On a bitterly cold and windy day, St Bedes/Mentone Tigers overcame a plucky Old Ivanhoe Grammarians to win by 59 point at Chelsworth Park, Ivanhoe on Saturday.
The Tigers, with a strong 6 goal wind at their back, slowly got on top of the Hoers with 7 unanswered goals before the home team troubled the scorers on the quarter time siren.
Into the wind in the second, through the strength of Tim Mavrick and Simon Richards and constant hard running of Ben Phibbs and Sam Anstey, the Mentone team ran the ball out of defence and continually attacked Ivanhoe who were then only able to score on the rebound.
At the long interval the difference was 28 points and the writing was on the wall.
In the second half Old Ivanhoe were re-invigorated and challenged the Tigers with contested football and hard running but with Paul Wintle and Jack Hellier leading the defence the senior team adjusted and responded with a volley of 5 goals themselves in the second half of the quarter to put the game beyond doubt at orange time.
In the last, the Tigers showed their physical condition and mental toughness as they outscored the home team with real gut-running into the strong wind and took home the points to maintain the scoreboard pressure on the top two teams.
The Reserves continued on their winning way with a hard fought 3 goal win while the U19s had an excellent win over the highly-rated Old Scotch and the U18s were outstanding with their best win of the year over ladder-leader Northern Bullants.
The Tigers resume their premiership defence against local rival Old Brighton Grammarians on Saturday week at Brindisi Street after the VAFA representative round against the VCFL.