In the wet you just gotta love getting the four points. In the end it doesn’t really matter how you get them, just get ’em. This was one of those games. We effectively won the game in the first quarter when we jumped Yarra Valley with five early goals. Kewy was again on fire early, while Weaver snagged a couple. The rain came in the second quarter and Yarra Valley started to work harder than us.

Then we lost Beaumont and McCann and things started to get get tight. To the credit of the players they dug deep in third term and built what proved to be a match winning lead at the final change.

The last quarter was a tense struggle, but Holt was impassable down back and Shepherd continued to turn it on when it really mattered. In fact, every team we have played has commented on just how dominant Shep has been in the ruck and around the ground. It must be said that Yarra Valley didn’t capitalise on many chances but the important thing was we held our nerve. Other good players included Holland (three goals), Kelly and Horsley (two goals).

We are now in second place on the ladder with another big challenge next week against Whitefriars at home. We need to keep banking four points to set ourselves up for the season.