Excitement building

If you don’t know, now you know – the Saints are surging through the back end of the season. Myrtleford’s senior side is hitting their high at the right time after dismantling finals aspirant Wodonga in a display of pure foot skills and killer instinct on Saturday. A far cry from their first encounter back in round seven, the Saints were clinical in their 22.9 (141) to 9.10 (64) win over Wodonga Bulldogs at McNamara Reserve. The Bulldogs had the run of play early but weren’t able to make the most of their looks at goal, with Myrtleford trailing by eight points at the first break. A seven goal to three second term saw Myrtleford shoot out in front, but there was more to come. It was a third quarter for the ages which saw the Saints pile on eight goals to one to push the margin out to 58 points at the final break. The Saints' clean ball movement and polish by foot cut through the Wodonga defence, and clinical execution up front saw the gap grow and grow. It was a procession through the fourth term, with Myrtleford simply too much for the Bulldogs to contend with. It was a fitting way to celebrate two of the club’s favourite sons in their milestone matches, with Mitch Dalbosco playing his 200th senior clash – as well as 200th consecutive senior game - and Brody Ricardi his 150th. Ricardi finished with five goals, and Dalbosco even managed to sneak forward to jag a major in the fourth quarter, causing cheers to erupt from the Ablett Pavillion as every Saint on the ground converged on him. Midfield dynamos Tom Cappellari and Jaxon East were finding the footy at will, each racking up 30 disposals or more, while Simon Curtis down back (22 disposals) and Ryley Sharp up forward (six goals) led at either end of the ground. Coach Craig Millar said his side’s ability to absorb pressure when it came and build some of their own was key. “We spoke pregame that they’re going to have their moments and we’ve got to make sure we weather the storm when they have their turn, and I thought they had their turn early,” he said. “[Noah] Spiteri got off the leash and created some real headaches for us, but I felt we wrestled the momentum back a little bit, particularly in the latter half of the first quarter. “There were signs in the first quarter, even though we were under pressure, but our ball use was really important for us and we were able to cash in on some inside 50 entries and build some scoreboard pressure against them before half-time.” “I watched the Wodonga games over the last couple of weeks and they’ve had enormous pressure on the ball and they’ve been able to get their numbers behind the ball and slingshot forward – it was what they did to us earlier in the year, so we knew the plan they were going to bring, and we trained a certain method during the week to try and negate that where we could. “I just felt our players were so disciplined in the way we wanted to play to win. “It’s always satisfying when you can execute the plan and collect the four points.” In earlier matches, the reserves manufactured a 100-point win, 20.13 (133) to the Bulldogs’ 5.3 (33), while the thirds went down 4.0 (24) to 15.14 (104). This weekend, the Saints face their biggest challenge, taking on reigning premiers and leaders of the pack Wangaratta Rovers on the brown and gold’s home turf. Myrtleford is one of only three sides who’ve managed to knock the Rovers off this season, and given their stunning form, this match will have tongues wagging across the league. “We feel like our best footy is more than competitive, we feel like if we can do that then we’re a chance in every game we play,” Millar said. “There’s still a lot of stuff to get right, but the last month has been satisfying, we’ve been able to kick some reasonable scores, but more so we’ve bene able to defend the opposition and keep them to relatively low scores. “That’s what we celebrate a lot, our ability to defend the ground, and that’s been pleasing. “We’re really in for a hot contest this week, we know they’re probably going to bring back three or four pretty handy players, and we can’t wait to play the benchmark of the competition and see where we’re at.” Football at Wangaratta’s WJ Findlay Oval commences on Saturday at 10am with the thirds, before the reserves at 12pm and the seniors from 2pm.

Excitement building

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