Sport
2 May, 2023
Senior Storms flatten grand finalists
A lovely autumn day greeted players and spectators for Storm’s first home game of the season at Jeparit. After the juniors and reserves lost their games - narrowly in the U14’s case - all eyes were on the Seniors as they went up against last...
A lovely autumn day greeted players and spectators for Storm’s first home game of the season at Jeparit.
After the juniors and reserves lost their games - narrowly in the U14’s case - all eyes were on the Seniors as they went up against last year’s grand finalists, Kalkee.
After an even first half, Jeparit-Rainbow powered away for a convincing win.
Seniors:
Another new face joined the team this week. Javadd Anderson played his first game for Jeparit-Rainbow, while full forward Peter Weir played his first game for the year.
It was a real arm wrestle for the first 10 minutes of the game before Will Hutchinson goaled for Jeparit-Rainbow. Then followed a period when the home team was on top, but only kicked behinds, before Hutchinson kicked a 50 metre goal. A late goal to Kalkee saw Jeparit-Rainbow lead eleven points at quarter time.
The second quarter was the most even of the game. Jeparit-Rainbow seemed poised to break away but Kalkee kept in touch with the last goal of the half, which meant Jeparit-Rainbow led by seventeen points at the long break.
The second half saw Kalkee kick the first goal before Jeparit-Rainbow started to get on top with a dominant midfield and a tight defence. Weir took advantage of this as he kicked three goals for the quarter.
With a 43 point lead at three quarter time, the emphasis was on running the game out and making a statement. With ruckman Matt Thomas off the field with a calf injury, Dan Batson took control in the ruck and Jeparit-Rainbow spent most of the quarter with the ball locked in their half.
Only poor kicking for goal kept the final margin to 86 points, with Jeparit-Rainbow kicking the final eleven goals in the game. The highlight of the quarter was Braxton Ah Mat lining up with a torpedo from close to the centre of the ground and kicking one of the longest goals ever seen on the Jeparit oval.
With such a dominant performance, the home team had many good players.
The midfield of Tom Clarke, Brad Stokes, Nick Yarran and Will Hutchinson not only won lots of the ball but used it well.
Hutchinson and Clarke have shown in their first two games that they can hit the scoreboard, with both of them kicking three goals for the second week in a row.
Tom Long attacked the ball fiercely, and Ash Clugston worked hard up forward to kick two goals.
Weir finished with five goals and just as many misses, with his ability to mark the ball under pressure standing out.
Scott Driscoll played a great second half behind the ball, cutting off many Kalkee attacks.
A highlight of the game was the Jeparit-Rainbow players’ hard running, not only in attack but also defensively, as time after time they ran opposition players down to keep the pressure on.
Every player contributed to the win in a very even team effort.
Final Score: Jeparit-Rainbow 18.20.128, Kalkee 6.6.142
Reserves:
The team battled hard but lost by 73 points.
Justin Cozens pushed for Seniors’ recall with a strong performance, while Jake Parry, Bailey Clark and Murphy Leach won lots of the ball.
But only Dean Perkins, with two goals, stood out in the forward line.
Joad Fuller and Hayden Jamieson were strong defenders.
Final Score: Jeparit-Rainbow 3.3.21, Kalkee 14.10.94
Under 17’s:
After last week’s win, the boys came back to earth with the mercy rule being applied early in the second quarter.
Against a team full of much older boys, they struggled to gain possession of the ball.
Jaime Eckermann tried hard to lift the team, while Seamus Clarke and Will Fisher did win some of the ball.
Bronti Effrett, Fletcher Keller and Josh Schultz were other good players.
Final Score: Jeparit-Rainbow 0.0.0, Kalkee 11.6.72
Under 14’s:
For most of the first three quarters, Jeparit-Rainbow had the lead in an even game.
Then Kalkee kicked the last two goals of the third quarter to lead by a point at three quarter time.
In a thrilling final quarter, the two teams battled it out to the final siren. Kalkee scored the only two points of the quarter to win by three points.
Lenny Weir played an outstanding game, marking the ball strongly around the ground.
Ryder Gould and Fletcher Keller just kept winning the ball, and Clancy Weir was excited to kick a goal.
Caleb Heinrich and Max Spokes, who also kicked a goal, were other boys who stood out.
Final Score: Jeparit-Rainbow 4.6.30, Kalkee 5.3.33