Sport
13 July, 2022
Koroit too strong for Bloods
LADDER leaders Koroit dealt a 125-point blow to the Bloods last weekend.
LADDER leaders Koroit dealt a 125-point blow to the Bloods last weekend.
Playing on their home ground, Terang Mortlake struggled against the in-form Saints from the first bounce and found themselves playing catch-up footy all day.
Despite the gap on the scoreboard, Bloods coach Ben Kenna felt his side played reasonably competitive football and made the visitors work for every goal.
“Realistically, this (the score) was probably the expected outcome or thereabouts and credit where credit’s due,” Kenna said.
“Koroit is a good side and they’ve beaten most sides on the bottom half of the ladder by similar margins so we’re happy to have kicked seven goals against them.”
Kenna said while his side applied pressure all over the ground for the first two-and-a-half quarters, the intensity dropped a little from that point onwards.
“Our pressure did drop off in the last part of the game, which highlighted the fitness of Koroit,” he said.
“At one stage they kicked half a dozen goals within the space of about 10 minutes and that’s always going to be hard to peg back against a quality side.”
The Bloods’ lack of height across the ground also proves challenging against some of the league’s bigger teams, according to Kenna.
The Bloods went into the main break 47 points down but were determined to make up some ground.
They managed to add three goals to their score line in the third term but the Saints piled on six goals, six behinds to extend their lead to 71 points at three-quarter time.
The final term saw the Bloods add just one major while the visitors ran home, booting an extra nine goals, six behinds.
Final scores Terang Mortlake 7.2.44 to Koroit 25.19.169.
Best players for the Bloods included Dylan James, Jarryd Hay, Xavier Vickers, Hugh Porter, Connor Cardwell and Isaac Kenna.
Goals went to Jack Lehmann (2), Matthew Baxter, William Kain, Daniel Kenna and Hugh Porter.
The Bloods sit eighth on the ladder with three wins under their belt.
“We’ve certainly got some more tough games coming up but we’ll just take it week by week,” Kenna said.
“If we can manage to snatch another win or two before the season’s end that’d be great. I could never question the effort and commitment of our players; we’ve got a young side but they certainly put in 110 per cent.”
In the reserves match, the home side suffered a 98-point loss with the final scores at 3.1.19 to 17.15.117.
Best for the Bloods were Oscar Baxter, Jake Tanner, Josef O’Sullivan, Chris Crawley, Bailey Kavenagh and Jordi Dwyer.
Jarrad Blain, Thomas Justin and Jonathan McConnell kicked a goal each.
The Bloods will head to Reid Oval this Saturday to take on the fifth-placed Blues.
After this weekend they will face Hamilton (6th) and North Warrnambool (4th) before meeting bottom-placed Port Fairy in round 16 and then South Warrnambool (2nd) and Cobden (7th).
