Early season gridlock in William Buck Premier Men’s

Jason Bennett

Percentage alone separates third through eighth on the Premier Men’s ladder after the opening month, with six of the ten teams locked together on 2 wins, highlighting the evenness of the 2024 season.

Old Brighton remain a game clear on top after a comfortable 47-point win over Fitzroy at Brighton Beach Oval.

The Roys booted the opening goal, but the Tonners were never headed from that point onwards, kicking 5 of the next 6 goals in what turned out to be a high scoring first half. Fitzroy remained within striking distance until midway through the second term until 3 goals in 4.5 minutes saw Old Brighton kick away.

Their 35-point half-time lead extended to 51 at the last change, before the Roys finished with 3 goals to 1 to slightly reduce the final margin.

Old Brighton are a perfect 4-0 for the second straight season and have won 14 of 16 games in their last 4 opening months of footy!

Marcel Bruin (Old Brighton): “A bit of a patchy performance and we were a bit unclean but great to get another win. Will Lewis with 7 goals and Jordy Segar were really impressive up forward and Hamish Dick has been super in a hybrid role.

It was fantastic that we were able to unite with Fitzroy and take a moment to acknowledge the ongoing crisis of violence against women.”

Travis Ronaldson (Fitzroy): “We came up against a good opponent and had some good periods of play but not enough to get the job done. We need to continue to be aggressive with our ball movement and make our opponents react and defend us.

Anthony Johnson and Miles Nelson – two of our young midfielders – worked hard and competed all day, while Jack McKay provided a good tall target around the ground.”

St Kevin’s has jumped up to outright second after extending its lead at every change to ultimately run out 50-point winners over Old Melburnians at TH King Oval.

OM’s got a flyer with the opening goal before SKOB settled into the game and slammed on 8 of the next 9 goals to career away to a handy lead. OM’s kicked 3 of the last 4 goals in the first half to pull the margin back to 24 points at half time, and when Adam RICHARDSON booted the opening goal of the third term, it was a 3-goal game and OM’s looked to be back in the contest.

But SKOB quashed the resistance with a powerful 21-minute burst that netted them 6 goals and blew the game wide open.

2 goals apiece in the final term saw St Kevin’s cruise to a big win, led by 5 goals from Patrick Kerr.

Anthony Lynch (St Kevins): “We spoke about the opportunity to respond to a poor performance – well, we couldn’t have been more pleased with our four-quarter effort.

It was our most even team performance for the year and again the most positive part was we debuted 2 more players out of last year’s U19 group.

The challenges don’t get any easier next week with Blues at Uni Oval, so we will need that even team contribution again.”

Paul Satterly (Old Melburnians): “We were soundly beaten in all areas. Full credit to SKOBS and how they applied themselves to the contest.

On a positive note, we have unearthed some quality kids in Jeremy A’Beckett, Nicky Christian and Ollie Tyrer.”

An inaccurate Old Scotch has slipped to third after having 8 more scoring shots but falling 7 points short of University Blues at Camberwell.

The Cardinals peppered away in the first half, generating opportunities but headed to the main break just 5 points up, having kicked 3.8 to 3.3.

And it only got more frustrating for Old Scotch with another 1.6 in the third term – the Blues adding 4.2 to take a 9-point lead to the final change, before kicking the first two goals of the last quarter to open up what looked to be a match-winning 21-point lead at the 15-minute mark.

But – as they did against Collegians last week – the Cardinals refused to yield, booting 3 goals in 4.5 minutes to storm back into the game.

Just 1 point separated the two teams until the most influential man on the ground, James Stewart, kicked his fifth goal at the 29-minute mark to hand the Blues a hard-fought 7-point win.

Guy Martyn (Uni Blues): “Saturday was another example of how even and strong the competition is. Both sides had periods of momentum and the result could’ve gone either way.

Overall, I was happy with our ability to halt Scotch’s rapid ball movement and force them long down the line.

James Stewart put on a dominant display with his pack marking and goal-kicking – emphasised by his match winning mark/goal.

Special mention to Nick Conway, who was our sole key defender for the day after two withdrawals on Friday night. I was extremely happy with how he and the rest of the backline stepped up.”

Mark Gnatt (Old Scotch): “We had plenty of good scoring opportunities, however, we were unable to convert. We had the ascendancy through the midfield and were able to connect better with our forwards this week, which was pleasing.

Will Clark was brilliant in the ruck and went forward in the last quarter, kicking two vital goals that almost won us the game. Brodie Easton and Charlie Cormack continued their strong start to the season. And the skipper, Andy Jelbart led from the front again with a solid performance.”

Reigning premiers Collegians have posted back-to-back victories after overcoming a slow start to get the better of Old Xaverians at Toorak Park.

Xavs had 8 scoring shots to 3 to lead by 10 points at the opening change, before the Lions found their groove in the second term, booting 4 goals to 1 to head to the major break with an 11-point advantage.

Goals were hard to come by in the third term with just 3 in total as Collegians edged their way to a 19-point lead. The defensive struggle continued into the last term until Ben Darrou – one of the great comeback stories of the season so far – kicked his third & fourth goals to put the result beyond doubt.

Jordie McKenzie (Collegians): “It was a spirited win. With a slow start and one of our prime movers injured, the boys dug deep from quarter time and produced our brand of footy. Our pressure was a highlight, and we played large chunks of the game in our forward half.

Ben Darrou provided a terrific contest all day and got his reward. Scott Belby and Will Pewtress were instrumental down back, and the midfield group lead by Jim Bazzani produced a great 4 quarter effort.”

Dan Donati (Old Xavs):  “It was a tightly contested game for most of the day. I thought we failed to execute early when we had momentum, and as the game went on, we didn’t take the chances on offer to be right in it at the end.

Full credit to Collegians, who brought the pressure and used the outside lanes well all day. They’re a quality team who in the end deserved the win.”

St Bernards got the jump on University Blacks at Melbourne Uni Oval, booting 2 goals in the opening 4 minutes, before Blacks stabilised the situation and eventually got the game on their terms to kick 9 of the next 11 goals and hold a commanding 33-point half-time lead.

It was 4 goals apiece in an entertaining third term, as the Snowdogs strived to get back into the game.

Two Blacks goals early in the last quarter blew their lead out to 47 points, before St Bernards kicked the last 5 of the game to reduce the margin to a far more respectable 18 points.

Uni Blacks with back-to-back wins, setting up a fascinating clash with Collegians this coming weekend.

Dale Bower (Uni Blacks): “We played some great patches of great footy. We were able to improve our ability to move the footy effectively. It was great to get the 4 points against a team that was in pretty good form.”

Steve Alessio (St Bernards): “They were much cleaner than us around the stoppages and spread and moved the ball well all day.

Our boys battled hard even though things weren’t going their way. Our last quarter effort was pleasing and gives us something to work with going into this week’s game back at the SnakePit in front of our home crowd.”