Mitch Sidebottom and his Tallygaroopna side etched their fourth straight win of the Allan Matheson Shield on Saturday.
Photo by
Rechelle Zammit
It’s only early doors, but finals spots in Goulburn Valley Playing Area’s division one weekend pennant are anybody’s at the moment.
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Apart from top spot, however — that appears to be going only one way.
Minor premier favourite Tallygaroopna continued its wrecking run in the Allan Matheson Shield on Saturday, shunting Mooroopna aside 15-95 to 3-67 on its home greens.
The Redlegs were challenged in the first and second rinks, with Justin Spedding’s Cats quartet scoring a one-shot advantage, but Mark Ryan and Brad Holland skipped the hosts to commanding victories to ensure Tallygaroopna’s unblemished record would stay that way.
Mooroopna's David Townsend rolls one down nice and steady.
Photo by
Rechelle Zammit
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Tallygaroopna's Geoff Franze stops to ponder his next move.
Photo by
Rechelle Zammit
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Mooroopna's Olivia Andrews stoops down to get on a roll.
Photo by
Rechelle Zammit
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Tallygaroopna's David Daws and the rest of his rink was pipped by Mooroopna in the first set of ends.
Photo by
Rechelle Zammit
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Mooroopna's Robert Ponton lets fly and admires his bowl’s trajectory.
Photo by
Rechelle Zammit
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Brendon Baldwin’s fourth rink scored an 11 shot victory over Mooroopna.
Photo by
Rechelle Zammit
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Mooroopna's Justin Spedding pauses on the mat before unloading.
Photo by
Rechelle Zammit
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Tallygaroopna's Guy Madigan and his rink could not be separated from Darren Kelly’s quartet.
Photo by
Rechelle Zammit
Fellow perennial finalist Shepparton Golf also kept on course, making light work of Euroa at home.
The Golfers secured an 18-93 to 0-56 triumph to lock down second spot on the ladder, headlined by recruit and ex-Kyabram ace Brent Reiner as his rink felled Shane Drysdale’s four by nine shots.
The rest of the round’s results is where things got hot.
Tatura-Hill Top passed with flying colours in a “danger game” against Shepparton Park, trumping the side 14-89 to 4-71 to break into the top three following consecutive losses to Golf and Tallygaroopna.
Before the match, coach Scott Adams had asked for a win to get the season back on track and that’s precisely what happened.
“Just before the game, I just stipulated that these are the big games we have to win — the Shepp Parks, the Mooroopnas, the Kys,” he said.
“I said if we want to make finals, these are the teams we have got to beat.
“I did give them a bit of a rev up this week because it was very disappointing from a lot of us last week.
“We lost the plot, basically, and Tally got in our heads and we all went to sleep.
“From one week to the next, we just had to turn that around which we did. Everyone fought hard from the beginning to the end, so it was good.”
Adams’ rink had a day to remember, skipping the combine to a whopping 24-shot victory in the third set of ends.
Though it was Brendon Boyd’s comeback against a strong Paul Nichols-led Park rink that made the difference according to the victorious coach, supplementing a similar showing by Jarryd Tinning, while Jason Carter’s four saluted in the second.
Yet Tatura-Hill Top isn’t out of the woods and Adams knows it.
The Bulldogs are set to meet a 0-4 Mooroopna side in the next round and Adams expects the Cats to be hell-bent on success after a less than ideal start to the campaign.
“It’s a must win and we’d already talked about that after the game yesterday,” he said.
“Mooroopna, they’ve got a lot of people to the club and they’re looking strong on paper, but they haven’t knitted it together yet.
“It’s a danger game; they’re going to be looking for their first win and we don’t want to be the ones they get that against.”
Finally, East Shepparton scored yet another emphatic win to keep spirits high as it knocked down Kyabram to now sit one point off the top four.
The 14-80 to 4-78 win was statement-making in nature, with Chris Johnson’s 12-shot beating of Mal Williams’ rink crucial in the grand scheme of the match.
