STEPHEN O’LOUGHLIN
GAWLER Central remains in
A-grade finals contention in the
Barossa, Light & Gawler Football
Association following a comprehensive
65-point trashing of fellow
contender Willaston at Gawler
Oval on Saturday.
Returning from the mid-year
break, the Tigers made their intentions
known from the outset as they
leapt out to a quick start, 20-points
up midway through the first term.
The visitors settled though, and
began getting their hands on the ball
and finding forward targets to level
the scores by quarter-time in an
entertaining opening to this crucial
encounter.
All looked set for a tight tussle
to ensue – but the reigning premier
had other plans.
It didn’t take long into the second
term before the Tigers took control
again, and this time the Donnybrooks
were not going to be given a
chance to get back into the contest.
Gawler Central coach Matt Whelan
said his side recognised why the
visitors were able to fight back in
the first quarter, and made sure it
wouldn’t happen again.
“We started really well, they
had a bit of a run, and I just felt we
weren’t covering around the stoppages
well enough with our loose
players,” he said.
“Once we sorted that out in the
second quarter, we got the ascendency
again.”
In one quarter, the Tigers essentially
put the game to bed, kicking
nine goals in the term to open up a
51-point half-time lead.
Winning the aerial duels was
proving the point of difference as
the contested marking ability of
Thomas Phelps, Jonathon Schulz,
Charlie Molyneux, William Serle
and Robert Long continued to show
up in big spots to maintain possession
of both the footy and the momentum.
“We tried a couple of different
things in terms of our structure
which, for the most, worked,”
Whelan said.
“One of the things we’ve worked
on is that we haven’t been able to
take enough marks in our forward
50, then the turnover from that results
in opposition scores, so we
pushed our forwards deeper to give
them plenty of room and then our
midfield could run and carry (the
ball) through, and that worked well
for us.”
The two key forwards Serle (five
goals) and Bradley Mercer (three)
enjoyed the extra room to present
while captain Molyneux (four) and
Shulz (three) also had an impact on
the scoreboard.
The Tigers’ mauling continued
as they built on the big lead across
the course of the second half to truly
punish Willaston.
“It was just our intensity,” Whelan
said.
“We had a lot on the line – we had
to win to stay in touch (with the top
four) and we’ve worked on that for
two weeks.
“We’ve had some injuries and
haven’t really been able to get consistency
of players together, so the
fortnight off gave us that chance
to recuperate and we played a lot
fresher.”
Oliver Petrohilos was a target in
attack for the Donnybrooks when
the ball did head that way, kicking
four goals, while Harrison Mackenzie
and Loclahne Elliott toiled under
duress.
There are now only two wins separating
seventh-placed Gawler Central
(four wins) from second-placed
Angaston (six wins) on the ladder,
with a group of four amid them on
five wins for the season.
The Tigers meet battling Freeling
this week, while Willaston will
need to respond against another finals
contender in Kapunda on Saturday.