SFNL: East Brighton’s Tom Lamb has kicked 16 goals in two weeks

East Brighton coach Nick Jewell has sung the praises of “class” forward Tom Lamb after he continued his dazzling purple patch at the weekend.

Tom Lamb celebrates a goal. (Photo by Josh Chadwick)

East Brighton coach Nick Jewell says star forward Tom Lamb is in “that sweet hitting zone”.

Lamb followed up his seven-goal haul last week against Springvale Districts with another nine in Saturday’s thrashing win over Mordialloc.

The former AFL-Eagle has kicked 16 majors in two weeks – and 34 for the year – to rush to second in the league goal kicking.

Lamb sits seven goals behind St Paul’s McKinnon’s Matthew Kreymborg, but that gap could have been smaller if it wasn’t for six behinds on Saturday.

Jewell thinks Lamb’s contested marking up the ground is the most impressive element of his form.

“He’s winning a lot of 40-60 (metres out) ball at the moment, some of his marking in packs has been outstanding,” he said.

“Last year he got most of his opportunities on the lead, he was mostly playing out of the goalsquare and (Nick) Corp was playing a bit higher.

“This year we’ve swapped them around, they do swap and change in game, but he (Lamb) is taking a lot of strong, contested marks.

“I think he kicked 9.6 on the weekend and a couple of games he’s kicked 1.5 so he could have another 10 or 15 goals to his name.

“He’s enjoying his footy, he’s in that sweet hitting zone at the moment and playing really well.”

Tom Lamb celebrates a goal. (Photo by Josh Chadwick)

Lamb’s purple patch is even more impressive considering he has been training less due to work.

“He’s a shift worker so he’s had a few issues in the last couple of weeks getting to training,” Jewell said.

“He’s going into games fresh he reckons, not training too much, I think he’s trying to roll with that for the rest of the year.

“He had two good nights on the track during the week but the couple of weeks before that he hadn’t been able to get to training, this week he did and it showed.

“He’s a class player and he’s enjoying what’s going on at the moment so I am looking forward to the back end of the year with him.”

The Vampires boosted their percentage by holding Mordialloc goalless in the 17.15 (117) to 0.2 (2) victory.

Jewell was pleased by the efforts of the back six but said the midfielders got to work after being “exposed” at stoppage.

“We rolled Tyrren Head and Cale Love-Linay back there and then our other guys are really good one-on-one defenders, they do a great job,” he said.

“We focused on a bit of midfield and stoppage work because we’ve been exposed there the last couple of weeks, I think we can be a bit tighter in scenarios.”

Mitchell Backman of East Brighton. (Photo by Josh Chadwick)

Liam Harris, Declan Joyce-Lawford, Kyle Hutchison, Sonny Moore and Rob Forrest were with Lamb as the Vampires’ best while Luke Goddard, Luis Soto, Dawit McNeish, Matthew Corcoran, Michael Gallagher and Braydan Moren fought hard for the Bloodhounds.

East Brighton has just announced Andrew Moore as its under-19s coach for 2025, with the the Vampires expected to get its first thirds side up in almost 10 years.

Elsewhere, Cheltenham narrowly avoided its first defeat, edging out Cranbourne by 21 points.

The Rosellas and Eagles were poised for another thriller but the visitors pulled away in the last to win 9.15 (69) to 6.12 (48).

Ollie Moran once again showed his class with another best-afield performance while Zak Roscoe was also impressive.

Dingley has gone eight points clear of Springvale Districts in third after the Dingoes held off the Demons, 7.11 (53) to 6.8 (44).

The Dingoes’ threw star defender Kristen Feehan forward in the fourth quarter with Caleb Lewis sidelined with an injured ankle and it proved a masterstroke, as Feehan kicked an important goal for the Dingoes.

Port Melbourne Colts won heavily over Chelsea Heights, 14.13 (97) to 6.8 (44).

Chan Hargraves kicked another seven goals after hurting his groin with his very first kick on VFL debut three weeks ago.

St Paul’s McKinnon star Matthew Kreymborg did his chances of a third Southern league best and fairest no harm with another big day against Bentleigh.

Kreymborg booted five goals in the Bulldogs’ 16.11 (107) to 12.11 (83) win over the Demons.