Hurstbridge has moved to second on the Melbourne Greyhounds Division 1 ladder, prevailing over a gallant Bundoora by 13 points.
The Bridges didn’t have it all their own way however on the NFNL’s Match of the Day, having to overcome a slow start to register their fourth win of the Division 1 season.
The Bulls had the best of the opening quarter as Luke Lo Valvo earned a free kick and converted a neat set shot to open Bundoora’s account, before Rohan McRae did the same a short time later. Some quick hands from a boundary throw in found Adrian De Sando who produced a crafty finish to give Bundoora an early 19-point lead.
Ryder Jones brought his own footy in the first quarter with eleven disposals and three marks as he continually dropped back into defence to support Michael Fitz-Gerald who had the job on Hurstbridge spearhead Joel Naylor. Bundoora’s clear focus was to ensure Naylor was rarely one-out with his defender inside 50.
Hurstbridge captain Ethan Taylor stemmed the flow with his first goal of the day at the other end, but Bundoora gun Isaac McMillan restored the lead to 19 points at the first change with his rushed kick from a forward stoppage sailing through as the siren sounded.
Alarm bells would have been ringing in the home side’s coaching box after Liam Mallia finished off some grunt work from Jack Maruff to start the second term and put Bundoora 25 points in front, laying down the gauntlet for the Bridges. Mallia could have had a second goal in as many minutes after a free kick gave him another look at the goals from out wide on the boundary, but he couldn’t convert the tough shot – much to the delight of the home crowd fans.
Frustration was starting to creep in for Hurstbridge, evidenced by a crude bump in a marking contest from Naylor which earned him a yellow card and a spell on the bench. He’d been well contained by the Bulls to that point, without a shot on goal.
Ethan Taylor was doing all he could to try and lift his side, converting a turnover from a Bundoora kick in for his second goal and from there the Bridges started to get rolling. An up and under kick from Cameron Wild gave the forwards a chance to fly, before Taylor got his positioning at the contest spot on to gather the loose ball and dribble home his third of the day.
Hurstbridge was starting to get on top at ground level, with Blake Fitzgerald and Cameron Wild leading the way with plenty of contested possessions and clearances between them.
Matthew Johnson returned to the Bulls line up and made an impact with a nice sliding mark before going back and cooly slotting a long-range attempt from outside the arc. Caelan Anderson matched that effort for Hurstbridge with an even better set shot out on the boundary at the other end of the ground a short time later.
The frenetic rhythm from the start of the game settled as both field and boundary umpires were working overtime with repeat stoppages around the ground. Nash Dyer was front and centre as the ball came off hands at the top of Hurstbridge’s attacking goal square to cut Bundoora’s lead to just seven points.
The Bulls had a couple of opportunities to extend the lead in the shadows of half time, but went to the break having their lead trimmed from 19 to eight points at the long break.
Kain Hall found a patch of space inside 50 to start the third term and dribbled through his first goal of the afternoon to give the home fans something to cheer about, before a Bulls turnover at half back resulted in Cameron Wild slamming home the go-ahead goal.
Both sides found scoring hard to come by until Mitch Wild spotted up Cooper Perrin, who converted a set shot directly in front as Hurstbridge started to gain the ascendancy, stringing three unanswered goals together across the third term and headed to the final break nine points in front.
Luke Lo Valvo looked like he might be the danger man for Bundoora, shimmying away from his defender to kick his second goal of the day and give the Bulls a spark. A towering contested mark and goal by Peter McEvoy put the Bulls back in front as momentum was wrestled away from Hurstbridge. The Bulls skipper was starting to have an impact in the front half and looked the most dangerous of the Bundoora forwards, forming an effective partnership with ruckman Liam Kolar across the afternoon.
Cameron Wild snuck out the back of Bundoora’s defensive press and was able to roll through his second goal to put the home side back in front. Hurstbridge’s pressure started to come to the fore as Jack Smith ran down Lachlan Urbon at half forward and Nash Dyer was on the end of the turnover to make it an eleven-point game. Bundoora answered almost instantly through O’Neill Moncrieff whose set shot never looked like missing, both sides trading goals and momentum swings in a terrific game of footy.
After some stellar defensive efforts from the likes of Lachlan East and Noah Barnes, it was Kain Hall who had the decisive shot at goal, taking a one-on-one contested mark in the goal square and putting the result beyond doubt, Hurstbridge improving their record to 4-1 with a determined win.
Bundoora would lose no admirers however and when their stars come to play as they did for most of the afternoon, they’ll certainly be pushing for a top five spot in 2026. This game could well have been a preview of a finals fixture later in the season.
