VAFA: Skobbers bump off Old Brighton Grammarians to remain unbeaten

ST KEVIN’S is the last unbeaten team in Premier B after its 12-point win over Old Brighton Grammarians.

VAFA Premier C football grand final Hampton Rovers versus Parkdale Vultures at Trevor Barker Oval in Sandringham. Rovers midfielder Jay Ting sinks the boot into it. Picture: Chris Eastman

ST Kevin’s sits alone atop the Premier B ladder as the last remaining undefeated team after knocking off fellow contender Old Brighton Grammarians on Saturday.

Wind played a major factor at Brighton Beach Oval but the lead never strayed beyond a couple of goals throughout as momentum changed hands between quarters.

In the final term the Skobbers were able to kick three goals to two into the breeze, eventually winning by 12 points.

“We were rapt with the way we went,” St Kevin’s co-coach Jon Edgar said.

“We were two down on the interchange very early in the game so our boys showed a lot of spirit to just hang in there — so it was a pretty gutsy win from that perspective.”

Eighteen-year-old Josh Wallis, brother of Western Bulldog, Mitch, was a standout in the midfield and cross half-forward for the Skobbers, while Kelvin Williams proved a game-changer when switched from back to forward when the game was on the line.

“His contested ball was really good,” Edgar said of young Wallis. “Kelvin Williams probably changed the game.

“He was down back and midway through the third quarter we swung him forward and he really turned it on when he went forward and changed the game, I think.” Skipper Anthony Lynch finished with three of the Skobbers’ nine goals.

OLD Brighton Grammarians coach Greg Hutchison remains upbeat despite the loss.

“I thought our effort was really good,” Hutchison said of his young charges.

“They were a really good, quality opposition and we certainly gave great effort which was what we required and the better team won on the day.

“But our blokes were really good. They stood up and displayed what they’ve got.”

The Tonners’ have enjoyed a solid start to the year after coming down from Premier Section in 2014 and went into the game undefeated after wins against Fitzroy, Mazenod, Hampton and Caulfield Grammarians.

In all four of those wins the Tonners scored at least 16 goals but on Saturday against the Premier B benchmark, they could muster up only eight against St Kevin’s’ nine.

“It was an arm wrestle all day and a really defensive game and conditions made it pretty awkward for teams to score, so it was a tough day,” Hutchison said.

“But we handled ourselves really well. We had a couple of young boys playing in their first and third games so it was a really good thing from a club point of view to be able to play some boys from the school and they handled themselves really well.

“So that was a good sign for us.”

The Tonners will look to bounce back with a road win against the Parkdale Vultures this weekend.

Meanwhile, Boss James Reserve played host to the 2014 Premier C grand final rematch between the Hampton Rovers and the Vultures.

To this point the Rovers have handled the jump up to Premier B better than Parkdale and Saturday’s result proved as much with the premiers scoring an easy 60-point win.

While for three quarters the Vultures kept things interesting on the scoreboard, in the end the

Rovers kicked clear in the final term with eight goals to two to finish off their second win for the year.

Matt Robbins and Ed Turner each snagged three goals for the victors while Leigh Fletcher earned best-on-ground honours.

Hampton’s next task will be to try and challenge for a top four spot up against Caulfield

Grammarians at home, before heading to the Junction Oval for a date with Old Melburnians in Round 7.

Up in the top flight Beaumaris finally has a win to its name and a decent one at that, knocking off Old Scotch away from home.

The Sharks only had a draw against Old Carey Grammarians to its name prior to their Round 5 clash at Camberwell Sports Ground but managed to come away with a solid 22-point win against the Cardinals.

University Blacks, Collegians, University Blues and Old Trinity Grammarians are next in the coming month.

Meanwhile it seems Old Xaverians will struggle to contend with the top sides in Premier Section this year after going down heavily to Old Carey Grammarians.

At 2-3 after five rounds, Xavs sit sixth on the ladder with home games against University Blues and Old Scotch next on the schedule.

The hosts turned a four-point quarter-time-lead into a 31-point buffer by the main break. With the help of a massive eight-goal effort from Jarrod Reid, Old Carey cruised home by 59 points.

Denis Symeopoulos was the lone multiple goalscorer for Xavs with two majors.

Over at St Bernards it wasn’t a much better day for De La Salle which lost by 19 points De La led by five at three-quarter-time,

Callum Wood was the star for Old Geelong in the Ogs’ 45-point win over NOBS/St Pats. The focal point snagged eight goals.

COLLEGIANS’ season is officially back on track with consecutive wins restoring some confidence heading into the middle portions of the Premier Section season.

The Lions were 0-3 before beating University Blacks in Round 4 and on Saturday backed that up with a torrid come-from-behind five-point win over University Blues.

“It wasn’t a pretty game,” Collegians president Wayne Dyer explained.

“We had to work to lock down on them pretty hard and it was a fierce tackling game.”

Up by only two points at three-quarter time, the Blues entered time-on of the last quarter 15 points ahead and had a chance to go 21 up, but missed.

Collegians then scored the three goals required for victory, with Nick Corp providing three for the day.

“It was a fantastic win with a lot of young guys and no-names that did really well,” Dyer said.

Unbeaten St Bernards is next on the agenda for the resurgent Lions.

Meanwhile Caulfield Grammarians managed to lift itself off the bottom of the Premier B table with a hard-fought eight-point win over Fitzroy.

Momentum shifted with each change of end at Glenhuntly Oval and the Fields were forced to grind out a five-goal third quarter to get ahead by the final change.

Up by 15 at three-quarter time, Grammarians broke even with the Lions in the final term with two goals apiece to eventually emerge a 12-point winner.

Keegan Stewart had a good day with four goals and Tom Green was also handy with three.

Nick Ries of Old Collegians sends his side forward in last year’s grand final. Picture: Susan Windmiller

Over at Mazenod’s Central Reserve, Ajax slipped out of the top four after a surprise 33-point loss.

A poor start that gifted Mazenod the opening five goals of the game could never be overcome for the Jackers — who were forced to play catch-up for the rest of the day.

The gap between the two hovered around the five-goal mark throughout the game, with Jake Lew providing one of the few Ajax highlights with four goals.

Daniel Cohen and Alex Wollan also stood out in the Jackers’ third loss for the year.

In Division 2 the outlook remains pretty bleak for South Melbourne Districts after yet another loss on to the Northern Blues.

The Swans are the last remaining winless team in the division and could only muster up seven goals for the day in their 47-point loss at Lindsay Hassett Oval.

Though the Swans kept Northern goal-less in the second and third quarters and got within 13 points by the final change, a quarter-time deficit of 44 points proved insurmountable.

Elsternwick has also had a poor start to the year with just one win from five outings and on Saturday was handed a 52-point loss away to Melbourne High School Old Boys.

After keeping MHSOB scoreless in the third quarter the Wickers were only down by two points going into the final change, but from there allowed seven unanswered goals to remain second-last on the table.

In Division 3 Albert Park lacked fire in a 42-point loss to Hawthorn Amateurs, while Power House couldn’t hold onto a 12-point three-quarter-time lead in a shootout with the Eley Park Sharks.

THE Parkdale Vultures have sunk to the bottom of the Premier B table after going down to their 2014 C-grade grand final nemesis on Saturday.

For the best part of the first three quarters, the Vultures kept up with the Hampton Rovers at Boss James Reserve.

However, as emphasised by coach Sam Radford afterwards, the Vultures were again caught out failing to deliver a full four-quarter effort.

“We were very competitive but we just fell away in the last quarter which was a bit disappointing,” Radford said.

“The build-up was fine and we started quite well.

“It was really competitive for three quarters and they just overran us in the last quarter. We just didn’t work as hard for long enough.”

The Vultures’ halftime deficit was only six points but that grew out to 21 by three-quarter time.

Hampton, now 2-3 and fifth on the table, went on to smash the Vultures in the final term with eight goals to two and eventually won by 60 points.

In the end only three Vultures got among the goals, with Charlie Dillon having a good day that yielded three majors.

Old Melburnians has to date been Parkdale’s only victim five games into the season and while the next challenge facing the Vultures is a daunting home game against Old Brighton, Radford’s focus remains putting together a full four-quarter effort.

“I don’t get concerned about that stuff, win-loss ratios or any of that,” he said.

“It’s more about how we’re playing, and for me the bigger issue is we’re not playing a consistent four-quarter game.

“We’ve played some of the best sides and been more than competitive, we just haven’t done it for long enough.

“But we’ve got a very young group (with) an average age of 21 and today we had six players from our under-19s in the team, so it’s about teaching these guys how to play good, competitive senior football for four quarters.”

Meanwhile over at the Junction Oval St Bedes was engaged in a dogfight with Old Melburnians and in the end fell just one point shy of victory.

It remained tight throughout the day but the Tigers found themselves behind at every change.

At quarter time the margin was nine points and by the main break it was down to seven.

St Bedes again won the third quarter by two points to get within a kick by the final change and kicked three goals to one in the final quarter. But an inaccurate score line of 11.11 (77) was not enough to topple Old Melburnians’ 12.6 (78).

At Turner Road Reserve, Old Mentonians enjoyed a day out against Division 1 battler Yarra Valley.

The Panthers piled on 22 goals for the afternoon but the Bushrangers were up for the challenge, and for a lot of the day managed to keep up with the hosts on the scoreboard.

Old Mentonians was down by 24 points at quarter time but clicked into gear in the second term to get eight points ahead by the main break. From there the Panthers managed to keep themselves ahead, with Ben Rossi (five goals), Dustin Mills (four) and Comrey Edgeworth (one) playing starring roles in the 29-point win.