Whittlesea recorded an impressive 52-point victory over Diamond Creek on Saturday at Coventry Oval to stretch its winning streak to six matches.
In the second Division 2 top of the table clash between the two sides, an Eagles win never looked in doubt after smashing the Creekers in all areas. They showed no signs of their inept first half last week, instead continuing on from their impressive second half against North Heidelberg in Round 9.
The Eagles got off to a flyer kicking the first goal of the match within the first minute thanks via Jeremy Page. Diamond Creek then had more of the ball but missed a number of scoring opportunities. Whittlesea responded with its second of the afternoon through Ben Russell after a beautiful switch of play out of defence.
The Creekers soon kicked their first goal through Luke Simpson after getting the centre clearance, however the Eagles recovered quickly. After a terrific diving chest mark, Laurence Umali moved the ball quickly to Brenton Briffa who kicked truly to give the visitors an 11-point lead.
A couple more goal exchanges saw out the first quarter with Whittlesea holding a 13-point lead.
The start of the second term saw the ball moving quickly from both ends of the ground but to no avail for either side. Marcus Webb finally kicked the breakthrough goal midway through the term and this extended the Eagles’ lead to 20 points.
But the Creekers got on the board in the second term after Daniel Padget kicking a beautiful running goal after his teammates got the ball out of the middle.
It was all we saw goal-wise for the second term with both teams’ kicking a further four behinds as the half-time margin remained the same as at quarter time. Rikki Stephens missed a chance after the siren which could have reduced the margin to eight points for Diamond Creek.
The Eagles blew the Creekers of the park in the third term piling on 5.6 to the Creekers’ one solitary goal. They dominated the centre clearances and the possession count to extend their lead to 43 points going into the final term.
The last quarter was much of the same, with the Eagles outscoring Diamond Creek 5.1 to 3.4, enabling them to record an impressive 52-point victory over their second-placed rival.
Matthew Atta, Briffa and Fairchild were amongst the Eagles best with Fairchild booting a game-high five goals. For the Creekers, Chris Moloney and Jedd McQueen were amongst the best in what was a pretty disappointing effort across the board.
Final score: Diamond Creek 7.10 (52) def by Whittlesea 15.14 (104)
