St Bedes/ Mentone Tigers got back on the winners list on Saturday with a strong 73 point win against old rivals AJAX who, like many other teams, have never been comfortable fronting up at The Fortress. AJAX were slow to take advantage of a blustery 4 goal Brindisi Street northerly as the Tigers moved the ball with speed and tackled like a team determined to put their opposition under pressure at all times. The Mentone team got on the board early and with Dan and Tom Garside in fine form down back repelled the Jackas hesitant forays into attack – the all-ground pressure from the Tigers was reminiscent of powerful and successful St Bede’s teams of the recent past and the quarter ended with the home team holding a 7 point ascendency. St Bede’s controlled the ball early in the second but were unable to register a major until the 12 minute mark when their efforts started to bear fruits and with Pat Hurst and Tom Tyquin driving the ball forward at every opportunity the avalanche began as the home team banged on 8 goals 9 while keeping AJAX scoreless. After half time the contest evened out and the Jackas with the breeze pegged the deficit back by 13 points to go to the last break 51 points in arrears. In the last, however, the Tigers were very much up for the contest and tackled and harassed the visitors at every opportunity throughout the term and through the agency of James Tyquin creating space and Chris Mangoni bursting out of packs the Mentone team showed their aspirations with a further 6 goals 4 to run out convincing winners by 73 points and return to 3rd place on the ladder. The Development Team outplayed AJAX all day only to find themselves 5 points down with a minute to play when Alex Whalebone stepped up to drive through the winning goal from a mark 30 metres out to give the Tigers a 1 point win and remind the Jackas of a famous Tiger Grand Final win by exactly the same margin 10 years ago this season. Matthew Caia was amongst the goals again and Alex Cross shone in a best on ground performance. The Thirds were due to play on Sunday while the Under 19s maintained their undefeated position on top of the ladder with an 86 point win over Old Carey after getting a bit of a scare in the first half. Lachie Palfrey relished the service out of the midfield with 6 goals with he and Kieran Arthur were the best on the day. The Under 19 Development Team had their first taste of success with a fantastic 61 point victory over Aquinas with Dane Heverin the best with 5 goals to his name – a great result for this team after a tough start to the year. Next week the Seniors and Development Team venture to Clayton to take on the improved Monash Blues coached by one of our triple premiership players – Paul Groves, the Thirds journey to Old Trinity while the Under 19s are at home to Old Trinity.