News

From Herald Sun
Reported by Geoff Poulter

FRANKSTON bounced back to form with a decisive home ground win against the Northern Bullants yesterday.
 
The 13-point margin didn't do credit to the Dolphins, who controlled the match.

The Bullants rallied late in the last quarter but never looked like grabbing the points.

Frankston coach Brett Lovett has done a marvellous job with the stand-alone club with a list of players with virtually no AFL experience.

The Dolphins have had to replace century goalkicker Aaron Edwards this season and their mosquito fleet of smaller forwards was again a key factor yesterday.

Justin Berry (three goals) is an accomplished small forward and was well supported by Ricky Morris (four goals) and Tory Dickson with two.

"They have been holding it together a bit for us," Lovett said.

"For us to win we need to have a good even effort. We had a lot of goalkickers which we need to build it up. They are really versatile. Dickson had a good year in the reserves last year and he has kicked goals so far this year. It was a good win but I was a bit disappointed with the last 10 minutes."

Frankston had been struggling and had dropped to 10th before yesterday's rebound.

"We had three losses and a two-week break so it had been a while since we had a win," Lovett said.

"So it was pretty important to get the belief back and get ourselves back on track."

Ruck Ashley Eames was replaced in the second quarter with a strained achilles tendon and could be grounded for about two weeks.

The Bullants are struggling after being a dominant performer through the home-and-away part of last season.

They played well in bursts yesterday but lacked consistency and, at times, were not direct enough.

Williamstown continued its consistent form with an impressive 40-point home win against North Ballarat yesterday.

The Seagulls' dominance was reflected in 15 more scoring shots, 43 to 28.

Sam Iles, playing wing and half-back, had 34 possessions and Martin Clarke had 20 from a half-back flank.

Key forward Dean Limbach kicked four goals to take his tally to 29 for the season.

"That (wasted chances) was probably the only disappointing part of the day," Williamstown coach Brad Gotch said.

"We probably had about 100 possessions more than they did and we kicked 18.25.

"There were some easy shots there we could have nailed which have made it a bigger scoreline. But we are still pretty happy overall."

The Casey Scorpions produced the upset of the round by overpowering Port Melbourne by 24 points at Casey Fields yesterday.

Midfielder Nigel Carmody was named best for the Scorpions while Fergus Watts booted three goals as a key forward.

Scorpions coach Peter Banfield was also pleased with the form of Andrew McQualter and Shane Birss.

"We were behind at halftime but I thought we had control for a lot of the game," Banfield said.

"We made some skill errors in the second quarter which let them in.

"We had a lot more of the footy than them, we just didn't capitalise in that second quarter and they got away.

"After halftime we just used the ball a lot better and that was the reason we got ourselves in front.

"We should have beaten Coburg, we missed 10 set shots at goal, we should have beaten Williamstown when we were really unlucky.

"We are not as good as the top couple of sides but after that we are not too bad.

"We are playing a lot of young kids and that takes a bit of time."

Werribee upset leaders Geelong by 15 points at Skilled Stadium on Saturday.

James Podsiadly and Matthew Robbins both kicked four goals for Werribee, who led by 50 points halfway through the last quarter before the Cats finally got their act together.