St Bedes/ Mentone Tigers willed themselves across the line to down University Blues by 15 points, after a tight and entertaining tussle, in VAFA Premier Division at Brindisi Street on Saturday. The Tigers were away well early against the breeze but couldn’t put enough score on the board as Blues ground there way back into the game. The tightknit Tiger defence led by Michael Cursio and Anthony Scafidi turned the Students back time and again but Blues eventually got on the board and with late goals deservedly led by 7 points at the first break. In the second quarter, the team continued to battle the ball forward but found goals very hard to come by while the University team also struggled into the tricky breeze at the Tigers’ Fortress, however, with midfielder Luke Collins knocking up finding the footy and skipper James Tyquin regularly turning defence into attack the half-time scoreboard ultimately showed the home team had turned the deficit around to lead by one straight kick. After the long break, the Mentone team maintained the ascendency and, with Chris Mouritz outstanding in defence, kept the Students at bay for long periods but, as had been the pattern of the game, Blues with the aid of the breeze began to get more of the footy and moved it by hand and with run very effectively to turn for home with a mere 2 point deficit. Into the breeze in the last, Uni took it up to the tigers and, with excellent ball-movement and hard-running from the clearances. The Blues challenged the home team as they skipped out a 10 point lead at the 18 minute but, as had been the case last week and over recent years, the Tigers lived up to their reputation as big last quarter finishers and banged on 5 straight goals in the next 7 minutes to put the 4 points beyond the reach of the game Parkville boys and then proceeded to again run out the quarter strongly to finish off Blues’ chance of their first-ever win at Fortress Brindisi. The Tigers’ Reserves found last year’s Reserves’ premiers too strong and went down by 33 points, the Under 19s had a resounding 47 point victory against the Students while the Under 18s started their season with a comfortable 42 point victory at Old Camberwell. The Tigers’ next assignment is the traditional ANZAC Day fixture against Old Scotch at Brindisi Street next Sunday – thusfar the record stands at one victory apiece with the Cardinals inflicting a rare home loss in the Tigers’ “A” Section premiership year while the Mentone team was too strong for Scotch at Camberwell last year. Any footy fan looking for some real local football should journey down to Mentone next Sunday to see some high quality Amateur footy as two of the very good Premier Division outfits slug it out at one of the competition’s boutique footy grounds.