August 12, 2007
From Sunday Herald Sun
Reported by Howard Leigh
THE gloss of Geelong's crushing defeat of rival premiership contender the North Ballarat Roosters at the Northern Oval yesterday was diminished by a serious knee injury to AFL-list defender Stephen Owen.
Reported by Howard Leigh
THE gloss of Geelong's crushing defeat of rival premiership contender the North Ballarat Roosters at the Northern Oval yesterday was diminished by a serious knee injury to AFL-list defender Stephen Owen.
The 20-year-old 2005 AFL draft choice from the North Ballarat Rebels, who is yet to make his AFL debut, twisted his left knee midway through the final quarter.
Geelong VFL coach Leigh Tudor said last night Owen appeared to have damaged his ACL joint.
"Stephen has been awesome for us all year," Tudor said.
"He has improved out of sight and it is very sad. He will undergo a full medical examination on Monday."
Geelong's 71-point win came on the back of emerging teenage ruckman Trent West, a winning midfield headed by Josh Hunt and Ryan Gamble, a strong defence led by Tim Callan, Tom Lonergan and Sam Hunt, and a three-pronged attack headed by Charlie Gardiner, Todd Grima and Henry Playfair.
Geelong's 21.15 (141) to North Ballarat's 10.10 (70) was their 12th victory of the season and leaves them locked into second place with two home-and-away games left.
In the other match yesterday, the Casey Scorpions enhanced their final-eight aspirations with a 10-goal victory over wooden spooners the Tassie Devils at the Bellerive Oval.
Scorpions coach Peter Banfield praised St Kilda list players full-forward Fergus Watts, who booted seven goals from nine shots, half-forward Brett Voss (30 touches, 2 goals) and midfielder Andrew Thompson (30 possessions, 10 centre-square clearances).
He said former Adelaide ruckman Matthew Clarke had dominated the centre clearances working in tandem with Barry Brooks.
The final scores, Casey Scorpions 16.18 (114) defeated Tasmania 8.5 (53).
