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

Nick Yarran was St Mary’s best in their four-goal win over Wanderers. Pic Glenn Campbell

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.”