2 weeks Ago By Luke West
AFTER sweeping the senior, reserves and under-18 football premierships in their respective competitions last year, Sandhurst and Echuca ramped up their pre-season preparations against each other on Saturday. or signup to continue reading With the central Victorian football season drawing closer various clubs from across the Bendigo, Heathcote District and Loddon Valley leagues were in action across the weekend, with most games brought forward from original starting times because of the sweltering conditions. Among the hit-outs was Sandhurst travelling to take on Echuca at Echuca.
Like Sandhurst did in the Bendigo league last year, Echuca also won all three football flags in the Goulburn Valley league: seniors, reserves and under-18s. While scores are irrelevant at this time of the year, for the record Echuca won the senior game by about four goals against a Sandhurst side that only had about nine of its premiership team of last year playing. "We had really restricted numbers for both the seniors and reserves through a range of reasons in terms of unavailabilities, which wasn't ideal," said Sandhurst co-coach Bryce Curnow, who played in the reserves game due to the Dragons' lack of player numbers.
"We played a lot of kids in the senior side, which had an average age of about 21-and-a-half today. It wasn't one of those games where anyone in particular starred, I thought we were very even. We played a lot of kids in the senior side, which had an average age of about 21-and-a-half today.
It wasn't one of those games where anyone in particular starred, I thought we were very even "Oscar Cail, who won the under-18 goalkicking last year, started pretty well for us; young Jaxon Howard who is in our thirds showed some really good glimpses in some strong contests behind the footy; Ollie Morris played well in a high half-forward role; Caleb Connick out on a wing was probably best on ground; and Lachie Hood and Cooper Smith on the ball were both strong throughout the day." * Golden Square played the first of its three practice matches, taking on Goulburn Valley league side Kyabram at Elmore. Following the late departure of Kai Daniels, who has made Richmond's VFL list, Rory McRann-Peters and Tanner Rayner shared the ruck duties for the Bulldogs, who were beaten by around four goals during the three quarters of the senior game.
The Bulldogs were missing about eight of their senior regulars, including Jayden Burke, Jack Stewart, Terry Reeves, Macey Eaton and Hugh Freckleton. "We had all the play in the first quarter, but our inside 50s weren't great and then in the second quarter we turned it over a lot coming out of our defensive 50," Golden Square coach Brad Eaton said. "But I thought our pressure was good and there were some good signs in terms of the way we moved the footy.
"Jesse Gill is a young player who played in the backline and may not have got a spot had we had everyone playing and I thought he went really well. "He attacked the footy really well; it was good to see he and Noah Warfe play really well in the backline. "I was impressed with Rory in the ruck after quarter-time against a couple of fairly crafty Kyabram ruckmen; Tanner (Rayner) kicked a couple of goals; Carson James showed some good glimpses and Tommy (Strauch) and Jordan (Rosengren) were good through the middle.
" * Brock Harvey and Kaiden Antonowicz kicked 13 goals between them in South Bendigo's comfortable win over Moama at Lockington. Harvey bagged seven goals and Antonowicz - who has returned to the Bloods from White Hills - slotted six. "We've been working really hard on our structure and gameplan and it was really well implemented today," South Bendigo co-coach Troy Coates said.
"Our forward line was dangerous with Brock kicking seven goals and Kaiden six and our backline held up well; with so many new players it was really good to see the way we connected." After missing all of last season with an ACL Will Keck made his return to the field for the Bloods, whose outs included forward Steven Stroobants with a calf that Coates says won't be any concern for his round one availability against Strathfieldsaye. * Former Kangaroo Flat player Ryan Doherty got the chance to reconnect with his former club.
Doherty is now coaching Sunraysia league club Red Cliffs, which made the almost 400km trek to play the Roos at Epsom Huntly. It was the Roos' first hit-out under their new coach Tyrone Downie. "We probably didn't set up structurally as well as we could have around the contest, so that's something we will take out of today," Downie said.
"There was some really good ball movement, but we also let ourselves down a bit at times with our skills, so that's the summary from us today. We ran a large list of players and probably ran a lot of reserves players; when we were playing the senior game it was fairly even." Returning ruckman Nick Lang rolled his ankle in the second quarter.
"Langy doesn't think there's much in it and should be right to go for our next praccy match," Downie said. * Colbinabbin forwards Brandyn Grenfell and Alex Carr combined for around 20 scoring shots in the Grasshoppers' game against Echuca United. Carr kicked six goals and new key forward Grenfell slotted four.
"Echuca United was very young, but I think we walk away from today feeling good about the way we want to play," new Colbinabbin coach Linton Jacobs said. "We're still a long way away from a finished product, but it's starting to take shape." * Last year's Heathcote District league runner-up Leitchville-Gunbower took on Deniliquin under lights at Deniliquin in a game switched to Friday night to avoid Saturday's heat.
"Both sides had a heap of players missing, but it was a good hit-out and chance to get some run into the boys and work on a few things," Bombers coach Shannon Keam said. "I think we got up by about four goals; you can train and train, but nothing beats playing a game. I was happy with how our fitness is coming along, but skill execution under fatigue we've got to keep working on.
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