defensively.” Atkins said.
He pressed his midfielders to stand up in the late moments and drive the ball forward when they need it most.
The Power would come out to then lose the next three centre clearances which shut out the game and allowed Ivanhoe to kick two goals in the first three minutes, one being from a cheap 50 metre penalty given by the Power.
They also suffered multiple players receiving yellow and red cards during melees in the last quarter.
The game would then remain goalless until the final siren.
Remarkably, of the Power’s seven goals, there was only two separate goalkickers with Fitzgerald kicking six for the day alongside Hayden Trim who secured the other one.
Matt Keys, Fitzgerald, Tyler Thomas, Micah Vecchio, Cameron Maloney and Cooper Cusinato were listed as the best players for the Power.
The loss marks the first for the season for the Power, who now move from first to second on the ladder.
Ivanhoe remain undefeated and prove a huge point to why they are the premiership favourites sitting first on the ladder with a huge percentage.
Fitzgerald leads the league goalkicking by 17 goals after just seven games having kicked 46 this year already.
The reserves lost to Ivanhoe by one goal before the seniors game, but the Laurimar under 19.5s walked away with a 193-point win in their game against Kinglake.
Mernda got the job done against Old Eltham Collegians, kicking 18 goals in its 75-point win.
Their opponents kicked six scoring shots to one in the first quarter, yet it remained 6-6 at quarter time.
Mernda went into halftime only one point up, but it was their six goal to three-point third quarter which pushed the lead away.
They closed the game out in the last quarter kicking eight goals to one.
Old Eltham could have been every chance in this game if they were more accurate in front of goal.
They finished the game 4.17 (41) to 18.8 (116) with a huge win going in favour of Mernda.
Over in Whittlesea, the Eagles lost in a tight one to St Marys.
The home team couldn’t gain control in the first quarter conceding four goals to one but fought back to level the scores at half time.
Both teams then basically went goal for goal until Whittlesea kicked three in a row in the final term to lead by seven points at stages.
St Mary’s were quick to respond levelling the game at the 15th minute mark in the last quarter.
Both teams then kicked one goal each until Joseph Maggio from St Mary’s kicked the winner to put them in the lead by five points.
Whittlesea couldn’t quite do enough to close out the last term and finished the game with a 75-80 loss.
Khaled El-Leissy, Zane Anderson, William Plain, Bailey Robinson, Jack Morley, Liam Tyrrell were all named in the best for Whittlesea.
South Morang featured in a high scoring shootout, winning their game by 32 points over the Macleod Kangaroos.
Macleod led the game throughout the first half taking a four-point lead into the main break of the game.
But the result revolved around the premiership quarter which South Morang won, kicking seven goals to four.
Still in the game, the Kangas needed to come out in the final term and score early for any chance, but the Lions were too good kicking the first three of four goals to shut out Macleod.
The game finished 135-103 for a huge win to South Morang who now move to second on the ladder and play last-placed Panton Hill in two weeks.
Carter McCall, Dean De Propertis, William Cookson, Ethan Lowe, Tyson Gresham, Jesse John Christidis all featured in the best with Ethan Lowe kicking six for the winners on the day.
Macleod captain Darcy Barden did all he could kicking seven goals in the match.
On the netball courts, Whittlesea 1 got thumped losing their match by 46 goals, but the Whittlesea 3 side secured a narrow one-point win.
Laurimar 5 showed the club how to do it, being their only team to win on Friday night.
South Morang 1,2,3 and 4 all went undefeated in a reasonably successful weekend for the club.
By Cooper O’Brien
