By David Ball
Football
Yarra Glen played Healesville in the Indigenous Game on Saturday. Both teams presented in specially designed indigenous jumpers. After a moving Welcome to Country and smoking ceremony the teams started the battle in sunny but windy conditions. The River Pigs were desperate to notch up their third win for the season whilst their arch-rivals needed a win to stay in contention for a top four place.
In a tight contest, Yarra Glen was able to control more of the general play and finished 7 points up at quarter time. While Healesville’s big Will Krestelly –Kelety was winning the tap-outs, Yarra Glen was able to intercept enough to be ahead in clearances.
The second quarter saw the wind strengthening and the Bloods midfielders starting to get on top. They added 3-5 to Yarra Glen’s solitary point to wrest control and head into halftime 15 points up.
Yarra Glen defender Jayden Schille was moved forward and provided an extra marking option to join Yarra Glen’s key forwards. He kicked 2 goals as the River Pigs slammed on 6 goals. Healesville was able to kick 2 goals from their limited forward entries, leaving Yarra Glen with a 2 goal lead at the last break. With the Bloods favoured by the wind in the last quarter, a titanic struggle loomed large.
That is exactly what we got, with 10 minutes to go, scores were locked at 9.9 each. Each side had set shot opportunities but neither could convert. Healesville edged a point ahead moving into time on. Yarra Glen was able to get players loose and moved forward late in the quarter and scored a crucial goal through James Whelanto take a 5-point lead. The River Pigs managed to repel a number of late Bloods forward thrusts and hung on for an exciting 5-point win.
Best for Yarra Glen was Wandin- Moate medallist, Ben Ashton (2 goals), Jimmy Marks, Billy Gardner (2 goals), Jayden Schille (2 goals), Sam Horsley and Nathan McCulloch. Other goalkickers for Yarra Glen were Callum Morison(2), Anthony Harmon and James Whelan.
Healesville’s best were Campbell Frazzetto, Tennyson Amarant, Sam Gebert, Michael Anson and Lochie Oliver. Goalkickers for the Bloods were Max Donegan (3 goals), Sam Gebert (3 goals), Lochie Oliver (2 goals) and Jack Nugent.
The Yarra Glen reserves were desperate to notch up their first win of the season, while Healesville were also keen to stay in touch with the top four.
The first quarter was an even contest but in the second quarter, Yarra Glen was able to string a number of goals together to take a handy halftime lead. The River Pig defenders lead by Matt McCann were able to
intercept the Bloods’ forward moves, but they were struggling to convert their general play dominance onto the scoreboard.
This all changed in the third quarter as the midfield started delivering the ball deeper into the forward line and the River Pigs took a commanding 8-goal lead, highlighted by Heath Chamberlain’s long bomb goal from the boundary line after the 3 quarter-time siren.
Healesville battled hard in the last as scoring was relatively even. The final result, however, was a great, 7-goal first win of the season for Yarra Glen.
The best players for Yarra Glen were hard to pick as everyone contributed. The Wandin-Moate Medal went to Zac Capuano, with others in the best being Dayne Downward, Brendan Davis, Nate Capuano, Matt McCann and Troy Beath. Yarra Glen’s goalkickers were Daniel Galbraith (2 goals), Stirling Twite-Moore (2 goals), Heath Chamberlain, Dayne Downward, Liam Dwyer, Cooper Eggert, Steven Mylas, Alec Peterson and Sean Spencer.
Healesville’s best were Corey McInnes, Brandan Harvy, Shannon Larose, Matthew Moreton, Thomas Dalley and Jai Simnett. The Bloods’ goalkickers were Troy Poynto (2 goals), Adam Dunn and Shane Mansfield.
Next week Yarra Glen takes on Seville at Seville, while Healesville takes on Belgrave at home.
Netball
Yarra Glen had a bye this week courtesy of Healesville merging their 2 teams with Woori Yallock. To make sure the girls could celebrate the Indigenous Round in their magnificent Indigenous dresses, Yarra Junction graciously agreed to an A/B and a C/D Grade set of friendly games.
Yarra Glen dominated the C/D game to run out 62-15 winners. The Wandin-Moate medal was awarded to the game’s best player, with the winner being Alex Bray from Yarra Glen.
The A/B game was a tighter contest with Junction showing patches of some very good netball. Yarra Glen maintained control for most of the game to take out a 40-31 victory. The Wandin-Moate Medal went to Yarra Glen’s Katelyn Vanderkolk.
