By Brad Kingsbury
ROC coach Hayden Stanton was happy to come away with four premiership points after his side overcame an undermanned, but determined Devon Meadows by 25 points on Saturday.
He said after the game that the Panthers were not to be underestimated at Glover Reserve and opponents that believed the preseason talk that Devon Meadows may not be competitive after player losses would suffer a rude shock.
“They were very competitive and they surprised us early,” he said. “It’s a hard ground to play good football at and Devon Meadows play their brand of football well there.
“I don’t know whether it was the players believing that they were just going to win easily or what, but I’m happy to take the points and get that game out of the way.”
The Panthers kicked three goals to none with a steady breeze in the first term and then banged on another four majors before ROC kicked its first goal midway through the second quarter. The halftime deficit was 28 points in the home team’s favour with the season’s first upset on the cards.
After the long break Devon Meadows began to struggle in the air after the loss of former Ashwood manmountain Darren Mottram, who suffered a serious ankle injury in the first quarter.
Kangaroo playmakers including Dean Blake, Michael Barker and Ben Waite took control around the ground and goalsneak Kevin Quinn became a target in attack with ROC grinding its way to a fourpoint lead at threequarter time.
The Kangaroos finished the game full of running to pull away in the end with Quinn bagging six goals in a bestonground effort.
Devon Meadows better performers included Rhyse Shortis, Matt Davey and former coach Craig Hunter.
TOORADIN is up and running in 2006 with a methodical 80point victory over a young and very green Cranbourne combination.
Seagulls’ coach Dan O’Loughlin had a tough day and missed the postmatch celebrations after being knocked out and suffering a broken nose in a collision during the second term.
Assistant coach Beau Miller and chairman of selectors Darren Sherrit took control and guided Cranbourne to an easy win set up by a flying start.
The Seagulls played their ground to perfection, booting six goals in the first term and backing that up with another five in the second quarter, while keeping their opponents to only one goal for the half.
O’Loughlin said that, although his recollection of the game after leaving the ground was minimal, his team’s start was the key to the result.
Cranbourne dug deeper after the long break with big man Marc Holt doing well in the air and Matt Thompson and Aaron Pike busy at ground level.
While the game was gone the visitors managed six goals to eight after halftime, to minimise what was looking like a massive loss.
Cranbourne coach Brett McMaster was a shining light across halfback for his side and did his best to drag his players into the contest but, as he stated last week, the largely homegrown crop of youngsters are on a steep learning curve.
Tooradin’s best included Miller, Tom O’Loughlin, Blake Batt, Aaron Setford and Jason Hucker, who booted five goals. The downside of the Seagulls’ win was a suspected seasonending broken leg to playmaker Ash Palmer.
KEYSBOROUGH was in party mode after making a 117point mess of Dingley and bouncing straight to the top of the 2006 ladder.
The win was the club’s first victory since it moved to the Casey Cardinia League at the end of the 2004 season and was led by loyal captain and fullforward Luke McGuinness, who finished the day with 10 goals.
Keysborough coach Paul Jefferies has recruited many new faces to the 2005 cellar dwellers with the desired result. Former AFL player and assistant coach Clinton King was among the Burra’s better players with Craig Earle, Matthew Smith and young gun Daniel Morland.
After a relatively even first term, Keysborough kicked away to a sevengoal lead at halftime and increased that margin steadily throughout the second half as the undermanned Dingoes fell away.
Dingley had triers in Rohan Watson, Jason Rahilly and Adam Sikora, but were no match for the newlook Keysborough side.
Keysborough won back the TyrellShorthouse trophy, which the two teams play for each time they meet.
