Nick Yarran leads a St Mary’s charge that delivers a 26-point win over Wanderers
St Mary’s midfield supplies a constant diet of football to their forwards in a convincing win over Wanderers
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ST MARY’S led at every change in the game against Wanderers at TIO Stadium
yesterday, before running out 26-point winners - 12.9 (81) to 8.7 (55).
Saints midfielder Nick Yarran grabbed everything in sight at the centre
bounces early in the game and got his team away to a flyer.
The Green Machine scored a brace of goals inside two minutes of the opening bounce.
With livewire half forward Joseph Salmon on fire, two more Saints majors followed. Wanderers defenders finally woke up and with Braedon McLean and Daniel Weetra
running hard and wide, and the Eagles steadied with two goals of their own before
the quarter-time break.
With a solitary goal to each team in the second quarter, the term belonged to
Muk Muk defensive pair McLean and Weetra.
Equally effective were Saints deep defenders, cousins Jack and Jake Long.
Despite kicking into a strong breeze, Saints had the better of the third quarter
– it was tall key forward, Dylan Johnstone, with two goals who was the major
focus for the Greens.
The story of the game was that Saints had a dominant midfield, led by Yarran
and Tom Gilbert, and too many scoring options.
On the other hand, Wanderers were heavily reliant on Joel Jeffrey (four goals) and Davin Ferreira (three goals) to keep their side of the scoreboard ticking along.
Yarran, in a relatively new role as midfielder, believes he is now at a stage
where he can play any position the coach desires.
“Chopper (Saints coach Anthony Vallejo) said before the game to do what you do,
just go hard at it. Obviously, I can play mid, back or forward and I got a couple
of clearances today and I’m pretty happy with that,” Yarran said.
“We finished bottom last year and have got a lot to prove – especially me who
was a part of that team. I don’t want to go back there, and so far we are pretty
happy at the club.”