St Kevin’s cruises to easy win over Mazenod, but needs victory over Old Carey to stamp finals papers

VAFA WRAP: ST Kevin’s has the unenviable task of trying to knock off Old Carey to guarantee a spot in the Premier B finals series this weekend.

VAFA football: De La Salle v Beaumaris. Antony Forato. (De La Salle). Picture: Valeriu Campan

ST Kevin’s has the unenviable task of trying to knock off Old Carey to guarantee a spot in the Premier B finals series.

In Round 7 the Skobbers coughed up 26 goals to Carey in a 79-point loss and while another loss at King Oval this Saturday won’t necessarily spell doom to their finals hopes, it would allow AJAX a chance to snatch fourth spot if it can beat Fitzroy.

“We’ll focus on beating Carey this week,” St Kevins coach Daniel Harford said.

“They trounced us earlier in the year and that was a bit embarrassing out at Carey, so we’re very much aware they’re one of the top teams (and) if we’re any good, we’ve got to be able to measure up against those types of teams.

“So we’re really keen to put up a good account of ourselves against Carey this week.”

St Kevins was a comfortable 32-point victor over Mazenod after leading the game by 36 at half-time.

Three goals from Panayioti Karageorgiou and standout performances from Patrick Dowd, Jason

Salopek and Philip Edgar (two goals each) helped the Skobbers over the line at Mazenod’s Central Reserve.

AJAX’s chances of qualifying for finals footy took a significant blow on the road to the University Blues, going down by 56 points.

The Jackas must beat Fitzroy by a sizeable margin and also need one of Old Melburnians or St Kevin’s to go down heavily this weekend in order to climb back up into the top four — but those odds remain long.

A depleted AJAX fell away from the Blues in the second term after leading by three points at quarter-time, and from there was never really in with much of a show at Melbourne University Oval.

David Fayman was best-on-ground with four goals for the Jackas but the sharpshooter had little help from his teammates around the ground.

In Premier, Collegians has worked its way into the top four for the first time since Round 1 after easily getting past Beaumaris in their Round 16 clash.

Shura Taft booted home six goals with Nick Corp providing four of his own in the 62-point belting of the Sharks at Harry Trott Oval.

The Sharks got the early jump on Collegians in the opening term to lead by 13 points at quarter time but for the remainder of the day it was Collegians who dominated all over the ground.

Keeping Beaumaris to just one goal in the second term, Collegians piled on seven goals to open up a 19-point gap by half-time, before extending it to 50 by the final change.

“It was a win that we needed, not only for the four points but for the boost in percentage, which could be very important coming into the end of the season,” Collegians co-coach Mark Hibbins said.

The win puts Collegians in the top four with games against relegation-threatened St Bedes and Old Scotch still to come in the final fortnight of the home-and-away campaign.

“If we can keep winning we’ll end up in (the top four) and once we’re there, you never know what happens,” Hibbins said.

“We’ve obviously got some players with good finals experience, which has got to count for something, but we’ve got to get there first.

“We’ve got a reasonable track record down there (at St Bedes) but we all understand where we’re at and we need to win for the four and they’ll be desperate to remain an outside chance of staying up.”

It remains unlikely for De La Salle to fall victim to relegation from Premier but mathematically it is still possible with games against St Bernards and Old Trinity coming up.

De La helped its survival chances with a 35-point win over Old Brighton, with Charlie Haley kicking three of his side’s 13 goals for the day.

Down by 17 points at the first change, De La Salle managed to keep the Tonners goal-less in the second term and get within a kick by the main break.

The host then made its move in the third quarter with four goals to Old Brighton’s one and led by three straight kicks at three-quarter time, before going on to complete the win with another five majors in the final term.

Ben Oakley was best-on-ground with Thomas Humphrey also putting in a decent day at the office for De La.

Old Xaverians has moved to fifth spot on the table after getting past St Bedes at Toorak Park by 14-point points.

Matthew Handley kicked three goals with Chris Waller and Jake Williams snaring two of their own as Old Xavs recovered an 11-point deficit at quarter-time.

The game was essentially won in the second quarter with Old Xavs kicking six goals to the Tigers’ one to lead by 21 by half-time.

With percentage separating Old Xavs and fourth-placed Collegians, the Xavs now face Old Trinity in a crucial Round 17 clash at Daley Oval this weekend before finishing the home-and-away season at home to Old Brighton.

Caulfield Grammarians also went down in its clash with Old Ivanhoe but will take solace from the fact it is no longer in relegation calculations.

Grammarians will be engaged in a dead rubber in the final game of its season at home to the rampant Blues this weekend.

In Premier C the Hampton Rovers are poised for a top-two finish after handing Oakleigh a 40-point loss at Boss James Reserve.

Fifteen points up at half-time, the Rovers stretched their advantage out to 21 during the third quarter before putting Oakleigh to the sword in the last with seven goals to four to finish off the win.

Jack Toouli ended up with four goals for Hampton while Josh Verlin chipped in with three of his own.

The Parkdale Vultures punched their ticket for finals football after handing Peninsula a 150-point belting at Gerry Green Reserve.

The game was essentially over by quarter time after the Vultures opened their account with seven unanswered goals in the opening term and again kept Peninsula goal-less in the second.

In the end the Vultures allowed just one Peninsula goal for the day while kicking 24 of their own, with 14 different goal-kickers getting their name into the scorebook.

Nathan Papatsanis led the way up forward with five goals, while Tim Boland booted four.

The Vultures will again take a chance to run themselves into good form ahead of the finals series with what should be a walkover against Banyule this weekend.

In Division 1 Old Geelong remains fourth on the table after scoring a 25-point win over Bulleen Templestowe at Como Park.

Old Geelong should qualify for finals but will be hoping to keep its destiny in its own hands with a win against Melbourne High School Old Boys this weekend.

In Division 2, A whopping 45 goals were shared between Elsternwick and Ivanhoe but the hosts still went down by 74 points in a shootout at Elsternwick Park.

The Wickers ended up giving away 29 of those 45 goals in what remained an offensive exhibition for the entire day and never really looked to be in the contest beyond half-time.

David Renton slammed home seven goals for the Wickers but up the other end Mitch Lovell bettered that with eight of his own and teammate Zac Mowat got five for Ivanhoe. Elsternwick finishes its season at St Johns this weekend.

South Melbourne Districts is also safe from relegation but cannot play finals ahead of its final game of the year on the road to Glen Eira.

Like Elsternwick, the Swans were also blown out of the water in the second half in their home clash with St Mary’s Salesian, giving away 16 goals and kicking just two of their own after half-time.

Down by 19 at the main break, Districts went on to lose by 106 points.

Finals-aspirant Old Mentonians didn’t help its cause against NOBS/St Pats, going down by 58 points.

After loss at Alec Gillon Oval, the Panthers will need to become the first team in 2014 to beat Therry Penola this weekend and also rely on already-relegated Melbourne High School Old Boys to knock off Old Geelong to sneak their way into the final four.

Old Mentonians trailed at every change against North Old Boys and by three-quarter time was out of the game — down by 49 points.

Kyle Conlon finished the day with four goals for the Panthers.

In Division 3, Power House was officially knocked out of the finals race with a 125-point belting at the hand of ladder-leading Emmaus St Leos at Bennettswood Sports Ground.

Power House went into the half-time break goal-less and could only muster up four majors by the final siren while giving away 24 for the day to the Division Three flag favourite.

Albert Park was much more competitive at home against Richmond Central but still lost by 23 points.