St Bedes/Mentone Tigers underscored its dramatic improvement with an emphatic 26 point win over 3rd placed De La Salle. On debut for the Tigers was former St Kilda and Melbourne star, Jamie Shanahan whose usual role is assistant coach to Mick Dwyer.
In what began as a tightly fought contest, De La Salle broke through with the first two goals of the match before Darcy Holden got the Tigers on the board late in the first quarter. The match continued as a close in battle, with smothers and hard tackling the norm. De La Salle grabbed their third and fourth goals while Michael Curcio, Pat Kean and Tom Garside finished off the hard work of team mates to leave the Tigers just 2 points behind at the long break.
The Tigers took it up a notch in the 3rd quarter with the new ruck combination of Luke Wintle and Jamie Shanahan providing great supply to the likes of Captain Simon Richards, Pat Kean and Dale Martin. Damien Waters was providing a season’s best performance down back while Pat Tyquin seemed to have the ball on a string. The Tigers eventually broke through with goals to Shaun Glennen, Luke Terrell and Lewis Stutterd. De La Salle’s only goal for the quarter came from the umpire deciding that a rushed point had in fact been “deliberate”.
But the tide had turned and the Tigers weren’t going to be denied. Paul Wintle and Luke Hulse kept it tight down back while Pat Kean was again providing the run through the middle. Goals to Michael Curcio, Tom Garside, Shaun Glennen and Darcy Holden saw the job done and the Lasallian Challenge Trophy return to Mentone.