St Bedes/Mentone Tigers scraped home by 11 points against a valiant Old Scotch at Camberwell on Saturday to secure 4 out of 4 for our VAFA teams. The Seniors were all over the Scotchmen early but were unable to trouble the scorer before the home team steadied and started to make use of the breeze but with more than half the quarter gone their lead was only 3 points and then in seemingly no time they had banged through 3 majors against the play and led by 22 at quarter time against a lacklustre visitor. Into the second and the Mentone team couldn’t shake off the now confident Cardinals who could sniff a repeat of their recent victory over the Tigers at Headquarters as they moved the ball well and ran hard to receive. St Bedes looked to be getting back into the game late in the quarter as Sam Anstey found the ball everywhere and Jack Hellier personally willed the ball from the contests but a goal on the siren gave Old Scotch a deserved 16 point margin at the long break. After half time with the breeze stiffening to a 3-4 goal advantage, the Tigers came out with more determination and some of their renowned attack on the footy to quickly erase the deficit and take control of the game only for the Red Men to wrest control back with a couple of their own. Then the second half of the quarter was played entirely in Scotch’s forward half as they peppered the goal in a determined attempt to ‘ice’ the game, however, 4 goals 9 for the quarter left the door ajar with a slender 21 point advantedge at the final break. With their finals position hanging by a thread, St Bedes opened the final term with something more like their traditional game and with two youngsters in George Rowland and Shaun Glennen dominating the forward half the Tigers surged to the lead at the 12 minute mark only for Scotch to rip the ball out of the middle and take back a two point margin. For 4 minutes the ball rebounded between the 50 meter arcs until Glennen snapped 2 majors in succession to regain the lead for the Tigers going past 23 minutes – again the older heads prevailed as first James Tyquin and then Luke Wintle willed their side over the line to come out very, very lucky 11 point winners.
• The Tigers are now clear 2nd on the VAFA Premier Division table with a game and a half advantage with a two and a half game buffer to fourth-placed Uni Blues whom they visit next Saturday. • The Reserves had a deserved 24 point victory over a fellow finals-aspirant to stay well in the finals race, the U19s confirmed their position in the four with a 71 point victory over 5th team Old Scotch while the Thirds notched their second victory of the season with a massive 92 point win at Brindisi Street.
• Next Saturday, St Bedes/Mentone Tigers take on Uni Blues at Melbourne University in what shapes as a vital encounter for both sides battling for respective finals positions.