AGSV football: Darcy McCall, Aaron Sharkie impress as Yarra Valley topple PEGS

An unheralded ruck matched it with the best in an AGSV semi-final preview as Yarra Valley Grammar piled on the goals in a second-half blitz. Read which players stood out.

Yarra Valley Grammar footy coach Paul Hudson.

Yarra Valley Grammar will head into its AGSV football semi-final brimming with confidence after a second-half blitz lifted it to victory.

Yarra Valley had kicked just one goal to half-time and trailed Penleigh and Essendon Grammar in their round 9 clash, before piling eight second half majors to power to an 18-point win.

The schools will meet again in the semi-finals when the competition resumes later this month, after the loss resigned PEGS to a third-place finish while Yarra Valley jumped to second.

Oakleigh Chargers prospect Aaron Sharkie was lively in the come-from-behind win and kicked 3.3, while Yarra Valley coach Paul Hudson was also thrilled with the performance of Darcy McCall, who matched it with the highly touted — albeit under the weather — Cooper Duff-Tytler in the ruck.

“I really want to give our ruck a wrap… Darcy’s been a victim of illness and not putting on weight, he’s got the athleticism,” Hudson said.

“His tap work is equal (to Duff-Tytler) … I thought Darcy competed extremely well for us.”

McCall is in the Eastern Ranges squad but hasn’t played a Coates Talent League game this season.

Sharkie is in the Vic Metro squad and was a livewire who could mark and crumb the footy well. Among his goals was an impressive snap after stepping around his opponent.

Aaron Sharkie of the Chargers in action. (Photo by Rob Lawson/AFL Photos)

Nash Chandler also kicked a pair of crucial set shot goals from distance in the second half – both of which put Yarra Valley within a goal of PEGS at the time.

“He’s tremendous, a great little pressure forward type player,” Hudson said of Chandler.

Archer Ryan, Jordan Knapp, Oliver McKenzie and Logan Ross were also among Yarra Valley’s best.

“We had a few guys out as well which made it all the more rewarding, that was putting a bit of pressure on us,” Hudson said of the win.

“It was hard early, we shut the game down and wanted to keep possession and keep the score close, then we brought the heat late in the game.”

Hudson attributed the second half blitz to a pair of midfield tweaks.

“We changed something in the midfield and got two guys in there that had a sniff, so freshness in the midfield combined with our intensity,” he said.

“We just brought the heat in the last quarter, our tackling and pressure.

“The guys who were out of the game got into the game, the fact they were out of the game they were still quite fresh, so they lifted and that helped our pressure.

“We didn’t mess around with the footy and got in and got entries and scores as a result.”

The AGSV semi-finals will be played on Saturday, July 26.