Convincing Willunga Win

Al Tucker

After a drizzly start to the day, the sun came out and shone all afternoon on the Willunga oval and the Demons’ past players who had gathered to celebrate past glories. They witnessed the home side work hard in the first quarter to establish a narrow lead over Myponga-Sellicks before blowing the game apart in the second quarter and kicking away to score a convincing 58-point win over last year’s premiers.

The Mudlark Hayden Sampson’s dash proved difficult to contain in the first quarter. He kicked 2 goals in 5 minutes before Willunga hit the scoreboard. Douglass and Stark defended courageously for the home side. Drury should have kicked a third major for the visitors but his set kick from close range, stayed narrow all the way. After Willunga’s opening score, a behind, came at the 11-minute mark, they steadied. Shirvington created opportunities in the centre square and the hard running Nye, Hams and S Renney boomed the ball into the forward lines where, despite the strong defensive work of Hutchinson, Ogilvie and Spinks, the Willunga forwards found space. Brown twice won free kicks for strong tackles and pin-pointed Nobes with the resulting kicks. He goaled. Scores were level at the 25-minute mark when Willunga’s inspirational skipper, Sam Renney, kicked a high ball to the pocket, sprinted to the contest, took the ball off hands and slotted an impossible goal on the run from a tight angle to give Willunga a 3-1 to 2-2 lead at the first break.

Willunga dominated the second quarter kicking 7 goals 1 to 3 behinds. They played some of their best football for the season. The visitors had early opportunities through Shillabeer and Ogilivie to goal but both missed and after that it was all Willunga. Shirvington and Draper combined to drive the ball long to Nobes who marked and kicked his third. Then Nye took a defensive mark in the goal square, ran the length of the ground to be on the receiving end of a pass, marked and kicked truly, then young guns Carnevale, Shoolbread and Harry Saunders kicked majors for the home team to give Willunga a 9-2 to 2-5 lead at the long break.

The premiership quarter was won narrowly by the visitors kicking 2.3 to 2.2. The Mudlarks refused to surrender even after Nye dashed along the boundary, eluded a player, ran to space and kicked to Nobes who marked and goaled 30-seconds into the quarter. The visitors steadied and after a series of slick handballs at the 8-minute mark, found the fast-leading Shillabeer who took a trademark chest mark, went back and split the middle. He kicked another 5-minutes later after a set of precise passes controlled the ball from the backline and into his hands 40 metres out. The next ten minutes were a stalemate until Miegel and Tom Saunders combined to allow Nobes to mark and goal and give Willunga an 11-4 to 4-8 lead at three quarter time.

The last quarter was all Willunga after Myponga-Sellicks kicked the opening goal through Spinks. 3-minutes later Shirvington won a boundary throw-in and kicked high to Nobes who stuck up his big mitts, marked and goaled. From the centre square bounce, Sam Renney and Tom Saunders surged forward and found Carnevale who kicked another. Draper got the next two. The first came from a long handball to space by Nye, the second after strong bullocking by Hoffman forced the ball into Draper’s hands. Willunga won by 58 points and quickly turned their attention to next week’s game-of-the-day against the only team who have beaten them this season – McLaren Vale. Will the home ground advantage allow the Demons to turn the tables? Come to the footy next week at Willunga to find out.

By Alan Tucker