This was an early season must win game and NOBSPC got the job done with a hard fought 7-goal victory over Whitefriars at Gillon Oval.

With a good crowd of past players watching on, we kicked with the aid of a 3-goal breeze in the opening term and dominated general play. Matt Keown played hero and villain up forward as he caught everything but only converted one of four shots. He wasn’t the only offender in that regard and the quarter time margin was a par score.

An early goal in the second saw us lead by 24 points but the rest of the quarter was a struggle as Whitefriars dragged the margin back to less than a kick at the main break. If not for the efforts of the backline led by Mick O’Donoghue and Nick Holt we would have surely faced a deficit.

The third quarter was marred by a shocking leg injury to one of Whitefriars’ main playmakers which caused a long delay. While we won the term it was an arm wrestle and at three-quarter time the game was in the balance.

As we did in every quarter we kicked the opening goal to again lead by 24 points. For the next 10 minutes it was goal-for-goal before we broke the game apart with five of the last six goals of the match. It was especially pleasing to see some quick and direct play and crumbers Chris Horsley and George Hartney kicking multiple goals by getting front and centre.

It was also pleasing to see Jarred Wade and Tom Hartney play their best games for the club. Mick O’Donoghue was BOG at full back. (If he keeps that up he mightn’t get moved back to the forward line.) Amongst a number of other good contributors were the returning Christian Ryan and Jeremy Nettlefold, who added some real grunt.

Old Geelong next week at home on Ladies’ Day will present a big challenge and we will need to play at the level we showed in the final term for the full 100 minutes.