In front of by far the biggest crowd of the season, St Bedes/ Mentone Tigers went down by 42 points to premiership contender De La Salle at Brindisi Street on Saturday.
The game started at an incredible pace with the Tigers making their intent clear as they attacked the football with the ferocity reminiscent of their early season encounters.
The Tiges surged forward at every opportunity, attacked the ball carrier and were the recipients of countless turnovers as De La Salle were clearly unable to respond to the finals-like pressure.
In fact, De La Salle players were obviously nonplussed and were very lucky not to be at least 5 or 6 goals in arrears at the first break instead of a semi-respectable 19 points.
Unfortunately for the Tigers, their less experienced team were unable to maintain the intensity and, as their finals-like focus dropped off, De La started to free up and use the ball without the attention they had received in the opening stanza.
At the half, the Tigers still led by 3 points and the question was could this Mentone team re-exert the pressure that had been their hallmark earlier in the year or would their compatriots from Malvern be able to break free and play on their own terms.
No Rhodes scholars required here, De La Salle came out running and moving the ball at breakneck speed and had the Tigers trailing in their wake – an 8 goal to 3 exhibition put paid to the Tigers’ top-of-the ladder ambition and put a dent in their 2009 aspirations and will clearly cause some hard thinking at Brindisi Street during the coming week.
The last quarter was more of a battle as the Tigers fought to regain the ascendancy but De La Salle’s precise forays into the forward half invariably resulted in majors while the Tigers battled hard for theirs – an insight in itself as, over the last month, the Tigers’ forward line have been unable to score with the regularity seen earlier in the season – a matter that the brains trust at Brindisi St will have to rectify over the coming weeks.
On the other hand, De La Salle marked their name alongside Old Xaverians as genuine premiership aspirants, and likely Grand Finalists, with another outstanding display against the reigning premiers.
The Reserves won their third game in a row when they came from 5 goals behind to win a close one by 2 points while the U19s had an outstanding win by 39 points against fellow finals contender and local rival Beaumaris.
Next Saturday the Tigers journey to Old Essendon to take on their old foe in a crucial game for both teams’ aspirations in ‘A’ Section.