St Bedes/Mentone Tigers went down to Old Scotch by 22 points in an extraordinary game of extreme fluctuations in their VAFA Premier Division match at Camberwell on Saturday. The first term started badly for the Tigers and only got worse as Old Scotch ran hard, spread and distributed the ball at will and in so-doing quickly kicked out to a 3 goal margin. The Tigers steadied for several minutes only to see the Cardinals re-initiate the onslaught to register 6 goals 2 before the Tiges troubled the scorer with a rushed behind. As the term wore on the team from Mentone regained some composure and created some contested ball, reducing the deficit to 30 points at the change.
• The second quarter ushered in what appeared to be a totally new game as the Tigers took control of every contest, locked the ball in their forward 50 and slammed on goals to quickly reduce the quarter time deficit and with Pat Kean playing a slashing game and Mark Geschke again driving the ball forward out of the centre the Tigers looked to be taking control of the match but the home team rallied and wouldn’t relinquish the lead and with late majors maintained a slender 4 point lead at the long break.
• The first 10-12 minutes of the second half was an arm-wrestle with both defences in the ascendancy and neither team able to register a major – it appeared that the winner of this contest-within-a-contest was likely to take home the points and indeed Old Scotch broke the deadlock but while holding the Tigers to a solitary point for the quarter were unable to ram home their advantage and with 2 goals 8 for the quarter had only extended their lead to 23 points at orange time.
• Once again the game turned on a sixpence, as the Mentone side barged forward and with George Rowland and Michael Curcio dominating the forward half quickly banged on 2 quick goals and within a trice 2 more to take the lead for the first time in the match at the 9 minute mark – for the Cards it looked like curtains as again St Bedes took the ball forward but Scotchie’s steadfast defence repelled the invader and counter-attacked to quickly regain the lead.
• Not to be outdone St Bedes/Mentone Tigers replied in kind and again surged forward but were unable to nail the home team – eventually Scotch broke forward and after dribbling one through followed up with 2 more in quick succession to take a deserved victory in the most see-sawing of matches by a final margin of 22 points with a goal on the bell.
• The Reserves were brought back to earth with a thrashing at Old Scotch, U19 Premier went down by 24 points to Uni Blues while U19 South got on the winners’ list with a 44 point win over Peninsula Old Boys.
• Next Saturday the Seniors, Reserves and U19 Premier take on De La Salle at East Malvern in a triple header while the Under 19 South play De La at Brindisi Street.