Sport
7 September, 2023
Second half burst sets up Saints
The Horsham Saints are through to the Preliminary Final where they will face Ararat after an impressive 40 point win over Dimboola at Beulah Memorial Park on Sunday. The Saints dominated the proceedings early having plenty of the football with...
The Horsham Saints are through to the Preliminary Final where they will face Ararat after an impressive 40 point win over Dimboola at Beulah Memorial Park on Sunday.
The Saints dominated the proceedings early having plenty of the football with strong pressure which denied the Roos any momentum. Sam Clyne kicked the first goal for the Saints followed by Mitch Martin and Adrianne Lupton which stunned the Roos.
It wasn’t until the 16 minute mark until the Roos got on the board thanks to some brilliant play which resulted in a Sam Godden goal. Lupton then kicked his second for the Saints to give them a 22 point lead at quarter time.
The Roos started to play better in the second quarter in a see-sawing affair. Sam Godden kicked his second to bring the margin back to 15 points and then William Taylor quickly answered from the Saints to bring it back out to 21.
Within a minute later Jonathan Ross kicked a great goal to bring the margin back to 15 points. Lupton responded quickly with his third for the game to extend the margin again for the Saints.
The Roos fought hard and managed two consecutive goals through Matthew Rosier and Elliot Braithwaite to get the margin back to 8 points.
Bad discipline from the Roos resulted in a 50 metre penalty to Tom Vincent which extended the margin back to 13 points. Thomas O’Dwyer kicked his first goal late in the quarter to bring the margin back to 5 points at half time which put the Roos back into the game.
At the start of the third quarter the Roos were left flat footed. The Saints got their run game going again and Patrick Knott kicked truly to give the Saints a 12 point lead.
When Adrianne Luton and Jarrod Garth kicked two in a minute, suddenly the lead was 25 points. The Saints continued to dominate with goals to Will Brennan, Becker Irwin and Jacob O’Beirne suddenly blowing the lead out to 43 points.
A late goal to Thomas O’Dwyer brought the margin back to 37 points at three quarter time.
Like the second quarter, the fourth was the same with the trading of goals. Adrianne Lupton kicked his fifth to extend to the lead out to 45 points and Dimboola quickly responded with O’Dwyer kicking his third.
The Roos had their chances with plenty of shots on goal and it was O’Beirne punishing them kicking his second goal of the game to bring it back to 44 points.
The Roos didn’t give up with Will Barber hitting the scoreboard to bring the deficit back to 36 points but the Saints stayed on top with goals for Becker Irwin and Jarrod Garth giving the Saints a game high 50 points.
The Roos kept fighting to the end with reward for effort thanks to a crumbing goal to Jonathan Ross but were outclassed with the Saints winning 17.13.115 to 10.15.75.
Saint’s coach Ben Knott said that their game plan clicked and the boys played well in an all-round team performance.
“There was a breeze and we got away with it early. Everything clicked for us which was really pleasing to see. We did shoot ourselves in the foot kicking six behinds that quarter and we could have really put them away,” Knott said.
“To their credit, they got a run on and came back. We let them be free and loose around the footy and it made us pay a bit.”
When asked what the message at half time was, Knott said it was all about tightening things up defensively.
“We were scoring but we were letting them score too in that second quarter so the message at half time was to tighten up defensively and to punish them on the run and the boys responded well and did just that.”
With having a match winning lead at three quarter time, Knott said they felt comfortable but knew the game wasn’t won yet.
“We did feel comfortable but you can never feel comfortable in any game. It would have had to take a lot to go wrong for us to lose and we just stuck to defending really well and it got us over the line,” Knott explained.
Jordan Keyte had a massive game for the Saints locking down Jonathan Ross and Jackson Davidson did a great job on Matthew Rosier.
Adrianne Lupton however got praise from Knott.
“He is a little firecracker. He applies a lot of pressure and he is quick and has good instincts. He covers a lot of the ground for us and when he plays on instinct he is really damaging,” Knott concluded.
It wasn’t good news for the Reserves, losing to the Horsham Demons by 37 points; 15.8.98 to 9.7.61.
In the Under 17’s, the Saints also lost to the Demons by 31 points. They now play Ararat in the preliminary final on Sunday.
The Under 14’s also went down by 65 points against the Demons. They now play Stawell in the preliminary final on Sunday.