Reservoir and Lalor kicked off the 2026 season of Heidelberg Golf Club Division 3 football on Good Friday at Crispe Park, with the Mustangs recording an impressive 102-point victory.
In beautiful conditions for football, Reservoir had first use of the breeze. Lalor held up well early on, but Josh Mascara took a speccie and goaled to get the Mustangs going. The Mustangs piled on the majors in the middle stages of the term to make it a 6-goal to nil first term and were looking good on the spread as well as punishing their opponents’ errors. Lalor was matching it in the clinches, but Reservoir looked superior once the ball got out into the open spaces.
The Bloods looked energised early in the second quarter. Lenny Coco marked and goaled within the first minute of proceedings to give his team a spark. But they were unable to make further use of their turn with the wind at their backs.
The home team scored five unanswered majors for the rest of the first half to establish a match-winning 65-point lead at the main break.
Reservoir looked to increase the lead with the breeze in the third term and scored a further five majors, with Aaron Edwards kicking the final two before the last break. Lalor scored their only goal of the match into the wind courtesy of Shannon Smith.
The lead had blown out to 91-points at the orange break. In his address to the players, Lalor coach Lance Whitnall noted that players were often creating turnovers by kicking off a step and missing their targets. He urged the players to take time if necessary from a mark, hit their targets and aim to get some momentum.
But making matters tough was game-ending injuries to team leaders Hirsi Twomey and Hayden Chapman. The loss of Twomey in the second quarter was especially significant as he was the sole genuine ruckman on the day. Justin Bentley spent a lot of time in the ruck after that, which limited his impact as a quality midfielder.
The final term was the best statistically for the Bloods, losing it three goals to four and moving the ball very well at times. Mark Roumanos was a forward target for them and booted two majors late in the game. Sam Rexhepi had spent some time deep in defence at times but moved forward for the final quarter and hit the scoreboard.
Aaron Edwards finished off the day with a bag of seven goals for the Mustangs, while small forward Salvatore Mamone booted four. Wearing the number 29, Mamone looked and played a lot like Boomer Harvey. Dean Jeffrey also chipped in with three goals.
An area in which Reservoir excelled was their ground ball work. When they won the ball on the deck in the forward fifty, it often resulted in a goal. In defence, they were able to get the ball into open space and then send it the length of the ground without an opponent touching the ball.
“I was really pleased with our ball movement and the team played with cohesion”, said new Reservoir coach Steve Krstevski. He liked the work of James Tadd in the engine room and gave ticks to Nicholas Miliaresis, Salvatore Mamone, James El Moussalli and Josh Grabowski. The other pleasing aspect was that it was an even performance with everyone contributing to the victory.
With the key injuries, things weren’t so bright in the other rooms. “We’ve got to work on our skills”, said Lalor coach Lance Whitnall. “When our skills improve, we will improve.”
Whitnall praised Shannon Smith who stood out as clearly the best for his side. He also gave high grades to defenders Luke O’Keefe and Zac Orr. Orr had the task on Edwards and his coach noted that he won lots of one-on-one battles with Edwards in a game where Edwards got plenty of good supply.
Both teams get a week off now, with Lalor next playing Epping at Epping Recreational Reserve. Reservoir has back-to-back home games in hosting Watsonia who they haven’t faced since their 2015 premiership season. The Saints did play division 3 in 2016, but the Mustangs were in recess that year.
