2018 Round 1
St Bedes/ Mentone Tigers opened their account for 2018 with a classy 7 point victory over Old Melburnians at the Brindisi Street Fortress after some minor heart palpitations in the last quarter.
The first quarter was a genuine arm-wrestle as both teams sought the ascendency before the Tigers started to take control on the field without it reflecting on the scoreboard – at the short break the locals turned 4 points to the good.
The second began as the first but St Bedes now started to score at will while the backline led by Dan Garside, Liam Hiscock and Jaryd Robertson refused to give Grammar a sniff and at the long break the Tigers held a well-deserved 26 point lead.
After the break, St Bedes/Mentone Tigers – led by a dominant ruck performance by Lachie Mirams and a classy on-ball brigade of Michael Barnes, Rob Iudica and Simon Richards – bombarded the Blue team’s defence and took the lead out to 47 points in the shadows of three quarter time only for Melburnians to snag two late goals to keep them just in the contest.
After the orange break, Mentone came out to snuff out any revival but missed a couple of early opportunities only to see the Grammar boys respond with consecutive goals to bring the margin back to 25 points with plenty of time to play
Old Melburnians then got into their stride and played aggressive, attacking football to reduce the margin to 12 points at the 20 minute mark and it was game-on.
The Tigers responded with two timely goals of their own but OMs wouldn’t go a away and reduced the margin to 6 points with 3 minutes to play only to ultimately be turned back by desperate defence from Steve Takana and Tom Tyquin across half back. As the siren sounded, St Bedes supporters drew a deep breath but equally knew they had beaten a genuine VAFA Premier Division finals aspirant to get their season off to the best possible start The Reserves and Under 19 teams had difficult days at the office and were well-beaten while the Under 19 Development team had an outstanding win on the road against Therry Penola by 69 points under late stand-in coach Paul O’Toole
While the Senior Women’s team in VAFA Division 1 had a strong 49 point win against the De La Salle under new coach Al Gailey
This week (Saturday 14th), St Bedes/Mentone Tigers Seniors and Reserves are again at home at the Fortress to the newly-promoted Old Brighton, fresh of a win of their own against Old Scotch in a B Section Grand Final Re-match, while the Under 19s are away to Collegians and the Under 19s Development team journey to Williamstown with the Senior Women’s team to play UHS away in a twilight game on Saturday
ST BEDES/MENTONE TIGERS 2.2 7.3 10.8 12.13-85
OLD MELBURNIANS 1.4 2.7 4.9 11.12-78
Goals: P. Tyquin 2, Smith 2, Barnes 2, Short 2, J. Mangoni, Mirams, S. Richards, Iudica
Best: Robertson, D. Garside, Hiscock, Barnes, S. Richards, Iudica