St Kevins gets jump on Hampton with seven goals in first quarter

The Rovers are 2-2 after moving up to Premier B Division while St Kevins showed it is a genuine flag contender with its 57-point victory.

Declan Reilly of Caulfield Grammarians.in a ruck duel with Old Brighton’s Tom Skewes.

FIVE goals for Matthew Robbins and four from Daniel Corp could not help get the Hampton Rovers over the line against a rampant St Kevins outfit at King Oval on Saturday.

At first glance the Rovers’ final score of 15.14 (104) looked impressive against one of Premier B’s genuine premiership contenders.

However, the Skobbers booted a massive 23.23 (161) in response, emerging a 57-point winner.

The tone for the day was set from the beginning with St Kevins kicking seven of the opening term’s nine goals to lead by 38 points at quarter-time.

That start set Hampton on the back foot and the visitors never recovered, being forced to play catch-up for the rest of the day.

While Robbins and Corp did their best up forward to keep Hampton in the game, it was Kyle Dockerty, Leigh Fletcher and Samuel Clements who all put in decent efforts throughout the day.

Up the other end Henry Parkes, Anthony Lynch and Philip Edgar were the main contributors to the Skobbers’ offensive onslaught.

Hampton remains sixth on the table at 2-2 after coming up from Premier C and will this Saturday face the side it beat for the Premier C flag in 2014 — Parkdale Vultures.

Meanwhile Old Brighton Grammarians managed to keep its unblemished 2015 record intact to set up a blockbuster Round 5 clash with St Kevins this weekend at Brighton Beach Oval.

At the same venue on Saturday the Tonners dished out a footballing lesson to lowly Caulfield Grammarians.

Old Brighton trailed the Fields by a goal at quarter time but quickly found its g

Zac Parson of Old Grammarians looks for options against Old Brighton. Picture: Richard Serong.

roove in the second, establishing a 30-point half-time lead. From there the Tonners remained in control and despite losing the third quarter by five points, went on to score their fourth successive win by 55 points.

Charlie King’s second outing of the year netted four majors after kicking three goals on Anzac Day against Hampton while Luke Healy was the other major goalscorer with three for the Tonners.

Tom Mariani, Michael Dewar and Ben Austin also had decent games for ladder-leading Old Brighton ahead of what could be an early-season preview of a grand final match-up.

Up in Premier Section, Beaumaris’ Round 1 draw with Old Carey Grammarians is all that is keeping the Sharks off the bottom of the table after yet another loss at Banksia Reserve.

The opponent was 1-2 Old Xaverians and from the get-go it was Xavs who controlled the tempo, leading by 19 points at quarter-time.

Beaumaris fought back to get within five points by the main break but it didn’t take long for the visitors to re-establish control in the third quarter.

The Sharks’ deficit was an unsurmountable 37 points at three-quarter time and the percentage took a further hit in the last quarter with the final margin reaching 45.

Daniel Gribbin (five goals) and Richard Ryan (three) battled hard up forward in the Sharks’ attempts to keep in touch with Xavs.

THE ‘Lakeside Cup’ was on the line between Power House and Albert Park on a significant day for the hosts.

Pink surrounded Power House’s Ross Gregory Oval to help raise awareness for breast cancer research but inside the white lines, it was visiting Albert Park which came away with the Division 3 bragging rights.

Only one point separated the two at half-time before the Falcons kicked away in the third quarter with six goals to one.

Down by 35 points at three-quarter time, Power House couldn’t work its way back into the game and still has just one win to its name four games into the season.

Albert Park moved to 2-1 after the 45-point win.

Jack Amies, Trent Smoker and Sam Alexander all nailed three majors for the victorious Falcons, while Ben Raeside, Sean Bermingham and Ryan Want were also very good around the ground.

For Power House a lot of the work was left to Ben Leske (four goals) and Cale Urwin (one goal).

In Division 2 South Melbourne Districts is the last remaining winless team after again falling well short against Richmond Central at Lindsay Hassett Oval.

The Swans led by six points at quarter time but allowed seven Richmond Central goals in the second term to go into the sheds 28 points behind.

From there it only got worse for the battling Swans, giving away another six goals in third quarter and nine in the last to eventually go down by 92 points.

A six-goal haul for Max Mitchell-Russell did little to lighten the mood for the Swans, with Richmond Central duo Damien Holland and Jake Munro combining for 10 goals of their own (five each).

Perched dead-last on the bottom of the Division 2 ladder, South Melbourne Districts will be hoping to regain some pride and respect with games against the Northern Blues, Elsternwick and Melbourne High School Old Boys next up on the agenda.

Elsternwick’s year hasn’t been much better to date and on Saturday undefeated St Johns was simply too strong at Sportscover Arena.

The Wickers, second-last on the table with only one win to their name, never really got close as St Johns kicked the only seven goals of the opening term.

Elsternwick’s 42-point quarter time deficit sealed its fate, eventually going down by 64 points after a completely scoreless final term from both sides.

Justin Hunter (four goals) and Ben Robertson (two) kicked all of Elsternwick’s six goals for the day.

OLD Geelong looks to be a serious Division 1 contender after dismantling Yarra Valley on Saturday.

The Ogs, now under the guidance of coach Jon Knight, never gave the Bushrangers a sniff at Como Park in the cruisy 72-point win and are 3-1 and third on the table

“Early on in tough conditions we overused the footy a bit,” Knight said. “We evened that up and put on quite a bit of scoreboard pressure early in the second quarter and we were able to get in front by half-time.

“But in the first quarter we were still quite dominant and after that we finished off the game pretty well.”

The Ogs led at every change and were able to build on their eight-point quarter time lead to go into the sheds 30 up at halftime.

New recruit Jack McMeel again stood out up forward with four majors, taking his season tally to 13, while Aaron Bird was best-on-ground with three of his own.

“Jack’s good. You look at him and you think he’s a non-intrusive sort of player but he’s very clean with the footy,” Knight said of McMeel.

“Even when we’re peppering the scoreboard with behinds Jack’s been quite efficient with his goalkicking, and overhead he’s good.At Waverley Oval up in Premier Section, De La Salle couldn’t keep up with Old Carey Grammarians in the final term to go down by 28 points. Down by only two points at three-quarter time, De La fell away and gave up seven of the last quarter’s 10 goals, leaving it seventh on the table at 1-3.

“We’ve got a really good, tall forward line and a really mobile midfield, so we’ve just got to keep trying to get better, get used to each other and look forward to NOBS/St Pats next week.”

Meanwhile Old Xaverians improved to 2-2 with a significant 45-point win over Beaumaris at Banksia Reserve. With Jake Williams (five goals) and Matthew Margin (four) dominating up forward, the Xavs kicked clear after half-time with 11 of the final 17 goals of the game. Louis Tiernan was also a handy contributor.

St Kevins is jostling with Old Brighton Grammarians for top spot on the Premier B ladder after beating Hampton Rovers by 57 points in a 38-goal shootout at King Oval. Henry Parkes was best-on-ground with five goals for the Skobbers — who meet Old Brighton in a blockbuster at Brighton Beach Oval this weekend.

GARETH Snow is still waiting for a full four-quarter effort from his Old Mentonians charges four weeks into the Division 1 season.

The Panthers fell to their second loss of the year on Saturday after falling away from Kew in the second term at the Bears’ Victoria Park.

Three points separated the two at quarter time but Kew kicked away from there, extending that advantage out to 18 by half-time.

The lead continued to grow throughout the second half and by the final siren, Snow’s men had been handed a 66-point lesson.

“Very disappointing end result,” he said.

“We matched it with them for three quarters and then had a last quarter fade-out and the work rate was not good enough.

“We basically just got overrun through the midfield.”

Sitting sixth on the table with games against Yarra Valley and Ormond next on the agenda, Snow is hopeful his troops can produce some more consistency in their push for a top four berth come season’s end.

“It’s just a work rate thing,” Snow said.

“We’re starting to get a side we want out on the park … almost. We’re just looking for some consistency.

“We’re just very disappointed with our work rate and we can’t get four quarters together, but I think when we do we’ll be a very hard side to beat.

“Until that happens we’re just in the middle of the pack at the moment at 2-2.”

Meanwhile up in Premier B, St Bedes is knocking on the door of the top two undefeated teams in its division after accounting for Ajax at Gary Smorgon Oval.

With Mitch Coen providing three goals and Patrick Kean dominating around the ground with a goal of his own, the Tigers made better use of the scoring end with strong winds dictating scoring trends.

Up by 29 at half-time, the Tigers relinquished their ascendancy in the third quarter and led by just one point at the final change, before kicking eight goals to Ajax’s one in the final term to emerge 47-point winners.

Parkdale Vultures had to withstand a late Old Melburnians charge at Gerry Green Reserve.

For three quarters the Vultures were all over Melburnians and at three-quarter time led by 40 points. However, the Vultures failed to score a point in the final term and allowed 3.10 but eventually held on to win by 12 points. Tom Redmond was best-on-ground with three goals.