In a paddock: Shepparton East's Trent Baker has room to move.
Photo by
Rechelle Zammit
A glut of premiership reunions — 1994 and 2004 across different grades — took place at Central Park Recreation Reserve on Saturday afternoon as Shepparton East gave its old stars an extra reason to celebrate in its Kyabram District League opener against Longwood.
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The Eagles were in control of the match from the start as the Redlegs couldn’t move the football past the centre circle for the first 10 minutes.
East’s Dylan Webster Mill — who kicked five goals and received best-on-ground honours — kick-started the Eagles’ season with a great running goal where the ball bounced, rolled and trickled through just out of reach of the Longwood defender.
Jake Sutherland — a clone of Port Adelaide star Charlie Dixon due to his size, beard and physical nature — was a constant presence for the Eagles in attack, marking everything that came near him and finishing with six goals.
Eagles coach Dwain Vidler believes having a powerful player such as Sutherland in attack helps bring the best out of the team’s other forwards.
“He (Sutherland) did really good just to give us that big target to have a get-out kick to, and he has such good hands,” Vidler said.
“He is such a big boy that we can set up a forward line around him and then it brings other blokes into the game because he is such a focal point.
“Then you get blokes like ‘Millsy’ and Hysen (Ismet) pop up and kick five and six goals as small forwards, which is good to see.
“I thought the way we came out in the first quarter with our pressure and intensity around the ball and when we didn’t have the ball, the effort we had to defend and pressure and tackle really set us up.”
As the match continued, the Eagles’ lead kept growing, with the scores sitting at 98-21 on the eve of three-quarter time.
Although the match was pretty much already decided, the competitiveness didn’t waver as both sides continued to trade verbal barbs, which resulted in a 10-man skirmish at the end of the third quarter.
The physical nature of the contest didn’t seem to concern Vidler, as he said these things happened in one-sided affairs.
“When a team is being beaten by 20 goals, they start going the body, but we have bigger things we are trying to aim for,” he said.
“If you are going to cop one, you’ve gotta cop one for the team and just keep carrying on.’’
The last quarter played out similar to the first three as the Eagles piled on six goals and one behind to the Redlegs’ two behinds to win the match by 112 points, 21.9 (135) to 3.5 (23).
Fast feet: Shepparton East's Dylan Webster Mill.
Photo by
Rechelle Zammit
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Contested footy: Longwood’s Bailey McMurtrie tries to evade Shepparton East's Jye Formosa.
Photo by
Rechelle Zammit
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Hold on tight! Shepparton East's Adam Fichera looks calm while being tackled by Longwood’s George Chamouras.
Photo by
Rechelle Zammit
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Hit your target: Shepparton East's Jaycob Kerambrun kicks it inside 50.
Photo by
Rechelle Zammit
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Man the mark: Shepparton East’s Jordan Gattuso looks for a target with Longwood’s William Pointer standing the mark.
Photo by
Rechelle Zammit
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Groundball gets: Shepparton East's Adam Serafini pounces on the footy.
Photo by
Rechelle Zammit
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Argy-bargy: Shepparton East's Shannon Campbell takes on a few Redlegs.
Photo by
Rechelle Zammit
In other games, Avenel’s final term blew Violet Town out of the water as the Swans won by 59 points.
Heading into the last quarter, the match was still in the balance as Avenel led 58-40, but the Swans turned up the heat to score 62 points for the quarter and comfortably win the match.
Dookie United started its season on the right track after it overcame Undera by 20 points at home in a tight contest.
United was dominant in the last quarter to seal the victory, but could have been left to rue missed opportunities (two goals and eight behinds for the term) had Undera made a late charge.
Tallygaroopna was the only side to win away from home on Saturday, defeating Girgarre by 36 points.
Last year’s premier Lancaster made an imposing start to its premiership defence by defeating finalist from last year Stanhope by 78 points.
Lancaster forwards Zac Cerrone — who celebrated his 200th game for the club alongside Coby O’Neill, who celebrated his 100th game for the club — and Riley O’Neill combined for nine goals in the match.
Meanwhile, Merrigum was pushed to the end by last year’s wooden spooner Rushworth, which was winless in 2023.
The Bulldogs led by only four points at the final change before taking control of the match and eventually winning by 26 points.
The results for the Sunday afternoon match between Murchison-Toolamba and Nagambie had not been finalised at time of print.
