South Morang have produced one of their best performances in the 2023 MC Labour Division 2 season, after putting together an impressive 79-point victory over Watsonia in Sunday’s elimination final at Epping Recreation Reserve.
Having had a shaky run into the game, the Lions were further hampered minutes before the first bounce with their star forward Gary Moorcroft being a late out.
Though once proceedings started, the change of plans mattered little, with Gary Hall’s side saving their most complete effort for the year for when it mattered, claiming a 19.13 (127) to 6.12 (48) victory.
Joshua D’Intinosante was the star of the show up forward, making up for Moorcroft’s loss by kicking a season high of six majors, which made it 19 goals in his last six matches.
In a game where the Lions had a lot of notable contributors, he arguably had the largest impact, as the Saints’ back-six had no answers for the Lions spearhead who relished the role of being the side’s focal point up forward.
Liam Jolly also contributed well with five goals of his own while Tye Hall was electric around the ground, with his grunt work out of the middle proving pivotal, as he won plenty of the ball to drive his side forward.
Deacon Kalpakis meanwhile led a terrific display down back for the Lions, keeping a dangerous Watsonia forward line to having little impact on the match.
For the Saints, Ben Callaghan was a shining light for his side, getting plenty of the football and having an impact on the contest at times. Meanwhile, Luke Whyte and Owen Davidson also had solid performances in the losing effort.
Never able to conjure more than two consecutive goals together for the game, George Lattouf’s men failed to find their rhythm and ended their season on a disappointing note after being one of the big improvers in the competition during the home and away campaign.
Starting off hot, the Lions looked the stronger of the two sides, kicking the opening two goals of the contest in quick fashion through Mitchell Kalpakis and Liam Jolly.
Despite the Saints pegging one back 14 minutes in, the quick opening to the game would set the tone for how the rest of the quarter played out, as South Morang score five unanswered goals in the space of just eight minutes to lead by 38 points at the first break.
They would face little resistance in the second term despite Corey Potter doing his best for Watsonia, booting two of his side’s three goals for the quarter.
D’Intinosante, Jolly and Kain Hall each combined with majors throughout the second quarter and helped extend the margin out to 43 points by half time.
A major in the opening minute of the third quarter from Jacob Pickett attempted to spark something for Watsonia, but a quick reply from Kain Hall removed the impact of Pickett’s major on the game.
Blake Charles then found the big sticks to make it a 37-point match in the middle stages of the term, not an impossible margin to Watsonia to chase, but still an incredibly difficult one.
But South Morang soon extinguished any hope of a Saints fightback, kicking three goals in three minutes to all but seal the triumph with a quarter to play.
One of those goalkickers was James Traianou who kicked his first senior goal since his debut game with the Lions during his first stint at the club in 2019.
He finished with two majors for the day, capping off an impressive game for the defender, with his run and carry off half-back and his presence up forward proving to have an impact on the game.
South Morang ended the match with four unanswered goals in the last quarter, setting up a massive first semi-final with St Mary’s next week.
