Kilmore claims first win over South Morang at Mill Park Lakes Reserve

Kilmore’s breakthrough win over South Morang has created a log-jam at the top of NFL Division 3 as four teams jostle for a premiership.

Stephen McIntyre in action for Kilmore. Picture: Nathan McNeill

Kilmore has ticked a big box as it sets its sights on a NFL Division 3 flag tilt.

For the first time since joining the league in 2017 the Blues defeated South Morang at Mill Park Lakes Reserve, claiming a 32-point victory on Saturday.

The visitors took full advantage of South Morang’s under-strength line-up to hand the Lions their first loss of the campaign.

Kilmore kept the home team goalless in the first and fourth quarters to record a 10.5 (65) to 4.9 (33) win.

However, the Lions remain on top of the ladder on percentage with Kilmore remaining in fourth.

Blues coach Nathan Phillips said Michael McCulloch and James Atkinson’s dominance in the ruck put his team on the front foot from the start.

“We were able to get some early goals on the board and that kept us up and about,” he said.

“It’s the first time we’ve won down there, so it was good to get the monkey off the back.

“They had some outs, some key players missing, but you can only play against the side that’s out there.

“We knew they were a bit young … without (Nathan) Stefanile and (Aaron) Lazaric they had to use some smaller bodies and our rucks are quite big so we made sure we were physical and got first use.”

The return of reigning Division 3 league best-and-fairest Chris Ryall also proved critical with the star midfielder among Kilmore’s best.

However, defender Jackson Kinnear was the Blues’ best-on-ground as he kept Mitch Kalpakis goalless.

“Our backs were huge, last week we were a bit disappointed in our efforts, but the boys rectified that,” Phillips said.

“(Stephen) McIntyre, (Kieran) Moran and Kinnear all had their best games, probably for the club, not just the year.

“Defensively we looked to spoil more often and not fly for marks, which put us under less pressure down there.

“Normally (Kinnear) likes to sag off and sit in the hole but we asked him to tighten up a bit.

“He played on Kalpakis who’s kicked a few goals in the last couple of weeks, he might have had one or two shots on goal, which is a credit to Jackson, he played a selfless game.”

Kilmore jumped out to a 13-point lead as South Morang wasted a series of golden opportunities in front of goal, kicking 0.6 in the first term.

It would come back to haunt them as the Blues kicked out to a 19-point lead at half-time and three-quarter-time before finishing the job.

Scott Swindells booted three goals for Kilmore to be the most dangerous forward on the day, while Cayden Failla kicked a brace for South.

The result sees four teams on four wins – South Morang, Laurimar, Old Eltham Collegians and Kilmore – after the opening five rounds.

The Blues face Lalor and Mernda in the next fortnight while the Lions take on top-four rivals Laurimar and Collegians

After the heart-breaking loss to Laurimar, Phillips said the win was critical to Kilmore’s ambitions.

“We’re 20 seconds off being undefeated,” he said.

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“We’ve got Lalor and Mernda in the next two and South have got Laurimar and Eltham so we did talk about the fact if we were able to beat them then we’d level up the points.

“They’ve got two tough ones and we’ve got two we think are winnable so it could give us a nice buffer if they happen to drop one.

“I’m sure they’ll get a fair few guys back next week and be back to their best.”

In other NFL Division 2 results, Old Eltham (216) had a day out against Lalor (21), Laurimar (79) was too strong for Heidelberg West (23) and Mernda (135) secured its first win of the season against Reservoir (1).