St Mary’s and St Joseph’s remain the only two unbeaten teams in the GFNL after five rounds, laying the platform for a blockbuster match-up on Sunday, June 1.
The rest of the competition will play their Round 6 matches next week, with the arch-rivals enjoying a fortnight to prepare for a highly anticipated clash that coincides with the Geelong Big Freeze event.
In harsh conditions at Memorial Park, the youthful, but inaccurate, Saints overcame two-time reigning premier Leopold by 11 points, 7.17 (59) to 7.6 (48).
The 5-0 start has come as a surprise to most outside of Anthony Costa Oval, with co-coach Luke Rayner admitting he wasn’t sure how the start to this year would play out.
“With the exodus of players, and not as much recruiting coming back in the other way, it’s more of a year to look at our younger guys and play some guys that have done that sort of apprenticeship over the last couple of years, and also expose some of our under-18s that have come up into senior footy for the first time this year,” he said.
“We still see ourselves as a developing team and trying to expose as many of our group and our list to senior footy, especially early in the year.
“Hopefully that’ll hold us in good stead as the year goes on and you call on depth and so forth.
“It’s exciting. The boys are really enjoying it. They’re really embracing the opportunity to play.
“But, where it ends, well, it’s certainly a bit of an unknown from our perspective.”
Debutant Jack Willson kicked a goal and impressed for the Saints, while second-gamer Ollie Flynn played a key role.
After an injury-impacted pre-season, Lara recruit Bayley Cockerill showed his class with two crucial final-quarter goals.
For Leopold, who had Tylar Watts withdrawn from the game by VFL club Werribee, defender Trent Thompson and captain Marcus Thompson were their best.
On the flipside, after going through the 2024 home-and-away season unbeaten before a straight-sets finals exit, St Joseph’s was always expected to be in contention this year.
After overcoming an early challenge from Colac at Drew Oval, Joeys pulled away for a 43-point victory, 15.12 (102) to 8.11 (59).
Coach Ron Watt says with the two-week gap between games, he’ll enjoy a break before turning his focus to the Saints.
“It’ll be a cracker,” he said. “It is interesting that we’re both undefeated at this stage.
“I’ll try and limit the amount of work I do on them over the next few days to have a bit of a freshen up.
“But, it won’t be long before I want to put my head into the computer and have a look at what they’re doing and how they’re moving the ball.”
Colac provided an early challenge for the home team before they were able to make some adjustments that Watt believes have been an improvement on last year.
“There were times last year where we weren’t able to absorb different contests or different things that were thrown at us mid-stream during a quarter,” Watt said.
“But I felt today we were able to change things around about halfway through the first quarter to be just in front at quarter time after not playing very well for the first 15 or 20 minutes, and Colac playing exceptionally well.”
Oscar Morrison kicked three goals for St Joseph’s, with Harry Smith and Liam Betson impressing again.
The only downside for Joeys is another shoulder injury suffered by former Geelong VFL defender Jack Leonard.
“That’s the second or third time he’s done it this year, so that’s probably not looking great,” Watt said.
“He’ll have a scan at some stage during the week and get a better idea of where he’s at.”
Adam Garner, playing game 100, Sam Giblett, and Jarryn McCormack kicked two goals apiece for the Tigers.
South Barwon overcame a slow start to take care of Geelong West to the tune of 59 points at McDonald Reserve, 16.15 (111) to 7.10 (52).
The Giants took an 18-point lead into the first change before the reigning grand finalists took charge of the contest thanks to the dominance of star big man Fraser Fort.
Fort, named best-on-ground, kicked four goals in the second quarter as South kicked six majors while keeping the visitors goalless.
He finished with six goals for the contest, only one less than the Giants, who were missing several key players, including power forward Lachie Horniblow.
Connor Fopiani has produced the best performance of his career, finishing with eight goals as Newtown & Chilwell dominated the second half, beating Grovedale by 75 points at Burdoo Reserve.
The margin was only 10 points at the main break. However, the visitors guaranteed their fourth win of the season, 17.13 (115) to 7.10 (52), with a seven-goal-to-one third quarter.
Midfielder Ned Harris and big man Cam Wilkinson were also impressive for the Towners.
Big man Ryan Abbott and forward Leigh Ellis battled hard for the Tigers.
Tom Higgins joined Fopiani in kicking eight goals as St Albans hammered North Shore by 168 points at St Albans Reserve.
The Supersaints kicked ten goals in the second and fourth quarters in the 29.18 (192) to 3.6 (24) result.
Jim Botsaris (five goals) and Ethan Guida (four) also got in on the act, as St Albans climbed back into the top five.
Declan Clark kicked two goals for the Seagulls, who were best served by Lachie Hayes and Connor Walmsley.
Bell Park had 14 individual goalkickers, handing Lara a 148-point hiding at Lara Recreation Reserve.
The Dragons limited the Cats to just one goal, with the home team avoiding the ignominy of being held goallless thanks to Tom Gunther during time-on of the final quarter.
Three goals apiece to Hamish Dawson, Mitch Mahady, and Tyler Pidgeon were best in the 21.22 (148) to 1.0 (6) result.
X: @krockfootball
