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A Kyabram District League premiership tilt from sixth spot on the ladder continues for another week for Corey Carver and his Lancaster side, after defeating Stanhope by 50 points yesterday.
Despite the blustery conditions in the first half and the downpour of rain in the second, Lancaster proved too strong for Stanhope in the semi-final encounter at Undera Recreation Reserve. The Wombats sliced through Stanhope’s defence with elegant precision and rarely coughed up the ball as they ended the Lions’ 2019 season. Speaking post-match, Carver was unable to find too many negatives from his side’s 12.14 (86) to 5.6 (36) win. ‘‘I’m really happy with the performance, the entire 21 played their role today,’’ he said. ‘‘Just their effort and hard work for the whole match was outstanding. ‘‘There was a period of about five minutes where they had a couple shots on goal, but apart from that we played really well.’’ Carver was proud of his side’s ability to not turn the ball over and maintain possession from defence right through to the attacking 50. ‘‘The skills today were good, we’d been turning the ball over too much, we had a high clanger rate in the last month,’’ he said. ‘‘When you don’t turn the ball over, it’s hell of a lot easier for the forwards. ‘‘In the past two weeks, we’ve been able to halve our ‘clanger’ rate in the past two weeks — it makes a huge difference.’’ Led by brothers Tannar and Zac Cerrone, who kicked five goals between them, Lancaster’s skill and pace with ball in hand got the better of Stanhope. Tom Davies was important in the midfield and around the stoppages, while speedster James Ross was hard to catch as he pin-balled around the ground. Forward Billy Ryan continued his strong season and kicked three goals and was involved in plenty of other scoring chains. ‘‘There were lots of good players today,’’ Carver said. ‘‘I thought Zac was great across half-forward and through the midfield. ‘‘And Tom was very good in close around the contest.’’ For Stanhope, a terrific season — which involved an elimination win against Murchison-Toolamba — comes to a close under first-year coach Cobey Aynsley. The Lions had their chances to apply scoreboard pressure in the second term of the loss, but missed targets and dropped marks hurt. Braydon Kearns tried hard in attack and kicked two goals, while Nathan O’Reilly was named best afield. Jamie Spencer had a strong game across half-back with a number of important intercept marks and Sam Woodward battled in the ruck. Lancaster now plays Tallygaroopna at Dookie Recreation Reserve this weekend for a chance to play Nagambie in the grand final.
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