Slow start dulls Dusties

by Nicholas Duck
A scoreless first quarter has seen Warragul Industrials downed by 27 points despite a spirited fight against Nar Nar Goon.
Coming up against the reigning premiers on their home deck and kicking against the breeze, the Dusties found themselves 31 points down at quarter time with their side of the scoreboard showing doughnuts.
From there they were able to launch a fightback, putting on immense pressure and drawing within as close as 11 points early in the last quarter with some of their best play in weeks.
You can't give a side like the Goon that much of a head start though, and their immense quality around the ground eventually won out, handing the visitors their third defeat of the season 9.6 (60) to 12.15 (87).
The game was also our first good look at the Dusties' forward line in a post-Mason McGarrity world. The star small forward was confirmed to have torn his ACL last week against Dalyston, leaving the club without their most likely goalkicker for the rest of the season.
Standing up in his absence was fellow Neerim premiership player Lachlan Bambridge, who kicked three goals and provided a strong aerial presence in his best performance of the season.
Boadie Motton crashed and bashed as per usual against the Goon's vaunted engine room, winning plenty of possessions to be named Warragul Industrials' top performer for the day.
Michael Debenham had plenty of class with ball in hand as he shut down Goon danger man Ryan Bromley while Brenton Hillard joined Motton in scrapping and clawing at the contest with some immense tackling pressure.
Jeremy Monckton patrolled the wings nicely as Todd Beck also impressed with his decision making and clean hands.
For Nar Nar Goon it was the Pipicellis leading the charge. Both Aidan and Nate had plenty of say on the day, with big Nate boosting the team's ruck stocks in his first game since round one.
Tylah Stokoe backed up his three-goal performance last week with another strong showing as Jed Smith and Flynn Parker were both excellent.
Jacob Keysers provided a nice target and finished with two goals, beaten only by another bag of four to the high-flying Dermott Yawney.
While the Goon dominated the territory game early on it took 10 minutes for them to make it count when a free kick gave Stokoe the first.
A great tackle from Jed Murphy on running rebounder Matt Herbert was rewarded for the Goon's second before Yawney and Lachlan Modica both chipped in to give the home side a commanding lead despite a host of misses.
With the challenge laid out in front of them the Dusties began the climb with a Bambridge long bomb beauty of a shot.
Tensions rose a tad after Goy Lok kicked a goal and immediately had some words for Luke Bettio afterwards as the Dusties crept closer.
Dusties coach Bob McCallum wound back the clock at one stage, losing his opponent in the ruck and snapping a wonderful goal but for as good as the Dusties were, key Nar Nar Goon goals – including a late one to Matt Cross – hurt their efforts.
The teams went blow for blow in the third term as Yawney brought down a genuine screamer of a mark to show his skill in the air as well as on the ground.
A brilliant chase and tackle by Hayden Baker on the much larger James Cairns saw him convert to keep the Dusties' hopes alive heading into the last.
Those hopes only increased early in the fourth after consecutive goals to Bambridge and Todd Beck brought the deficit back to just 13 points.
As they've so often done, however, Nar Nar Goon's stars stood up when required.
Yawney bounced through a major – albeit after a seemingly blatant push in the back on Tim Hancock went uncalled – and Jacob Keysers marked and goaled from the pocket to give the Goon their breathing space back.
And when Yawney swung around for his fourth it was game over.
McCallum said the game was lost in the first quarter.
"It just put us on the back foot too much. We had a plan and just didn't execute it well enough," he said.
"Nar Nar Goon pressed up and didn't give us much space as we knew they would but we didn't handle it well enough."
McCallum was far more pleased with his side's efforts past quarter time.
"Our overall pressure was up and I feel like we got back to that standard we had against Koo wee rup which gave us second chances.
"I think all in all with the last three weeks we've been pretty disappointing with the way we've been playing so it was really nice to get our pressure back up."
While Nar Nar Goon are back atop the ladder and have won their past 15 home games, Warragul Industrials have now won just one of their past four.
With McGarrity now gone they'll want to bank some wins with a favourable draw over the next few weeks, beginning with Tooradin-Dalmore at home this Saturday.