the Senior side awoke from their early season slumber to thump Old Trinity by 91 points in their VAFA Premier Division clash at Brindisi Street on Saturday.
The Tigers began with a blast as they slammed on 11 goals in an amazing first quarter of football as the boys from Bulleen wished they hadn’t decided to get out of bed.
St Bedes were everywhere and with James Tyquin providing drive out of the centre and Jack Hellier impassable across half back the Mentone team mounted wave after wave of hard-running attacks that left their opponents in a permanent state of anxiety as to where the next major was going to come from.
Into the second quarter with a 10 goal lead the Tigers continued the mauling, and with Pat Kean, Chad Ryan and Luke Terrell ready to pounce on anything up forward and Dean Porter dominant in the air, banged on a further 5 goals to take an 82 point lead into the long break.
After half-time, the locals forged on but seemed to try to finesse goals rather than barging into Trinity’s defensive half and as a result the avalanche dried up notwithstanding that the Tigers had a monopoly of the ball as they rebounded almost every attack through the great work of Hiwad Shakaib deep in defence and the uncanny skills of Paul Wintle across half back.
In the last, Old Trinity showed that they won’t be in the relegation race any time soon as, despite being 16 goals in arrears, they continued to run hard for each other and pressed forward at every opportunity and deserved to be a little closer at the final siren in spite of the massive disparity in possessions for the day.
The Reserves lost a close one after leading by 5 goals at half time while the U18s continued their unbeaten run and remain on top of the ladder.
St Bedes / Mentone Tigers journey to Albert Park next Saturday to take on undefeated ladder-leader Collegians in a contest that will tell us where the Tigers really stand in their 2010 campaign.