By Tara Murray
Bacchus Marsh has bragging rights over former coach Travis Hodgson and his new side the Sunbury Lions in the Ballarat Football League.
While the Cobras were short on man power, they didn’t lack courage in the 17.12 (114)-11.10 (76) victory.
The Cobras had keenly anticipated the match and inflicted the damage early to secure the win.
Cobras coach Peter Davey said the playing group had been looking forward to playing against Hodgson after he switched clubs in the off season.
He said they were starting to gain some momentum after a slow start to the season.
“It was a pretty good day,” he said.
“A lot of things we’ve been working on, we’re doing for longer periods. We’ve been OK in periods, but in our bad patches, we’ve been ordinary.
“After the win against Ballarat we’ve got more confidence.”
The scoreboard showed the second quarter as the difference but Davey said the first quarter set up the match.
While they trailed by one point at the first break, the Lions had been kicking with the wind in the opening quarter.
“Five minutes into the second quarter things started to look different,” Davey said.
“The scoreboard looked good.”
Aaron Willitts kicked four goals for the Cobras and Jack Lalor and Jake Owen kicked three goals each.
Davey said both Willitts and Owen had good games. Owen spent some time in defence as well.
Other standouts were Thomas Wardell and Daniel Burton.
Burton, who won the Henderson Medal last year as the competition’s best player, has continued on with that form.
“From the Darley game onwards, he’s been in our best three in the last four games,” Davey said.
“You don’t appreciate how much he does until you watch the video.”
Davey said the most pleasing thing was that everyone contributed and won their position.
PHOTO GALLERY: Bacchus Marsh vs Sunbury Lions
The win though was slightly marred by injuries, with the Cobras left with just one player on the bench in the final quarter.
Liam Mullen is set to miss weeks after hurting his hamstring, while Billy Griffiths will be monitored after a head knock.
“We’ve had injuries every week,” he said.
“We lost two early and were down to two rotations 10 minutes into the second quarter.
“We lost another player in the third quarter.”
The Cobras have a bye this week, before facing arch-rivals Darley.
Davey said while the bye would give their injured players more time to recover, it wasn’t ideal after starting to gain some momentum.
He said they were looking forward to the clash with the Devils.
“We learnt a lot last time we played them.”
In other results, Darley had a solid win against North Ballarat City, winning 13.9 (87)-9.12 (66).
Jake Edwards kicked four goals in a best-on-ground performance.
Melton South had a day to forget, losing to East Point 29.22 (196)-0.5 (5).
