St Bedes/ Mentone Tigers outlasted Old Essendon Grammarians to win their encounter at East Keilor by 34 points on Saturday and consolidate third position on the ‘A’ Section ladder.
Old Essendon were out-of-the-blocks quickly and led by 4 goals to 1 half way through the first term, showing some real pluck after their shellacking at the hands of the Tigers in the opening round at Brindisi Street.
Not to be denied, the Tigers – showing their own tenacity and with Brett Collins dominating the flanks and Tim Mavric wreaking havoc in the goalsquare – reined in the Essendon team to wrest back the ascendancy and lead by 9 points at the first break.
In the second quarter the Tigers threatened to break the game open but only succeeded in extending their lead by a point courtesy of 3 goals 7 to 4 goals straight from the home side who were steadfastly resisting the Mentone team’s attempt to take total control of the issue.
After the long break, Old Essendon again held their own and refused to allow the reigning premier to break away and in fact a boilover against their long-time nemesis looked in the offing.
In the last quarter, Essendon attacked from the outset and scored the first major to bring the difference back to 8 points but from that point the result was never in doubt as the mentone teams’ class and character showed through.
The Tigers particularly through the agency of Sam Anstey and Ben Phibbs ran and carried all day and in the end overwhelmed a plucky Essendon who took the game up to the tigers but didn’t quite have the firepower to overcome the team who has now beaten them in each of their last 5 outings.
The Reserves, on a winning streak, won again and are now knocking on the door of the four while both the U19s and U18s had good wins by 72 and 60 points respectively to consolidate their positions in the four.
Next Saturday the Tigers take on last year’s fellow Grand Finalist Collegians at Brindisi Street in a game vital for both sides’ finals aspirations.