EFL 2018: Rowville scores a 22-point win over Doncaster to hold its place in the top five

ROWVILLE ended Doncaster’s five-game winning streak in the Eastern Football League to throw the race for the top three wide open after scoring a 22-point win.

ROWVILLE did itself and the competition a favour on Saturday.

The Hawks threw the race for a coveted top-three berth wide open after scoring their second win over Doncaster for the year.

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After an arm wrestle for much of the Division 1 contest at a blustery Seebeck Oval, Rowville blew the game open with a five-goal burst in the space of 12 minutes to start the last quarter to secure a 22-point victory.

Casey Demons-listed forward Riley D’Arcy enjoyed a breakout game with four goals in just his fourth senior appearance, bobbing up with two goals in the first term before adding another couple in the third quarter.

D’Arcy started the season at Doveton before getting a clearance back to junior club Rowville last month.

“We’ve just persisted with him over the last few weeks, his name came up during the week, his form hadn’t been great but we needed to persevere with a young kid,” Rowville coach John Brown said.

“He kicked four goals but what it did, it allowed (Damian) Garner, (Matt) Robinson and (Ziggy) Alwyn to really bob up and we saw our forward line really go to work that last quarter.

“He’s just bit by bit, harnessing his talent … when he focuses on his football, that’s what you get.”

Rowville coach John Brown. Picture: Davis Harrigan

The margin never ballooned beyond two goals for much of the first three quarters until Rowville seized control early in the final term.

Robinson, a welcome return from injury in the past fortnight, took a strong pack mark and nailed the first goal before classy recruit Anthony Brolic stretched the margin to a game-high 25 points at the three-minute mark.

What had been a hard-fought contest could have been a blowout when Ziggy Alwyn kicked consecutive goals to push the difference out to 44 points.

But a handful of consolation goals to the visitors saw the final score read 15.11 (101) to 11.13 (79) as Rowville ended Doncaster’s five-game winning streak.

Usually miserly in defence, it was also just the second time this year the Sharks have conceded more than 100 points.

Rowville reached the interleague bye 5-1, stumbled through three straight losses when injuries hit but has bounced back in the past fortnight with a couple of scalps in Blackburn and the Sharks to remain in the five on percentage.

But the win was soured by a possible broken collarbone to recruit Matt Little when he was crunched in a tackle just before halftime.

Doncaster is now just one game in the top three with Balwyn, the Hawks and Blackburn all nipping at its heels.

Brown said his side was starting to rediscover its best form.

“We set ourselves for the last two weeks, big games against Blackburn and Doncaster are very similar in terms of win-loss and we knew after three losses we needed to step up a little bit,” he said.

“It’s slowly coming, I still think there’s some improvement there but we’re starting to see the turn of a lot of game style that’s just starting to click with them.

“Two weeks in a row we haven’t been far off four-quarter efforts so we’re really pleased about that as well.”