Football can be a funny game.
Thomastown had kicked just two goals in three quarters of football on Saturday, but kicking with the breeze in the final quarter they still thought they were in with a chance to topple Lalor in their Northern Football League division 2 match.
In fact, at three-quarter time Bears coach Ben Chapman was telling his boys that the game wasn’t over, despite them trailing by 38 points.
And he was right.
The Bears kicked 8.9 to just one point in the final quarter to win their third game of the season, 10.22 (82)-8.16 (64).
“They [Lalor] dominated for 90 minutes and we still found a way to win,” Chapman said. “In the second quarter we kicked 2.9 so we had opportunities but had been flat all day with our tackling and contested footy.
“We knew if we could get our hands on the ball and get it forward we would have enough opportunities to win the game.”
Chapman said a few changes to their structure meant they started to play their brand of game in the final quarter.
“We went smaller up forward and had a bit more leg speed.
“We were happy to get the win considering we didn’t play well for three quarters.”
James Rizzolio kicked three goals, while Ricky Mercuri, Daniel Chadwick and Matthew Cupo all played good games for the Bears.
Chapman made special mention of the defence efforts of Matthew Dirkx who shut down Jhye Baddeley-Kelly in the second half.
Dirkx played as a defensive forward but also kicked two goals.
The win leaves the Bears in fifth spot, percentage outside the top four.
Chapman said they still they had struggled for periods in games against the better sides and still had a lot of work to do to match it with them.
“We’re a little bit off from the top three teams but have shown if we can play good football we can match it with them,” he said.
“We need to match it with them for long enough periods if we want to beat them. If we’re not playing good football, we need to minimise the damage, which we did in the third quarter on Saturday.”
For the Bloods, Mark Roumanos and Anthony Velicki kicked two goals each. Shannon Smith was named their best.
In division 1, Bundoora recorded another strong victory, this time against West Preston Lakeside.
Whittlesea lost to Hurstbridge.
In division 3, Epping lost a thriller to Heidelberg West, South Morang was too strong for Mernda, while Laurimar had the bye.
