St Bedes/ Mentone Tigers got their season off to a promising start in VAFA Premier Division with a hard-fought 13 point win over bayside rivals Old Brighton Grammarians in unusually benign conditions at Brighton Beach Oval on Saturday.
The Tigers were very slick with their ball movement in the first stanza and with early goals immediately had Brighton on the back foot with recruit Luke Collins in everything in the middle and Paul Wintle proving more than difficult to counter up forward, nonetheless, the Beach Boys got the scoreboard moving themselves with some fast, well-organised counter-attack to pull back and only trail by two goals in a high-scoring start to the season.
The second quarter was the image of the first – fast moving, torrid in close and high scoring – with the Tigers booting clear early and Old Brighton fighting back and replying in kind with quick ball movement to go to the long break one straight kick in arrears. Welcome back footy fans, half time in the season opener, 11 goals to 10 in the local derby – footy, it’s great to have you back. In the third term, the game took an inevitable turn as, no matter how good a pre-season either team had done, the initial frenetic pace couldn’t continue and the contest assumed an altogether different face as both teams crashed into packs and applied bone-crunching tackles in an attempt to mentally or physically steal the initiative but as had been the case in the previous two quarters nothing separated the combatants and they turned for home with only 4 points between them. Skipper James Tyquin had been in everything around the ground for the Tiges while Luke Terrell and Pat Kean were both proving very difficult for the Grammarians to stop around the goals. Unsurprisihgly, as is so often the case with this Mentone team, the Tigers took control in the last quarter and for the first twenty minutes pummelled the ball inside the forward 50 while the Beach Boys held on for grim death. In the end, the Tigers coolness in the crisis, with Patrick Tyquin playing his best game in senior company and Luke Wintle taking control around the ground, enabled the visitors to go home with a hard-fought but well-earned victory. The Tigers’ Reserves had a resounding 44 point win and looked a vastly better outfit than the club had previously fielded in the top section before while the Under 19s were well-beaten away at Old Camberwell. Next Saturday at Fortress Brindisi Street, The Seniors host University Blues – who unceremoniously bundled the Tigers out of the finals last year – in what stacks up as mouth-watering, early-season encounter for both teams. Come down and support the triple header with the Under 19’s at 9.30, Reserves at 11.40 and the Seniors commencing at 2.00.