Blues press on over Hawks

by Mitchell Berechree
After six rounds, the Mid Gippsland ladder is finally starting to take some shape.
Five of the top six places are owned by sides who played finals last year with the single change seeing Tarwin grabbing the sixth spot Boolarra had last season.
Foster look to have a march on the rest, racking up some huge scores and remain the only undefeated side in the competition. Such has their scoring been they almost have a two game lead as even if they drop a game, which hasn't looked likely all year, the second placed side will still need to match their percentage to take top spot from them.
The battle for the coveted second place remains wide open with up to four sides having realistic claim to the double chance at season's end. Two of these sides went head to head on Saturday and produced the kind of footy worthy of such a position when Fish Creek made the trip to Yinnar.
Thorpdale v Morwell East
Thorpdale did what they needed in collecting the win over a plucky Morwell East 16-11-107 to 8-11-59.
As a result of their win the Blues find themselves fourth on the ladder with a two game margin back to seventh. With scores close at the first change the game opened up somewhat in the second.
Both sides hit the scoreboard with regularity, but it was the more poised Thorpy forwards who took advantage of their chances kicking 4-2 to East's 1-6.
The home side found a gear after the long break and put enough separation between themselves and their opponents to cruise to a comfortable win.
Best on ground Ayden Ramm kicked three with a trio of players slotting two. The most interesting of those names is undoubtedly Anthony Rosato who played his first game of the season for Thorpy.
Ramm was joined in the best players list by Shannon Pickering who seems to get better year in year out and the hyphen, James Holland-Burch. For East Brandon Francis kicked three and Hayden Dwyer two. Eric Semler, who kicked the last goal of the game was best for the Hawks along with Dwyer and ruckman Lachlan Tactor.
Foster v Hill End
The league's only remaining undefeated side, Foster, did what they have been doing all season when racking up a monster win over Hill End 27-13-175 to 4-8-32.
They are going so well in all aspects of their game that their quarter time score was in fact enough to match their opponent's efforts for the entire match.
Coach Jake Best who booted 10, to make it 17 majors over the last fortnight, said the "first quarter was a really good hit out with Hill End booting the first two goals, but then we got the game on our terms".
And when those terms include having Angus Norton, Jack Flavelle, who kicked five, and Bailey Angwin as the best trio on the park it is going to be hard for any side to top.
For Hill End Seth Calway was the only multiple goal scorer with Ambu Uliando, Aaron Fawcett and Harry Moore named their best.
They have been competitive with some good sides this year Hill End and are on a steep learning curve but as coach Tom Hallinan surmised post-game, saying they got "a dreadful reality check" after their visit to Foster.
Yinnar v Fish Creek
Fish Creek prevailed in an instant classic over Yinnar on Saturday by just five points. The weather and crowd at Yinnar provided a finals like feel and so did the footy played between the two terrific sides.
Despite looking to have the game wrapped up several times Fish Creek had to scrap and fight to the last second to hold on for the result. In fact, the Creek led at every change and had what could almost be considered a safe four goal lead heading into the last term before holding out a fast finishing Magpie side 16-12-107 to 16-7-105.
The game promised plenty and didn't fail to deliver despite Yinnar captain Ben Cheffers consigned to the runner's role and Fish Creek's cult hero William McTaggart not taking the park.
In Cheffers' absence it was James Jacobsen who set the tone at the first bounce for the Pies with a huge tackle that saw Yinnar into attack inside the first few seconds.
Despite Yinnar having the first two scores of the game it was Fish Creek's Levi Cocksedge who kicked the opener after some excellent work upfield from Jack Davis, who found himself in the best for the Kangaroos for his game.
And when a Blake Van Der Meer turnover saw Charlie Wilson pop up for the first of his five for the day the visitors were up and running, leading two goals to none early on.
Desperate to open their account it was Mick Geary who snapped truly from a boundary stoppage to get things underway for Yinnar after almost 20 minutes of toil. And when his partner in crime, Kane Grinstead-Jones, was awarded a 50 metre penalty after a strong mark, Yinnar looked to have done enough to lead at the first break.
Enter first gamer Mason Thomson. It is fair to say when he took possession of the ball at the 23-minute mark on the last line of defence the last thing on his mind was a goal.
After a pair of 50 metre penalties however the young fellow found himself 35 out directly in front of goal. When he kicked truly he was swamped by his teammates and with the siren sounding shortly thereafter the travelling team went to their huddle with their noses just in front.
In a game that ebbed and flowed between freewheeling footy and absolute brutality at times the second quarter saw Fishy bang on six of the best with Yinnar managing four of their own in a quarter of footy that had it all.
Firstly it was the Kangaroos' Luke Williams who goaled, then after a two bounce run from half back McColl, who was named best on for Yinnar, found Geary who kicked his second from a trademark strong overhead grab. Then Charlie Wilson took advantage of another Yinnar half back turn over to snap truly before Will Robertson finished of the good work of Seb Famularo for another to Yinnar.
The Creek were taking advantage of their centre clearance dominance, which they won 11 to one in the second term according to Gippsland FMs Sam Crane, and were it not for Grinstead Jones slotting a late one for the Pies the damage would have been greater than the 22-point margin Fishy took to the main change.
When Grinstead-Jones marked on the goal line to open the third term it looked like the margin would be reduced again and the home side might get a run on.
Yinnar needed to make a stand and what better way to reduce the margin than back to back goals without the ball being bounced. Tom Roberston, who was excellent all day, kicked a goal and let his opponent Jarrad Walker know about it.
When Harvey McKay, who played what may have been his best ever senior game, kicked a goal of the day contender which was followed up by another by Geary the margin was better than manageable and the Pies loomed large.
The last quarter was an amazing contest. Players from both sides crashed in. They tackled hard, an amazing forty one laid by the two sides in the last term alone.
The final few minutes saw the ball take up residence in the Yinnar front half. So much did they dominate territory they led the inside 50 count 25 to eight for the term.
But as soon as it entered the forward 50 Rhett Weidemann or Jack Hayes, enormous all day in his trademark long sleeve jersey, repelled attack after attack until finally, with Seb Famularo ready to kick it into the Yinnar front 50 yet again, the siren sounded to end a terrific contest. Fish Creek by five points.
To my eye Harry McColl, who swapped between half back and ruck, was exceptional for Yinnar. Geary was elite, Walsh outstanding and McKay played like he was closer to 30 years of age than just 18. Flynn Schill too came into the game when he saw some midfield minutes from just before half time.
For Fish Creek Weidemann was awesome. Jacko more so than Rhett but Rhett was good too. Wilson provided the option they were looking for in McTaggart's absence and Williams was in everything.
Boolarra v Newborough
After looking to hit the lead part way through the last term, Boolarra were over run again this week when they went down to Newborough 7-9-51 to 10-13-73.
With the Demons players celebrating what they thought was the go-ahead goal, the umpires conferred to overrule the score and seemingly suck the life out of the home side who coughed up the last five scores of the game to go down by 22 points.
With last week's goal kicking heroes coach Brendan Mason and Matt Devon restricted to a single between them this week, it was left to David Kruse to do the heavy lifting in the Dees front half.
Ruckman Tim Dowe and mids Tim Potter and Joel Mason joined him among the better players for the home side. Coach Brendan Mason said post-game he thought his side "had turned a corner the last couple weeks but unfortunately we fell back into some old habits and Newborough capitalised."
For the visitors it was Nathan Wheildon, who is coming into some serious form, that was best on. Jack Robinson who kicked a pair for the Dogs joined Wheildon among the best along with Matt Rowlings and Brody Young. Josh Pearce helped himself to three goals to join Young and Robinson as the multiple goal kickers for the winners.
MDU v Toora
After last week's loss to Stony Creek, MDU coach Rhett Kelly referenced "effort" ad-nauseum to anyone who'd listen. So, you just had to know the Demons would come out firing this week.
And so it was, as MDU bounced back to the winners list with some authority rolling an inaccurate Toora, 20-6-126 to 5-10-40.
They jumped the visiting Toora and kept then off the scoreboard in the first quarter before kicking five goals to three in the second term to lead by the best part of five goals at the main break. Patrick Kerr, who missed last week's game, welcomed himself back into the fold with a dozen of the finest to take his season's tally to 21 from just the four games.
Tarwin v Stony Creek
Tarwin chalked up win number three from their five games to sit a game clear of Newborough in sixth spot. Knowing Stony Creek would arrive full of confidence after last week's win over MDU the Sharks set an ambush and led 3-4-22 to a single point at the first change.
Post game Stony Creek coach Troy Shepherdson reflected on the fast start, noting it "was the difference in the contest, with their fast ball movement and straight kicking setting the tone."
With the next three quarters seeing Tarwin boot 12 goals to an inaccurate Stony Creek's 10 to win 15-9-99 to 10-10-70 it is hard to argue with his assessment.
Remm Dal Pozzo slotted four for Tarwin with Brodie Senior-Gibson grabbing three. Dal Pozzo was joined in the best by Jordan Staley and Lucan Harmer for the winners.
Bye: Mirboo North