It was more than 50 years in the making and the Battle of Brunswick lived up to expectations as the local rivals, after trading blows all day, were locked together at 68 points apiece at the 20-minute mark of the last quarter, before the Westies slammed on five goals in 14 minutes to take the win at Ransford Oval on Saturday.

With the wind at our backs, Brunswick got the early jump on the home side in the first quarter, with Geremie Ganino getting on the end of some excellent direct play to star with three of our five goals for the term. James Schmidt was playing his best footy for the season, winning clearances and kicking a great goal of his own.

We knew the Westies would come at us hard when their turn came with the breeze and our defenders were quite magnificent. That West Brunswick scored ten behinds for the quarter was mainly due to our tactics of forcing them wide. Darcy Heenan relished playing the role of the spare in defence, while Danny King, Lewis White, Liam Whelan and Dean Beaumont were all tremendous under pressure. It wasn’t until close to half-time that the home side managed to kick a couple of majors to tie things up at the break.

The third quarter was a nip-and-tuck affair, with only a few points in it for large periods. Midway through, an unlikely hero emerged in the form of The Yak, Michael Iacobaccio, who snagged two crucial goals in just his third game for the club. An important goal on the three-quarter time siren to Chris Gavaghan extended our lead to ten points, and the big question was whether that would be enough of a buffer as the Westies would come home with the breeze?

An arm-wrestle ensued to start the last term. West Brunswick attacked, but kept on missing until finally kicking a major after 12 minutes. At the 14-minute mark, scores were again level, before a goal to the home side and an immediate response by Jed Carey locked it up again after 16 minutes. Unfortunately that would be our last score, while the Westies would finish full of running with a further 5.3 to give the final score a misleading impression of just how close it had been.

We had many good players on the day. It was particularly pleasing to see Schmidt and Daniel Mott return to form, while James Moverley continues his rapid improvement in the ruck. White and Nick Burgin were again excellent, and Ganino was ever-dangerous in the forward line.

Our young team is developing week-on-week and will again be a live chance against Prahran Assumption at Gillon Oval this week. See you there!