Sport
11 May, 2022
Power surges past Merrivale
KOLORA Noorat Football Netball Club charged back from a nightmare first quarter to record a 15-point win over Merrivale on the weekend.
KOLORA Noorat Football Netball Club charged back from a nightmare first quarter to record a 15-point win over Merrivale on the weekend.
The Power slipped to a 5.5 (35) to 2.0 (12) deficit at the end of the first quarter before surging with 22 unanswered points before the half-time siren.
Kolora Noorat maintained its grip on the competition throughout the second half, recording a 11.7 (73) to 8.10 (58) victory over the Tigers.
Coach Nick Bourke said the game was a hard fought contest against strong opposition.
“We knew it was going to be a tough game because they’re a quality side, but to fight back and come away with the four points was really pleasing,” he said.
“They came out red-hot and were beating us all over the ground."
“At quarter-time we spoke about a couple of things and as a playing group we were able to turn it around, start to play our style of footy and get the game on our terms.”
While falling to the early deficit put the Power in a tough spot, Bourke praised the resilience of his players to keep their heads in the game.
“We certainly don’t want to give a quality side like Merrivale too much of a head start, but it was really pleasing to see the young group maintain its composure,” he said.
“We had a lot of juniors playing who had some really big moments, so to be able to wrestle the game back and come away with the win was a good result.”
Among the best players were Fred Beasley, Samuel Boyd, Benjamin O’Sullivan, Benjamin Fraser, Jason Moloney and Joel Dillon.
Boyd slotted home four goals to lead the team in scoring, which caught the eye of Bourke.
“A few of our older players in Sam Boyd, Jason Moloney and Ben Fraser are at a point where you kind of expect the strong performances from them now,” he said.
“A lot of our young kids like Paddy Baker, Nick Castersen, Jack Vaughan and Trent Glennon are still able to play under 18s and they all had massive moments in a big game."
“That’s really helping us.”
Kolora Noorat will hit the road this weekend to take on Russells Creek.
Russells Creek put in a spirited performance against league leaders Nirranda on the weekend, and will be hungry to stop Kolora Noorat working its way up the ladder.
“They’re another quality opposition who have a lot of top end talent,” Bourke said.
“We’ll try to get a better start than we have for the last few weeks, try to play our brand of footy and try to put together a four quarter performance.”
In other results around the league Nirranda extended its lead on the competition with a win over Russells Creek, Panmure toppled South Rovers, Old Collegians bested Timboon and Dennington defeated Allansford.
