RICK DREWER
ANGASTON secured its 11th win of the season by defeating Willaston by 20 points in Barossa, Light & Gawler A-grade football on Saturday.
It was an ugly, scrappy and crowded affair, full of poor disposal and missed opportunities, particularly from the Panthers.
Giving credit where credit is due, this scrappy, highly contested and pressure game was orchestrated very successfully by the Donnybrooks to give themselves any opportunity of a victory.
It is often stated that ‘you only play at the level of your opposition’ and that may well be true – which can be the only compensation for the Angaston camp, because it certainly didn’t look like premiership contenders during this performance.
Early on, it looked like it was going to be a walk in the park for the Panthers, who put three goals on the board inside the first 13 minutes – one from playing- coach Jay Shannon and two from Steve Rusca.
Michael Howson got one back for the Donnys to limit the first term margin to 16 points in favour of Angaston.
The combination of Marc Borholm and Rusca was extremely effective, while Jack Miles dominated, as he continued to do throughout the game.
At the first break, Shannon pleaded with his side to “move the ball quickly, work it with speed”.
It didn’t happen as Willaston reduced the Panthers’ lead to only seven points at the long interval.
Michael Clinch and Alex Barclay, together with Matt Brooks and Lee Sutton, were solid in defence and were thorns in the Panthers’ side.
Shannon challenged his charges at half-time.
“We’ve put ourselves into this situation, now we’ve got to get ourselves out of it,” he said.
Ango did respond, holding the Donnybrooks scoreless in the third term while adding 3.9 itself, with Shannon leading by example.
The Panthers dominated the quarter but were wayward in scoring only three goals from 12 shots to extend their lead to 34 points at the final break.
Andrew Pech, Steve Summerton and Miles all had important touches in creating a match-winning buffer.
Shannon urged his boys to go for the kill at three-quarter-time.
“We’ve got the game on our terms now; finish it off,” he said.
Willaston had a genuine crack, winning the quarter by 14 points and without a doubt providing the two most memorable moments of the game – that being two Zac East goals, which were drilled
from outside the 50-metre arc.
The Panthers will enjoy a week off this Saturday, while Willaston travels to take on struggling Barossa District at Williamstown Oval.