St Bedes/ Mentone Tigers won a hard-fought battle against Old Haileybury by 23 points at Brindisi Street on Saturday and thereby maintained their hold on second position on the VAFA Premier B. Kicking with strong 6 goal northerly (later to develop into a quasi-hurricane….), Old Haileybury failed to take advantage of their on-field dominance and eventually posted a wasteful 5 goals 7 to 1 goal quarter and despite a 31 point lead at quarter time appeared to have squandered their opportunity. The Tigers were also slow to get going in the second with the strengthening breeze/gale but with Alex Smout and James Tyquin dominating the centre of the ground the local team began to get their forward thrusts a lot more co-ordinated to the end that in a quick flurry mid-quarter they took the lead and with a 7 goal 3 to a solitary point turned at the half with a 13 point ascendency. In the third, with the Bloods backed by the aforementioned hurricane….the Mentone team got to work to deny Haileybury any clean ball in the forward half and with John Cayhan and Darcy Holden at the bottom of every pack and barging out into space the Tigers restricted the visitors to 2 goals 7 and a three quarter time lead of a miserable 5 points. In the last, St Bedes demonstrated their desire to participate in the upcoming finals series, and with Chris Mangoni and Jaryd Robertson outstanding, repelled every opposition forward foray and launched countless attacks to ensure the Tigers came home with a satisfying 23 point victory in the most trying conditions of the season. The Development Team recovered from two weeks of well below par performances to defeat the lowly Old Haileybury by over 20 goals with Johnny Dawes, Josh Heron, Mitch Coen and Joel Stewart the best-performed on the day. The Under 19s consolidated their third position on the ladder with a 116 point victory away to Whitefriars with Reagan Maddaford, Zac Calvez, Trent Pastura and Lachie Wigney among the best. Similarly, the U19 Development Team consolidated their fourth position on the ladder with an 119 point victory over Old Paradians with Tate Stainer (6 goals), Adam Thatcher, Ryan Mravljak (3 goals) and Connor Ladds the best. • Next Saturday the Under 19s and 19s Development Team are at home at Brindisi Street against Old Carey and Mazenod (currently third) in games that will shape the respective teams finals aspirations while the Thirds travel to St Mary’s Salesian in one last quest for glory. The Seniors and Development Team have a bye this week before taking on AJAX on Saturday 13th – coincidentally the day of the 2006 Premierships Re-union in which the resurgent Tigers defeated AJAX by a solitary point in in their feted Grand Final victory at Sandringham’s Beach Oval in September 2006.