Centre clearance: Stanhope ruckman Daniel Maher is about to send the Lions into attack on the road-soaked home ground of the Lions on Saturday in a round-four loss to Avenel, which is one of three unbeaten teams.
Five of the most in-form footballers in the Kyabram District League will feature at Lancaster Recreation Reserve on Saturday when two of the three unbeaten teams from season 2024 do battle in this year’s biggest match-up.
Hold tight - we’re checking permissions before loading more content
Murchison-Toolamba full forward James Lloyd has kicked 41 goals in just four games this season, including bags of 12 (against Violet Town) and 11 (against Longwood on Saturday).
He will be stood by either Oliver McAuliffe or the experienced Phil Carroll in what is certain to be a mouth-watering contest.
The four other players considered by many to be among the elite of the competition are former Shepparton East sharpshooter Jai Utiger (now a star with the Grasshoppers), the less celebrated Lloyd (Aidan, 12 goals in three games), Lancaster’s goal kicking midfielder Zac Cerrone (15 goals from four games and two best on grounds) and two-time grand final best player Cam Simpson.
Lancaster comes face-to-face with Murchison-Toolamaba after the Grasshoppers start to the season has included 130 (against last season’s grand finalist Nagambie), 104, 144 and 141 point wins (the latter three against teams low on the ladder).
The Wombats have beaten Stanhope and Rushworth convincingly, then scored 36 and 37-point wins against top six teams Nagambie and Shepparton East.
While neither Lancaster nor Murchison-Toolamba have put a foot wrong so far this season, many are leaning the way of the Grasshoppers this weekend as they aim to win a first premiership since 2013.
This weekend, the top four teams in the competition, three of them unbeaten, will do battle.
The Lancaster and Murchison-Toolamaba game is a replay of the 2022 rain-sodden grand final that ended in a series of unfortunate melees and unbeaten Avenel will host a rampaging Shepparton East in the other match.
Shepparton East has lost only the one game this season, to Lancaster in round two. In the other three games the side has won by margins of 112, 154 and 110 points.
At the forefront of those wins has been former Avenel forward Jake Sutherland, who has kicked 24 goals in four games (including 10 against Dookie United on Saturday and seven the week before against Girgarre).
He managed only one in the Lancaster game.
Avenel beat sixth-ranked Stanhope by 37 points on Saturday, but is widely touted as the fourth-best team in the competition.
Tallygaroopna remains inside the top six with three wins from four games, facing Violet Town this weekend after a 158-point win against Undera where full forward Brent Arno kicked 10 goals and took his tally to 28 from four games.
• Avenel’s seven-goal-to-one second half has left Stanhope clinging to sixth place on the KDL ladder as three teams remain unbeaten after four rounds of the 2024 season.
The Swans, back-to-back reigning premier Lancaster and Murchison-Toolamba remain unbeaten to this point of the year.
That will all change next week, however, when the top four teams all do battle in a bumper round of football.
In reality, there is likely to be only one unbeaten team at the end of round four if recent form counts for anything.
Avenel only beat Tallygaroopna by one point and its remaining two opponents have been from the bottom end of the ladder — Undera and Violet Town.
On Saturday, it took the Swans a half of football to shake off the Lions, with just three points separating the teams at half-time.
Stanhope continued its theory of using Daniel Maher and Tomas Rennie in the ruck, while regular ruckman Daniel Flynn played out of the goal square (up until half-time) as the long kick option into attack.
Jye Patten was a livewire in attack, while Nathan O’Reilly was his usual busy self in the mid-field.
Coach Adam Lovsion and captain Jack Donnell successfully stemmed the tide in the first half, but buckled under the relentless supply provided to their opponents in the second half.
Stanhope lost Rennie, who required stitches in a chin cut, and Lukas Hanslow in the third term — decimating the interchange opportunities for the Lions.
Under instruction: Stanhope coach Adam Lovison has the full attention of his playing group as he makes some early moves at the quarter-time break. Stanhope was right with Avenel until half-time, but scored only one goal after the long break.
