By DAVID NAGEL
PAKENHAM’s expected resurgence up the Casey Cardinia Football League ladder stalled somewhat on Saturday, the Lions going down to Berwick by 26 points at Edwin Flack Reserve.
The Lions ran out confident after an impressive 10-goal round-one victory over Keysborough, but it was clear early it was in for a long afternoon against the Wickers, who applied a mountain of pressure in the first term.
Pakenham played a possession brand of football, quite often four or five disposals were let down with a poor last touch, and it was sucked into the contested ball, allowing the Berwick runners the space to run free. Lions coach Steve O’Bryan was under no doubt as to why his side trailed by 32 points at quarter time.
“We’re just not accountable, they’ve got loose players running around everywhere and we’re not concentrating when we’ve got possession,” O’Bryan told his players at the huddle.
“We’re not working hard enough and we need to lift the intensity, we’re not hard enough at the ball.”
His words summed things up perfectly.
Pakenham did fight back, the Lions reducing a 45-point, half-time deficit to 26 at the final siren.
O’Bryan, Damien Holmes, Beau Wheeler and John Atwell had plenty of the ball for the Lions while Nathan Brown did well down back and youngster Troy Toussaint showed glimpses of class, with his two goals.
CRANBOURNE champion Marc Holt was at his imperious best, kicking 16 goals in the Eagles 175-point win over Hampton Park at Casey Fields.
Holt, who kicked 16.10 on the weekend, now has 52 goals in his last three outings against the Redbacks at an average a tick over 17.
The Eagles were made to work hard by the Redbacks before running away with things in the second half. Holt capitalised on the great work of Ryan Davey, Brandon Osborne and Curtis Barker, while Nick Barker and Stuart Morrish led a miserly defence.
Frank Martinicchio was a surprise packet, booting five for the winners, while a goal to 250-gamer, Troy Datson, had his Eagles’ team-mates landing from all different directions.
Lionel Beniot, Tim Schwab, Nathan Dawes, Luke Nunan and Sean Winsall were Redbacks that never stopped trying.
DOVETON’s great start to the Casey Cardinia Football League season gained some real credibility on Saturday when it rolled last year’s preliminary finalist, Tooradin, by 42 points at Robinson Oval.
A high turnover of players, through the summer months, made the Doves a real unknown quantity this season and while wins over Hampton Park and Tooradin don’t guarantee success, they give Shannon Henwood’s team some real confidence heading forward.
Doveton wasted its first quarter dominance, kicking 2.5 to 1.0 to take an 11-point quarter time lead. It built that to 14 at half time before a 5.5 to 2.1 third quarter set up victory, giving it a commanding six-goal lead at the final break.
Matt Stocco (6 goals) matched brother Shannon’s haul from round one while Jake Mullen (3 goals) was also a handy target up forward. Michael Laszczyk, Justin Hill, Mitch Viney and ruckman Frank D’Agostino were all prominent for the winners while Rohan Hyde and Scott Szucs tried hard for the Seagulls. BEACONSFIELD also made it two-from-two, and spoiled ROC’s party, defeating the Kangaroos by nine-points at their new Starling Road Oval on Saturday.
The Eagles jumped the Kangaroos early, ruckman Scott Meyer giving Daniel Mislicki, Ben Kerrigan and Kane Hughes first use through the middle while Kane Airdrie and Shaun Pollard were solid in defence as the Eagles raced to a five-goal quarter time lead.
ROC showed some real grit to respond, and by the 15-minute mark of the final term had cut the margin to just three points. Great goals by Hughes, and then Michael McPhie (4 goals) shut the door on the home-side who had Matthew Clarke (5 goals) and Ryan Hendy (2) dangerous up forward while Andrew Logan was penetrating in defence.
NARRE Warren fired-off an incredible 20 scoring shots in the last quarter of its match against Keysborough, turning a 57-point lead into a 131-point demolition at Rowley Allen Reserve.
The Magpies had lethal finishers in Aaron McIvor and Kerem Baskaya, who both kicked eight, while Chris Collins, Matt Lee and Josh Tonna enjoyed the endless supply from Steve Watson in the ruck.
The Burra were always on the back-foot, Ben Hoskin (3 goals) and Davor Rajic (2) kicked multiple goals while Michael Downie, John McMurray and veteran Corey Wilkinson did their best to stem the Magpies flow.
