East Geelong has put what coach Ned Aulsebrook labelled “a poor month of football” in the rearview mirror in beating fellow GDFNL premiership contender Belmont Lions by 53 points at Richmond Crescent.
After scraping past Bannockburn by one point before the split round, the Eagles suffered rare consecutive losses in Aulsebrook’s tenure, to North Geelong and Werribee Centrals, with last week’s defeat by the Centurions the heaviest in his time at the Eagles.
“Last week, I felt like we got the contest right, but our ball movement wasn’t there,” he said.
“This week, we identified that as an area we really wanted to get right. And if it meant we were leaking easy goals, so be it.
“And it worked. That was the best we’ve looked with ball in hand all year, and the front half of the ground looked really, really good one-on-one.”
Those one-on-one contests allowed forward trio Caleb Ezard, Andrew Steele, and Zac Smith to kick ten goals between them.
Ezard finished with four goals for his best return in an injury-interrupted season, with Steele and Smith contributing three apiece.
“It was a really good look for us, and, to be honest, something that we’ve been looking forward to seeing since ‘Flez’ (Ezard) went down,” Aulsebrook said.
“‘Steeley’ took a little bit to get going in a new side, and Zach’s been flying.
“But to have those three up there and have a couple of games into Flez, Steely’s in some really good form up the ground, and it makes it really tough for opposition defenders when you’ve got three guys who can mark pretty much anywhere one-on-one to match up on.
“‘Flez’ kicked four today; it was his turn.
“But there’s always generally one matchup we really like and we try to isolate that.
“It was a really good look today and something that’s pretty exciting going into the back end of the season.”
Aulsebrook was also impressed with East Geelong’s defensive unit, which, despite being without key pair Tim Lee and Paddy O’Brien-Henderson due to injury, kept the Lions to their lowest score of the season.
“Paddy and Tim Lee went down on Thursday night at training with injuries, and we were thinking, ‘What do we do?’,” Aulsebrook said.
“Do we leave Aussie (Mulvahil) down there? Because we were looking at playing Aussie up the ground a bit more this week, which we stuck to.
“It was probably the least experienced back seven we’ve had all year.
“And whether it was the pressure up the ground from the mids, which was better than it’s been in a few weeks, but the jobs that were done down there by guys like ‘Dicko (Jack Dickson), ‘Monas’ (Harris Monahan), and ‘Fano’ (Jayden Fanning), especially, were exceptional.
“And it makes it really easy when we’re getting those rebound 50s, and punches that are going 30 metres.
“Even if the ball was coming in hot, there was getting the first in and really competing, and that was a real shining light today, considering we were probably more undermanned down there than what we thought we would be on Thursday night.”
Dickons played on Lions spearhead Ben Evans, restricting him to two goals..
East Geelong will now turn its attention to a meeting with Bell Post Hill at Myers Reserve in Round 16
Belmont Lions, who dropped to third on percentage, face a resurgent Inverleigh at Winter Reserve.
A late goal from youngster Jaiden Reid has given an accurate Inverleigh a thrilling one-point win over Werribee Centrals at Inverleigh Reserve, 18.4 (112) to 16.15 (111), keeping the Hawks’ finals hopes alive.
Trailing by 11 points when star Centurion Tyler Crennan goaled early in time-on, the Hawks snatched back the lead thanks to majors from the experienced duo of Josh Viney and Luke Wilson.
However, Centrals’ Kai Gomes Pattiyage responded within 30 seconds to put the visitors back in front by five points.
But it was Reid who would have the final say at the 32-minute mark.
He won a contentious free kick for holding the ball against Max Murdock and calmly slotting a set shot from 35m out.
The Centurions made two forward forays in the dying stages but were unable to score.
Taking some of the shine off Inverleigh’s win was a badly broken arm suffered by key forward Mason Dickson, who had kicked three goals before the injury.
Jarrod Bacon finished with four goals for the Hawks, with Viney and Noah Sneskov joining Dickson in contributing three.
Gomes Pattiyage’s five goals for the Centurions were a career high, with Josh MacDonald finishing with three majors.
Bell Post Hill took another giant step towards booking a finals berth, while also keeping its double chance hopes alive, beating a bruised-and-battered Thomson by 27 points at Godfrey Street.
After a tight first half, with the Panthers taking a one-point lead into the main break, they took control of the contest with a 4.2 to 0.5 third quarter, before claiming a 12.6 (78) to 6.15 (51) victory.
Nick Costello kicked three goals for Bell Post Hill, with Henry Verschuren and Caleb Bacely impressing.
Midfielder Ben Kamaric battled hard for the Tigers, whose leading goalkicker was Dylan Jose with two.
Anakie outlasted Winchelsea by 14 points at Anakie Reserve to stay in touch with the top five with three rounds remaining.
The Roos held off a late charge from the Blues, which cut the margin to nine points during time-on of the final quarter, to win 13.12 (90) to 11.10 (76).
Luke Dahlhaus and Oscar Barter were important for Anakie, with Reuben James, who kicked a game-high three goals, and Aaron Cooke the standouts for Winchelsea.
Geelong West has kicked the only two goals of the final quarter to win a low-scoring scrap against Bannockburn at West Oval by 16 points.
Trailing by two points after being held goalless in the third quarter, the Giants did the same to the Tigers in the last term while adding 2.7 themselves for a 6.18 (54) to 4.14 (38) result.
Tannar Stone and Ted Walliss kicked two goals for West, as did Bailey Kelly for Bannockburn.
John Fazio kicked six goals and Luke Parker wound back the clock with a five-goal haul as North Geelong comfortably accounted for northern suburbs rivals Corio, 20.19 (139) to 6.9 (45), at Shell Reserve.
Herschelle Carr’s two goals were best in front of goal for the Devils.
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