Saints unable to quell Cats’ on-fire front line

By Aydin Payne and Hamish Donaldson

May 29, 2023

Hard at it: Benalla continued its inconsistent form at home on Saturday. Photos: Brendan Paddock Photo by Brenden Paddock

The Saints continued their inconsistent start to the season on Saturday as Mooroopna coach John Lamont’s side executed its pre-game focus and star forward Chris Nield reaped the rewards of his hard work as the Cats ran out 68-point winners over Benalla.

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Benalla co-coach Will Martiniello was disappointed by his side getting off to another slow start on Saturday.

Defence: Mooroopna's Dom Gugliotti stands by as teammate Jack Johnston punches the ball away from Benalla's Nicholas Brazil. Photo by Brenden Paddock

“It’s what we’ve done a few times this year,” Martiniello said.

“We haven’t had consistent quarters this year. The boys really fought back in the second and third and we won those.

“Their forward line is the strongest point they’ve got, we had Campbell McCoy on Nield, but it was really going to be a team effort (to stop him) and I think we let Cam down a little bit. I don’t think Nield kicked a point.”

A blistering seven-goal-to-one opening term was exactly what Lamont had hoped for before his side’s Goulburn Valley League round seven outing and it was Nield who was the fore.

Last year’s competition-leading goal-kicker snagged seven majors and silenced his critics as he moved into second spot on the leader board he won in 2022.

Nield booted four goals in the first quarter and was involved in four scoring opportunities as the Cats got the early jump on the home side.

And it all began at the coalface.

Mooroopna went into the contest with a plan to get on top around the stoppages and Lamont’s charges did exactly that to win clearances (11-8), contested possessions (38-28) and total groundball gets (29-15) in the first term.

Clearing: Benalla’s Captain Christopher Welsh gets the ball downfield. Photo by Brenden Paddock

“That was part of our game plan before the match,” Lamont said.

“We noticed that they have started well and that game against United they kicked eight goals, so it was part of our focus to really get on top early and not allow them to get their tails up.

“They have a strong midfield and we have a lot of respect for players like Marchbank, Martiniello and Mennen.

“We knew we had to get on top there, or at least not get smacked, because that’s where it starts. We had to really nullify them and I was very pleased to see us execute that plan.”

Lamont has his outfit’s forward line purring along and in that dominate first term the Cats went at 81 per cent scoring efficiency.

Former junior and Footscray talent Nathan Drummond had 18 disposals in his return from a broken finger, while defender Ben Hicks and on-baller Jack Hunt rounded out the better players.

Ball: Benalla’s Nicholas Brazil gets to opponent Don Gugliotti. Photo by Brenden Paddock

Tom Bennett, Jayden Guppy and David Mennen were the standouts for Benalla.

Lamont was full of praise for his club’s prized forward in the wash-up of a win that takes his side to a 5-2 record.

“What is more interesting for me was that after the last game when Jackson kicked 10 I sat down with Chris and we went over his game. He had 19 involvements, which is just incredible for a full-forward,” he said.

“I’m really pleased with his team-first orientation. I thought he worked really hard, his hands were clean and he had a really positive game.”

After another tough outing the Saints are targeting a winnable set of games over the next few weeks as their next opponents Rochester who have also only managed one win this season.