Tara Murray
Melton will face its biggest challenge of the Ballarat Football League season on Saturday against East Point.
While the Bloods are the only undefeated team after seven round coach Aaron Tymms said that second placed East Point remains the benchmark of the competition.
“East Point is still the yard stick in the competition,” Tymms said.
“They have won the last two premierships and travelling along pretty well.
“We’re playing them at home which is a bit of a bonus, but we’re yet to beat them at home since I’ve been at the club.
“We have beaten them on the road. It’s a big game this weekend and it will tell us where we are at.”
On Saturday, the Bloods beat Lake Wendouree, 20.15 (135)-8.6 (54).
Tymms said while they played some good football, it wasn’t their best performance of the year.
“We weren’t great on the weekend, but we were still able to win by a good margin,” he said.
“Lakers are a pretty tough team and speaking with Fitzy [Jack Fitzpatrick] after the game, we both agreed they were on top of the contested football by half time.
“We were better in the second half and we were a bit more potent in the forward line and that was the difference.”
Luke Heaney kicked five for the Bloods, with Liam Carter kicking four goals and Ryan Carter and Braeden Kight kicking three each.
Tymms said Jaycob Hickey was best on ground, with Liam Carter, Heaney, Jordyn Cotter and Kyle Borg all having good games.
The win has the Bloods remain two games clear on top of the ladder.
Tymms said they weren’t doing anything different this year than they had in the last couple.
“It’s the best start you can go with,” he said.
“Nothing has really changed and we’re playing some good footy at the moment.
“I’ve been here five years now and we’ve got structures in place. They don’t really need to coach them, as they’re coaching themselves.
“I pretty much don’t need to speak with them a lot on game day.”
While Melton got the win, it was a much tougher day for Darley, Bacchus Marsh and Melton South.
The Devils slipped to fourth after losing to Ballarat, 14.7 (91)-9.19 (73).
The Swans took control of the game in the third quarter when they kicked 4.2 to 1.7. The Devils were again wasteful in the last quarter, kicking 4.7.
Nick Rodda kicked three goals for the Devils. Duncan Cadman and Brett Bewley were named their best.
Bacchus Marsh had a tough day out against East Point at Eastern Oval. The Kangaroos got on top early with 11 scoring shots to four in the first quarter.
Aaron Willitts kicked four goals for the Cobras in the loss.
Serafino Crea and Willitts were named the Cobras best.
Meanwhile, Melton South lost to Sebastopol, 18.11 (119)-14.6 (90).
Dylan Conway kicked four goals for the Panthers, with Dylan Jones named their best.
