Lower Plenty and Thomastown share the spoils in NFL Division 2 grudge match

Thomastown coach Mario Bandera found plenty of positives as his team shared the points in a brutal battle against flag rival Lower Plenty.

Lower Plenty and Thomastown draw. Picture: Nathan McNeill

Thomastown coach Mario Bandera was philosophical after Saturday’s nail-biting draw against Lower Plenty.

“I’ve never been involved in a draw and people say it’s an empty feeling but I was feeling pretty positive leaving the ground,” he said.

“It’s validation for our players that we can mix it with Lower.

“It’s shows our progression as a group and two points is better than no points.

“We might have kicked the last goal but we never had a chance to win it so that probably helps the feeling of two points is better than none as well.”

Lower Plenty and Thomastown draw. Picture: Nathan McNeill

It was the heavyweight clash between two NFL Division 2 premiership contenders that had been advertised.

Lower Plenty and Thomastown went punch for punch for two hours at Montmorency Park and both teams walked away with a share of the spoils.

A low-scoring arm-wrestle exploded in the final term.

The two teams had combined for just 11 goals in the opening three quarters before seven majors were kicked in a thrilling finale.

Lower Plenty will be left to rue missed opportunities, kicking 4.5 in the fourth quarter, as it finished 9.10 (64) to 10.4 (64).

Trailing as the match entered the final minutes, Salvatore Mamone rescued two points for the visitors with his first goal of the day.

Bandera said a difficult opening five rounds would hold the club in good stead of the rest of the season.

“Adrian Natoli said it after the game, the maturity of our group, we would have lost that game 12 months ago,” he said.

“You’ve only got to look at the Banyule game (in Round 2), we weren’t able to finish it off and how disappointing that was.

“We have to experience the Banyule game to learn how to finish the Lower Plenty game and that’s a positive we can take out of it.”

Michael Tang continued his goal-scoring form with four majors to sit second on the competition’s goalkicking charts behind Watsonia’s Kyle Wheatley.

Lower’s Billy Barden and Thomastown’s Ben Nesci both kicked two goals and sit equal fourth with 13.

Daniel Chadwick was best on ground in conditions that suited his contested ball-winning ability while Jarryd Coulson and Josh Beare also impressed for the visitors.

Alex Alderton (two goals), Jordan Sacco and Darcy Barden impressed for the home team.

With several players missing, Matthew Vasilevski made his return to senior football for Thomastown.

Bandera said the club’s depth was a big positive to take from the game.

“We had six senior players (test positive) during the week and add onto that Ross Hatzis breaking his arm against Fitzroy Stars and Anthony Capeci and Daniel Bramich still out,” he said.

“With those six COVID outs we’re probably eight or nine deep injury wise and that’s what I take out of it.

“Building depth is something we’ve tried to do, and that’s not taking anything away from Lower, what I’m trying to say is it’s an indication our depth is pretty good.

“On the other side of the coin, the conditions probably helped and their ground size probably helped us.”

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Capeci (ankle) and Bramich (hamstring) lost their races to be fit for Saturday but are expected to be ready for next week’s clash against Eltham.

However, Costa Missailidis will miss several weeks with a hamstring strain.

Both teams will look to bounce back to winning ways in Round 6 with Thomastown to travel to Eltham, while Lower Plenty visits Panton Hill.

In other Division 2 results, Banyule (87) outgunned Panton Hill (44), Eltham (138) routed Epping (21), Diamond Creek (46) edged St Mary’s (28) and Watsonia (97) was too good for Fitzroy Stars (38).