Emerald in a clean sweep

THE Emerald Football Club hosted Thornton-Eildon at Emerald, in wet, greasy conditions after the rain from the previous week and had a clean sweep over the visitors.
Seniors
A VERY determined Thornton-Eildon side took to the field intent on dominating the game and kicked three goals to one in the first quarter. However, Emerald surprised them by answering every goal and posting an additional one themselves. The second quarter saw Emerald’s determination come to the front and outscored Thornton-Eildon five goals to two. This left the Emerald boys going into half time with a handy four-goal break.
Emerald boys combined like a team and with players finding targets and then converting them to goals is something the team has been working on, but have to date not managed to pull this off.
The Emerald boys tried hard to keep up with them, but found the going fairly tough into a slight head-on breeze.
The last quarter saw a completely rejuvenated Emerald side come out and kick a couple of quick unanswered goals and again left Thornton-Eildon flat-footed and in disbelief. Emerald then managed to score another couple of goals and prevented Thornton-Eildon from running away with the game.
Emerald 15.14.104 d Thornton-Eildon 10.14.74.
Best: P. Ferrari, S. Williams, C. Marsh.
Goals: S. Wanganeen 5, S. Dishington 4.
Reserves
COMING into the second half of the year with two wins and a draw on the board, Saturday’s match was a must win against Thornton-Eildon. Emerald could not have asked for a better start with a goal in the first minute followed by two more unanswered goals and went into the first quarter break four goals up.
Working hard in the second quarter Emerald had a lot of inside 50s, however inaccurate kicking prevented them from having a match winning score going into the main break.
The kicking for goal in the third quarter got worse, kicking three goals 11, but kept Thornton-Eildon from scoring any goals for the quarter.
This gave the boys a handy 79-point lead going into the final quarter. With a good chance to bury a side above Emerald on the ladder, inaccurate kicking again came to the party with us kicking 3-6. This gave the Emerald boys a convincing 82-point victory.
Emerald 13.25.103 d Thornton-Eildon 2.9.21.
Best: D. Hill, D. Kidd, B. McCombe.
Goals: L. Whyte 4, N. Robson, R. Simpson 2.
Under 18
EMERALD started the game with great enthusiasm, winning everything out of the centre in very wet conditions.
Hard running, linking handballs out to space and hitting forward with accurate passes, gave them a 7-goal lead going into the first break.
Thornton-Eildon came back hard in the second quarter but with a wet and slippery ball the skills dropped off quickly and after half time the Emerald boys took control of the game with great teamwork to run out dominating victors.
Emerald 16.15.111 d Thornton-Eildon 6.7.42.
Best: M. Eccarius, T. Williams, C. Benoiton, D. Reily.
Goals: R. Stewart 6, J. Mather 4, D. Bova, C. Benoiton 2.
Netball
THE Emerald girls knew this was going to be a tough game as the two teams are close on the ladder. The first quarter proved this to be, as both teams tried their utmost and scores were level at the first break.
The second quarter saw Emerald break away and outscore Thornton-Eildon 11 to 7, going into the half time break valuable 4 goals up.
The girls moved the ball quickly and outscored Thornton-Eildon in both the third and final quarter, running out convincing victors by 9 goals.
Emerald 36 d Thornton-Eildon 27.
Best: B. Maher, H. Kuys, M. Bagley, J. Cairncross.
Goals: M. Baguley 32, C. Webster 4.