IT was for a good reason that Leitchville Gunbower coach Matt Hawken appeared slightly bemused after Saturday’s defeat of lowly Heathcote – after all it’s not every day that a team can lose top spot on the ladder despite crushing their opponents by 125 points.
North Bendigo have again replaced the Bombers at the top of the Heathcote District Football League ladder by less than a one per cent margin courtesy of their 126-point margin over Mount Pleasant and becoming the third team within the last month to hold top spot.
“It’s hard to be disappointed with a win of that size – we did what we had to do but the last quarter was where I thought we dropped off a bit ” was Hawken’s post match assessment.
A 10-goal first term and a half time lead of 88 points that had included nine goals to the mecurial Matt Perri had the Bombers well placed to record a very large win.
Perri kicked goals in just about every possible manner – left foot and right foot snaps ,set shots and soccered in a dominant performance .
Tom German and Will Brereton were busy across the midfield and the Bombers also had Daniel Coates (five goals) and Riley Keath (3) as alternative forward options along with will of the wisp Adam Deccio kicking three.
Evergreen defenders Steve Pretty and Kieran Treacy made life hard for the Saints forwards and big man Leigh Pollock cut off several attacks with timely marks.
“To be fair, I thought Heathcote lifted after half time and made it a fair bit harder for us but we really didn’t cash in the way a North Bendigo would,” Hawken said.
By three quarter time the lead was 109 points with Perri increasing his tally to 10 for the second time this season and lifting his season tally to 66 .
A four-goal to two final term was a bit of an anti climax given the Bombers domination until that point and despite some desperate attacking in the final five minutes the Bombers could not gain the extra scores that would have retained top spot.
“I thought we had a few players get a bit selfish towards the end and a bit of our team-orientated stuff dropped off ,” the coach said.
“We also have a few blokes who are maybe struggling to generate enthusiasm for games that we are in control of”
Hawken isn’t that concerned, though, adding that he has been impressed with the ability of his side to “switch on”when the game is up for grabs”
Of greater concern is a knee injury to Brendan Meroli that saw the midfielder take no part after half time .
“Benny has had a pretty bad run with injury this year and we are hoping that it is just bruising and he may be back for our first final”
“It was good though to get Cam Ross back after a far while out with injury and he has pulled up pretty well which is a real bonus”
The Bombers take on fifth placed Elmore next week and have to win by a greater margin than North Bendigo if they are successful against Huntly if the Bombers are to retake the prized top spot.
