Twenty minutes of poor football cost Melton a win against Darley in the Ballarat Football League on Saturday.
In what Bloods coach Brad Murphy described as an eight-point game for his team, the Bloods were left to rue a poor second quarter in which the Devils kicked six goals to their opponents’ two.
The Devils’ surge set up a match-winning 39-point lead at the main change.
The Bloods got within seven points late in the last but couldn’t hit the front, succumbing 13.10 (88)-9.9 (63).
Murphy said it was disappointing for one term of football to cost his team a win, the third time it’s happened this season.
“Against Bacchus Marsh, Sunbury Lions and now Darley we’ve lost games we should have won,” he said. “They’re teams we wanted to compete against and we’ve been made to pay for one poor quarter.
“We keep playing 100 minutes of football, not the 120 minutes we’re allotted.”
Murphy said that had things gone their way late against Darley, the Bloods may have been able to pinch the win.
“We got back to seven points with six or seven minutes to go,” he said.
“There was a contest, which we thought was a mark not paid in our 50. We fumbled and they took it down the other end of the ground and scored. It was a 12-point turnaround.
“We opened the game up and tried to move the ball quickly, which, in the end, gave them a couple of cheap goals, which flattered them.”
Braedan Kight and Ryan Davis kicked two goals each for the Bloods.
Dave Grenfell kicked four for the winners, with Darren Leonard voted best on ground.
The result leaves the two sides equal on points and only percentage outside the top six.
Murphy said he knew this middle part of the year would test them.
“We’ve got a five-week period where we play four teams who played finals last year.
“We’ve got a lot of the lower sides in the next few weeks and we know we need to win matches if we’re still a chance to finish sixth.”
Saturday’s was the second consecutive game in which the Bloods fielded four players from the related Walker families – brothers Jack, Riley and Lachlan and their cousin, Daniel.
The three brothers were all named among the day’s best players on Saturday.
“Lachlan turned 18 today,” Murphy said on Sunday.
“He’s captain of our under-18s and is the best of the kids coming through the club. He’s been among the best in his first two games.
“We’re still blooding a lot of guys like Lachlan, which is a good sign for the club.”
