Last year Stanhope big man Tomas Rennie was a member of the full-forwards guild.
On Saturday that changed when, during the week, he volunteered to take on in-form Tallygaroopna full-forward Brett Arho.
“Tom (Rennie) put his hand up for the job on Arho and shut him down almost entirely — beating him in every one-on-one,’’ Stanhope coach Adam Lovison said.
“They went to him a lot in the first half, but he couldn’t get away from Tommy’s vice grip.’’
Lovison, in a coaching role with Stanhope for the past two seasons, has quickly identified that taking the spearhead out of the equation is one way to significantly improve the chances of his team claiming victory.
He did just that on Saturday when he restricted Arho’s supply by slowing down the game and maintaining control through the midfield.
“Our new game plan is getting better each week, our aim is to control the ball a lot more,” Lovison said.
Stanhope kept Tally goalless in the first half and despite being outscored seven goals to three in the second half won by 12 points, 8.14 (62) to 7.8 (50).
Prior to the weekend Arho had kicked 40 goals in six games, including bags of nine, 10 and 12.
He is one of three players who have dominated from the goalsquare, the others being Murchison-Toolamba forward James Lloyd (55 goals in six games) and Shepparton East’s Jake Sutherland (30 goals).
Lovison and his co-defenders will face up to Sutherland in three weeks’ time and then Lloyd three weeks after that.
The weekend’s win has alllowed the team to retain its top six ranking, one of three teams (Tally and Avenel are the others) with four wins from six games.
Tally had equal share of the ball inside their forward 50, but Rennie, Lovison, Jack Donnell and Trevena had the edge on their opposition.
Things changed after the main break, but Stanhope was able to hold on for the win.
“In the second half our skills fell away and we missed shots on goal. We had plenty of opportunities, but turnovers cost us,” he said.
Zane O’Donnell, who hadn’t kicked a goal in four games going into the weekend, was the key target in attack. He kicked three goals in his best game of the year.
Stanhope went into the game without key forward and regular ruckman Daniel Flynn, who pulled out on Friday after hurting his foot.
New to the Stanhope team was Tyson McKenzie, who played with Silvan in the Eastern Football League last season.
He is a football journeyman who kicked 30 goals in 11 games with Tungamah in the Picola District league, played nine senior games with Mooroopna and kicked six goals in 2019 and bagged 41 in 17 games when playing with Congupna in the Murray league seven years ago.
Stanhope has second last placed Violet Town this weekend, before facing third-ranked Shepparton East the following week.
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