WHITTLESEA held off a rampant Lalor in the final term to secure a stirring 14-point victory at Lalor Reserve in Round 11 of Division 2.
The 15.11 (101) to 13.9 (87) win was capped off by a superb display by Eagles’ skipper Andrew Fairchild, who kicked four goals, while ruckman Chris Horman floated around the ground and was a valuable asset in both attack and defence.
The game began with Lalor looking the better of the two sides and proved it on the scoreboard, with Spencer Christopher kicking the opening goal of the game.
The Eagles tried to reply with a goal of their own, but any attempts to trouble the scoreboard were dashed by sloppy entries into the forward line.
Whittlesea, however was eventually able to find its composure and add its first goal of the game through Matt Dornauf.
Dornauf’s goal would spark a flurry for the Eagles, with Matthew Atta, Jai Robinson, Andrew Fairchild and Ben Russell all adding to the tally, while Lalor failed to add another major in the first quarter.
The second term saw Lalor kicking with the wind that helped Whittlesea kick six first-quarter goals. The Bloods took advantage of the breeze and kicked five goals, thanks to two majors to Scott Morrison, while Jarrod King, Timothy Murphy and Spencer Christopher all added singles.
However, unlike Whittlesea in the opening quarter, the Bloods failed to reduce the Eagles scoring spree into the wind and could only reduce the margin by four points during the second term.
The Eagles were accurate with their conversion rate, kicking four goals from their six attempts.
The half time interval would have been a time for Bloods coach Steve Marshall to urge his side to play with more intensity and convert from forward half possession.
The third term could not have started off any worse for the Bloods, with Whittlesea kicking the first two goals of the quarter through Janan Daniel and Brenton Briffa.
With their side down by 36 points, the Lalor faithful found their voice and tried to motivate their team. The spirit of the locals could soon be seen vividly in the Bloods’ ruthless style of play.
Crunching tackles and hard contested football were mainstay in the Bloods style of play and this proved fruitful with Ben Curtiss, Scott Morrison and Shannon Smith all kicking goals to reduce the margin to 19 points, heading into the final term.
With momentum shifting in favour of the Bloods, the Eagles needed to start the final quarter strongly to dash any hopes of a Bloods’ fight back.
The Eagles did just that with Fairchild kicking his fourth for the game, while Cameron Conlon and Paul Higgins both added behinds to increase the lead to 27 points.
But Lalor wasn’t going to die wondering and continued to play with the ruthless aggression which kick-started the fight back in the third term.
Scott Dowell, Timothy Murphy, Jhey Baddeley-Kelly and Spencer Christopher all kicked truly to reduce the margin to 11 points deep into the final term.
But just as it seemed Lalor would come home with a historic win, Matt Dornauf – the man who also kicked the opening goal for the Eagles – would seal the victory for the visitors by kicking accurately with a few minutes remaining.
As the siren sounded the jubilations of the Whittlesea players and fans could be seen by all, with their side now sitting third on the Division 2 ladder, just two points outside the top two.
Lalor was left to wonder what might have been if it had been more competitive in the opening half.
Final score: Lalor 13.9 (87) def by Whittlesea 15.11 (101)
