After a week’s break from Premier football, St Bedes/Mentone Tigers travelled to Toorak Park to take on ladder leaders Old Xaverians and, despite a brilliant first quarter that gave the Tigers a 6 goals advantage, the home side prevailed in the end. The Tigers were out of the blocks early with 3 goals in 3 minutes courtesy of Shaun Glennen, Michael Curcio and Darcy Holden who capitalised on great centre clearance work by the on-ballers. Luke Terrell provided 2 goals, Pat Kean kicked a great running goal and when Michael Curcio slotted through another set shot, a potential upset was brewing. While the Tigers kicked the first two goals of the second quarter, the match clearly turned during the quarter. Around the ground Michael Wintle was in everything and Simon and Chris Richards were both providing drive through hard contested footy. Dan Garside was providing great cover down back, fresh off his captaincy of the VAFA U19 Representative side. Recently promoted from the U19s, Alex Cross was getting a bit of the footy and a lovely snap from the pocket was great reward for hard work. But Old Xavs made inroads into the Tigers lead and at half time the Tigers headed to the sheds with a 4 goal lead. It was one way traffic after half time with Old Xavs arresting the lead shortly before ¾ time and then extending it with the aid of a slight breeze in the final term. For the Tigers, Luke and Paul Wintle battled all day, Dean Porter and Pat Tyquin provided run out of defence and Pat Kean ran hard all day. But in the end it was not enough and the Tigers move their focus to Old Scotch at Brindisi St, this coming Saturday.
The undermanned Reserves were outgunned by Old Xavs. The U19 Red (Premier) team lost by 5 points in what was a highly skillful affair and the U19 Blue (South) team easily accounted for Monash Blues.