Sport
31 August, 2023
Roos advance after dominant blitz
Harrow Balmoral are through to the 2023 Horsham and District Football League Grand Final with a comprehensive 73 point win over Jeparit Rainbow at North Park in Stawell. The Storm was stunned early with relentless pressure from the premiership...
Harrow Balmoral are through to the 2023 Horsham and District Football League Grand Final with a comprehensive 73 point win over Jeparit Rainbow at North Park in Stawell.
The Storm was stunned early with relentless pressure from the premiership favourites. In the first three minutes of the game, two crumbing goals to Ethan Appleton saw Harrow Balmoral get out to a quick two goal lead. The first goal was a text book tap from Ruckman Anthony Close to the toes of Appleton who finished it off.
The Storm then got their composure and a free kick to Antonio James five minutes later put the Storm on the scoreboard but a late goal to Nick Pekin drew the margin out to 13 points at half time.
Defender Simon Clugston was great for the Storm that quarter providing some run from the backline, but the pressure through the midfield that the Southern Roo produced and intercept marks from Simon Close stopped movement heading inside the forward half.
In the second quarter the Southern Roo were on top from the outset keeping the Storm goalless. William Plush hit the scoreboard with a great crumbing goal followed by a great set shot from the boundary by James Staude.
The pressure applied by the Southern Roo built more goals through Nick Pekin, Scott Heath and James Staude to give them a 43 point lead at the main break.
In the third term the Southern Roo got on the scoreboard through Simon Close and James Stuade. It wasn’t until half way through the quarter that the Storm finally got on the board rewarded with pressure inside their forward 50 with Peter Weir managing to get his foot on the ball that was spilled out.
The Southern Roo then kicked the next three goals to take a 71 point lead into three quarter time.
In the fourth quarter two goals to Daniel Batson and one to Scott Driscoll was a great reward for effort for the Storm who never gave up but the Southern Roo kicked another four goals to win 17.17.119 to 5.6.36.
William Plush was a clear best on ground for the Southern Roo with his midfield work getting a lot of the ball and movement forward.
Storm coach Scott Driscoll said that the pressure that was applied stopped them from executing their game plan.
“They have been the top side all year and the way they played reflected on that. They applied strong pressure and strangled us around the contests and we didn’t get the ball moving on our terms and our running game style,” Driscoll said.
“We just weren’t able to get it going. We were inefficient with the ball use and didn’t transition enough and put ourselves under too much pressure and they were just too good.”
Midfielders Trent Burgoyne and Matthew Synoradzki were solid for the Storm trying to generate run and carry whilst Simon Clugston and Thomas Schumann did a good job in the defensive end providing drive.
The Storm lost Nathan Cocks to a knee injury and he will be out for the rest of the year.
The Storm will now play Noradjuha Quantong on Saturday at Kaniva Recreation Reserve and Scott Driscoll is confident they will get their running game back and that they will learn from the experience.
“They are a fast young side so we just need to focus on our game style and generate the run and carry which we couldn’t do on the weekend,” Driscoll concluded.