St Bedes/ Mentone Tigers dispensed with Old Brighton by 37 points in a lacklustre affair at Brindisi Street on Saturday with young first-gamer Darcy Holden contributing 3 goals in a most promising debut.
The seniors were very strong early and fierce at the contest but, with most players of both teams in the Tiger forward half for almost all of the quarter, struggled to capitalise and went to the first break with a 16 point buffer but only 2 majors.
In the second, Brighton continued to flood the Tigers but in so-doing enabled very few scoring opportunities for themselves and with Gavin Brown and Luke Collins continually in and under and pumping the ball forward the Mentone team dominated proceedings but again only added 2 majors to lead at the long break by a comfortable 29 points.
After half time, with skipper James Tyquin continuing his stellar season with outstanding hardness at the contest and continual run and carry, the Tigers prevailed on the scoreboard as the ball rarely left their forward half.
Signs were ominous for the Beach Boys with hardly an entry into their forward 50 and little sense that they would manage a major at any stage but eventually, against the run of play, they did get their first at the 27 minute mark of the third quarter much to the relief of their band of followers.
The last quarter brought a total change to the game as Brighton abandoned their super-flood and subsequently banged on 5 majors to the locals 4 to add some respectability to the scoreboard but, in a scrappy derby,St Bedes/ Mentone Tigers ultimately ran out easy 37 point victors.
The Tigers’ Reserves had a comfortable 34 point victory while the U19s fell 11 points short.
Next week the tigers travel to Melbourne University to challenge University Blues, the form side of VAFA Premier Division, in a match that will define the Tigers 2010 finals aspirations.