By Lachlan Mitchell
Springvale Districts had the ideal start to Easter with a gutsy 13-point win over the Dingley Dingoes.
The Demons had to stand strong after a 22-point quarter time deficit. Kris Thompson’s men trailed at every change and were down by nine at the final break.
A strong final term by the Demons saw them kick five goal to one to run out 13 point victors. The win see’s Springvale clinch its first victory of the season.
Cranbourne suffered a gut-wrenching 18-point loss to Cheltenham on Good Friday.
The Eagles were heading into the contest undefeated after the first two rounds.
Cranbourne had a poor start, unable to hit the scoreboard in the first term, while Cheltenham capitalised on the sluggish Eagles and hammered home four majors in the opening term.
Cranbourne got into the groove in the second term, kicking three goals to trail by 23 at the main break.
Eagles forward Marc Holt tried his best to rein in the margin, finishing the day with seven.
Cranbourne restricting the Rosellas to a very inaccurate one goal four in the third term, to trail by two going into the final change.
The Eagles couldn’t pull in the margin after a Dylan Weickhardt stabiliser put the result beyond doubt.
Eagles coach Steve O’Brien was disappointed in his side’s result but knows there are area’s for improvement.
“We didn’t bring our A-game,” O’Brien said.
“Full credit to Cheltenham, they played a good-game style which denied us doing what we wanted to do and they were a better side for longer.
“We only played one good quarter of footy and you’re not going to win games of footy when you do that.”
A scoreless first quarter set up Cranbourne’s dismal day, along with the many stoppages on a smaller Jack Barker Oval.
“We worked pretty hard to get the game back on our terms,” O’Brien said.
“We started to do that in the third quarter. To be fair the last quarter was disappointing again. We just got killed at the stoppages, which made it hard to defend on a small ground.
“Once you loose stoppages, it goes into the opposition forward line very quickly and it’s hard to contain.”
“We need to get to work on our stoppage craft, We probably were doing what we needed to do in the first two weeks and when you win it gets masked over a little bit.
Cranbourne’s next clash is this Saturday 23 April against St. Kilda City at Peanut Farm Reserve. The Saints line-up includes ex Collingwood midfielder Dane Swan and former Berwick stars Madi Andrews and James Magner.
“He is clearly a quality player; and they have other good players with Madi Andrews and James Magner,” O’Brien said.
“They have a quality mid-field and we will have to put some work into them.”
Cranbourne will be looking to get back on the winners list.
“We need to make some general tweaks to the game-plan,” O’Brien said.
“It probably all starts in the mind and maybe we got too comfortable in the first two weeks.
“We need to adjust to the smaller sized ground we will play on from week to week.”
