Rupertswood’s Todd Podolczak boots six in RDFL’s AFL Victoria Community Championships win

Todd Podolczak produced a towering display as the Riddell District Football League claimed a nailbiting AFL Victoria Community Championships victory.

The RDFL celebrates its interleague triumph over the Central Highlands. Picture: SUPPLIED

Todd Podolczak produced a towering display as the Riddell District Football League claimed a nailbiting AFL Victoria Community Championships victory on Saturday.

Rupertswood’s Podolczak booted six goals in a low-scoring fixture at Buninyong Oval to spearhead his team’s three-point triumph over the Central Highlands league.

The RDFL trailed by eight points at the main break before a four-goal-to-one third term proved decisive.

The home side withstood a last-quarter charge from Central Highlands to claim a 9.13 (67) to 9.10 (64) win.

The RDFL entered the contest ranked 23rd in Victoria and is set to climb the list when the updated rankings are released this week.

Coach Arron Bray lauded the impact of Podolczak, who has kicked 80 goals from 25 games for Rupo since the start of 2017.

“Toddy was really our only noted goalkicker that we had in the side through various reasons and not having others available,” Bray said.

“We sort of worked out that (Mark) Gunnell would like to stay deep and wanted to stay as that home defender for Central Highlands, so we isolated Toddy.

“We just let him have pretty much the whole 50m arc to lead into and Gunnell kept laying off him. It worked out pretty good.”

Bray demanded a lift from his midfielders at the main break and got the desired response.

Brent Swallow (Rupertswood) and Tom Waters (Macedon) were other standouts, but Bray added the winning side didn’t “have a bad player”.

“It was a good, tough contest with a lot of high pressure around the footy. Our blokes responded pretty well after halftime, but they (Central Highlands) were pretty good early too,” Bray said.

“We probably just couldn’t break the game open. They just kept hanging in there.

“We put them (midfielders) in the spotlight. We were getting beaten at the coalface and we weren’t running hard enough, so we really put the heat on those guys.

“To their credit, they really responded well.”

The RDFL enjoyed a commanding win over the West Gippsland league in last year’s state carnival.