KDL wrap: Stanhope claim honours in ‘old-fashioned’ stoush, ‘Roos end Girgarre's season

Stanhope finished the game with only 19 players and co-coach Mark Patten was proud of his players who rose to the occasion when they had to.

Patten said the game reminded him of his days playing with Stanhope when it was in the Heathcote District league when give and take were the order of the day in nearly every game.

‘‘It was a good fashioned physical clash which got the crowd involved,” Patten said.

‘‘(Long serving Stanhope administrator) Fritz (Gavin Pool) rated it one of the best five wins in his time at the club.”

The turnaround in the clash came after half-time when Stanhope made telling moves to negate the Towners dominance.

Veteran Chris Sanders’ move onto goalkicking machine Josh Mellington, who had bagged eight goals in the first half, cut the Towners goal supply with the ex-Fremantle player managing only one second half goal.

Skipper Craig Emmett’s and Tom Hepburn’s move to the midfield to assist Jack Cockcroft also got the desired results while ruckman Daniel Flynn also stepped up to play a key role.

And Jonathan Pearson continued his outstanding season in the forward half for Stanhope, kicking four goals.

The Towners had their best players in Matt McCarty, Lachy Baldwin and Ryan Jennings while Josh Mellington was the standout player on the ground in the first half.

● Girgarre’s season is shot after a heavy loss to Murchison-Toolamba.

The ’Roos put in a spirited first half and were trailing by only 13 points at the long break but stopped to a walk after half-time managing only 1.2 while the visitors added 7.4.

Girgarre coach Billy Barnes again played his heart out trying to lift his charges and got most support from Hayden Phillips, Adam Scoble, the consistent Sam Neil, Jack Oogjes and Mitch Smith.

The winners were best served by Tim Miles, John Barnard, Steve Burns and Tom Kerrins with Sam Mackrill and Aidan Lloyd, who kicked four goals, also doing a lot of telling work.

● Merrigum slipped into the top six at Violet Town’s expense with a hard earned win over an improving Undera in the clash at Merrigum.

Undera pushed the Bulldogs hard in the first half but six second half goals to the visitors’ three blew out the final winning margin to 37 points.

Merrigum’s main prime movers were Jacob Martin, Rohan Hearn and Rhys Shannon who received plenty of support from Zak Parkinson, David Matthews and Jason Christou.

Martin, Christou and Josh Smith each kicked three goals to apply the scoreboard pressure on the visitors.

● Nagambie showed Rushworth no mercy in a 230-point demolition.

It took the Tigers until the last quarter to kick their only goal for the game as Jonathon Moore, Jamason Daniels, and Nic Waterson did virtually as they pleased.

Will O’Brien and Matt Waterson kicked seven and six goals respectively.

Brodie Blackley, Kieran Malone, Harry Barlow and Ben Tenace battled bravely for the home side but it was one-way traffic for most of the game.

● Avenel and Shepparton East had runaway wins in the other two games.

East walloped Ardmona by 178 points with Brandon Corish, Dylan Butcher and Zac Groombridge showing the way and Cam Hall, Damien Mu and Josh Catalano doing best for the Bush Cats.

Coach Kasey Duncan with eight goals, Todd Lawrence and Mick McKenzie dominated as Avenel disposed of Longwood by 169 points.

Mitch Van De Duim, Harry Skinner and Nathan Whiting fought bravely against the odds for Longwood.

● This week’s round will be highlighted by three mouth-watering blockbuster clashes, all featuring flag aspirants.

Nagambie hosts Stanhope, Violet Town takes on ladder-leader Lancaster while Murchison-Toolamba (fifth) takes on Merrigum (sixth).