JACK Sheahan’s Sunbury Lions debut set a lofty standard as his team crushed Melton South by 80 points on Saturday night.
The 19-year-old out of Diggers Rest via the Calder Cannons kicked three first-quarter goals and five for the night in an impressive first showing in Ballarat Football League.
Sheahan, VFL listed with Bendigo Gold, held a key forward post in the absence of Simon Clarke to spearhead Sunbury’s 21.15 (141) to 9.7 (61) victory.
*Coaches Rick Horwood and Matt Sutton on the match – see below
*Action gallery to come – follow our social networks for the update – facebook.com/weeklyreviewsport & twitter.com/twrsport
*Around the grounds from round three & interleague squad named – see below
A flowing exchange of first-quarter goals became one-way traffic in the second, with Sunbury’s six goals to one setting up a 41-point half-time lead.
The second half hit no great heights, with Sheahan spending the final quarter on the bench due to hitting his game-time limit.
Melton South was outmuscled in midfield and blanketed by the Sunbury defence.
The match-winning burst came early in the second quarter, with Sunbury extending its lead of 13 points in the ninth minute to 39 in the 19th.
A Sheahan set shot was followed immediately from the re-start by a quick clearance and Jamie Lobb snap, kickstarting the run of five Sunbury unanswered goals in 10 minutes. Scott Lobb’s courage to mark with the flight was an inspiring end to one Melton South attack, while another broke down due to back-chatting the umpire at a stoppage in the Panthers’ forward 50 metres.
Dale Ciunik (three goals) and Sheahan started the second half with back-to-back majors to ensure there would be no Melton South swing of momentum, like its comeback from 47points down against Melton the previous weekend.
Melton South coach Matt Sutton had a tough night as his team’s full forward but still finished with four goals. Jaiden Spicer also booted four.
The Panthers lost Ben Peters to a seemingly serious ankle injury mid-way through the third term.
SUNBURY coach Rick Horwood isn’t just winning without a raft of last year’s premiership team — he’s winning big.
After the rarity of an away win against Redan last week, Sunbury smashed a Melton South team that had been competitive to date in the Ballarat Football League.
With North Ballarat City storming out of the blocks with three monstrous wins, the first head-to-head clash between the premier and new title contender feels a long time away, not until June 22.
For now, Horwood has a number of returning players to reintegrate into a winning team.
‘‘At the moment we’ve got eight premiership players out of the side. It’s going to be a headache when they all come back.
‘‘Jack Landt, 16 years old, second game. Young (Jordan) Baumgartner, only his third game and he did well on Rex Hickman.
‘‘With players out our leaders have all stood up.’’
Jack Sheahan’s bag of five goals was by no means a surprise. His return perfectly timed with Simon Clarke suffering a groin injury.
Sheahan was cut from last year’s Vic Metro squad in the late stages of selection and was on the radar as a potential draftee for one AFL club.
‘‘That’s his first game of the year, having not played any football, and Melton South had to move a premier backman in the league in Leigh Burke onto him.
‘‘He’s come back from ankle and knee operations after the Calder Cannons. We’ll send his stats and his edits back to Bendigo (Gold). He’s got some raw talent.
‘‘Clarke’s got a groin injury and it’s early in the season. If it had have been a final he would have played, but at round four it’s not worth the risk.’’
Melton South coach Matt Sutton said his team had made a good start but could not match the work rate of Sunbury.
‘‘They were first in for the footy and outplayed us all night, probably the best run and spread team in the competition and we got taught a footy lesson in that regard.
‘‘We got outplayed by a better side.’’
Verbal exchanges between the umpires and players is likely to become an agenda item for South this week, with Sutton suggesting one umpire had baited his players.
‘‘I think the players are getting confused. We’re both in confusion with the differences between the Ballarat umpires and Riddell District umpires.
‘‘There was nothing in it. We spoke out on the ground. I’ll nail back-chat from my own players, but I said to one umpire, ‘do us a favour and don’t bait us’.
‘‘The players are heated. They’ll come back at it.’’
DARLEY paid the price for inaccurate kicking by coming up short against Ballarat by 12 points at Alfredton Oval on Saturday.
The Devils’ Ballarat Football League season was squared at two wins and two losses with the 6.16 (52) to 10.6 (66) defeat.
The third quarter told the story of the day, with Ballarat converting four goals from six scoring shots, whilst Darley could only manage two goals from fourteen scoring shots.
Harley Inglis was gallant for the Devils whilst the decision was made to send star player Jake Edwards forward to generate a bit of momentum.
Saturday was not the first time this season Darley had suffered from profligate kicking, missing no less than three shots for what would have been the late go-ahead goal against Sunbury a fortnight earlier.
“Do a lot of these guys even own their own footy?,’’ Darley coach Rod MacPherson said.
‘‘At the end of the day it is their tool of trade and they need to be able to use it to get by.
“You need these guys to practise but it’s a fine line.
“You can’t harp on it too much then it gets in their head if they miss one or two.”
Melton Bloods lost a battle of winless teams to Lake Wendouree at CE Brown Reserve, 13.17 (95) to 6.7 (43).
Melton led two goals to none at quarter time but fell off the pace after half time, kicking three goals to Lake Wendouree’s nine.
Tate McCutcheon was the Bloods’ best and also the team’s only multiple goal-kicker.
Bacchus Marsh sunk to one win and three defeats after East Point blew open the game in the third quarter.
The Cobras trailed by 16 at half time after a low scoring opening half but the Kangaroos jumped away with six goals to one, setting up the 16.16 (112) to 7.13 (55) result.
Alec Del Papa was Bacchus Marsh’s only multiple goal-kicker while Matt Denham was best in the defeat.
‘‘I just think we have too many blokes who, when they are not playing well, play really badly,’’ Marsh coach Doug Hawkins said.
‘‘It shows we’ve got a long way to go. We’re going to go back to training and work on our kicking skills, especially when we are under pressure.’’
BFL INTERLEAGUE SQUAD
Bacchus Marsh: Tyson Shea, Declan Phyland
Darley: Darren Leonard, Shane Page, Rhys Ellis, Brad Inglis, Dane Grenfell, Jarrod Edwards
Melton: Matthew Notman
Melton South: Leigh Burke, Rex Hickman, Doug Thomas
Sunbury: Jamie Lobb, Matthew Medcraft, Simon Clarke, Brett Chambers, Xavier Linton, Michael
Coleman, Pat Cariss, Jay Cheep, Andrew Duhau
East Point: Dan Jordan, Hayden Walters, Jason Delaney, Paul Koderenko
Sebastopol: Michael Powell
Redan: Dean Chester, Grant Bell, Jarrod Edwards, Ryan Waight, Brendan Pearce, Tom Lamb
North Ballarat City: Derick Micallef, Shaun Lyle, Michael Williams, Ryan Luke, Ryan Hobbs, Brendan
Howard, Ayden George, Jason McNamara, Jake Hicks, Tristan Cartledge, Daniel Jones
Lake wendouree: Tim Malone
Ballarat: Braeden Deary, Mitch Rodd, Chris Prockter
– with Ballarat Courier
