GEMBROOK-Cockatoo’s season plunged to a new low on Saturday after an horrific third quarter capitulation against Emerald at Avonsleigh.
Daniel Feild, Leversha and Walker all returned to the Gembrook side, but Williams was forced to miss the game after injuring an ankle against Warburton.
Both defences were on top in the first quarter.
Donders and Hellriegel were damaging for the home side, but the Gembrook backmen, led by Martin and Lafranchi, were able to repel most attacks.
Stewart was in sensational form across half forward for the Brookers, outmaneuvering larger opponents and marking strongly.
Cox marked spectacularly in the goal square before kicking the Bombers’ first goal.
Clarke outpointed Hellriegel to mark and post Gembrook’s reply.
Daniel Feild was providing the Brookers with some drive out of the middle, but the visitors were breaking down at half forward.
Emerald took over towards the end of the quarter but was not able to do a lot of damage on the scoreboard.
Leversha conceded a free kick to Cox and the Emerald veteran kicked his second goal to ensure that his side held an eight point lead at quarter time.
The Brookers came out transformed in the second term and played some terrific football to kick five goals in a row.
Midfielders Rick Clark, Walker and Daniel Feild were able to take advantage of Clarke’s ruck dominance, Cracknell won a lot of the ball, while Gough provided a good target at centre half forward.
On the forward line, it was the work of Main and Stewart that made all the difference in this quarter.
Stewart can be very productive on his day, while Main marked strongly and kicked well at full forward to confound his opponents.
Gough found Clarke for the opening goal, before Main twice marked in the goal square from Stewart kicks.
Richardson then got into the act to further extend the lead.
The Gembrook defence then held up well against some persistent and inaccurate Emerald advances.
The Brookers swept the ball up the ground where Main was able to kick his third goal of the quarter to have the lead out to 19 points.
A late goal to Cox was Emerald’s only success, and the Brookers seemed to be in control at half time.
Gembrook suffered a severe blow when Rick Clark failed to return to the field after half time due to a recurrence of a hamstring strain.
The Bombers attacked unceasingly and peppered the goals.
Clarke was still winning in the ruck for Gembrook, but Emerald players were winning all of the clearances.
Steer and Livermore came into the game, Yapp and Taylor seemed to be running without opponents, while McKenna and Porter both used the ball well.
Without Clark, Gembrook seemed bereft of on-field leadership and was unable to mount any resistance as Emerald put on five goals in the first 10 minutes of the quarter, and 8.5 to 0.1 overall to completely turn the game around.
To compound Gembrook’s misery, Gough limped off the ground towards the end of the quarter.
The Brookers trailed by 39 points at the last change after an abject performance.
Rick Clark lambasted his side at three quarter time and demanded a greater effort in the last quarter.
The Brookers responded by kicking 3.7 to 1.2, with Richardson, Clarke and Daniel Feild among the better players.
Leversha continued his battle with Cox and may have shaded the mercurial Emerald forward in the end.
Wills was delighted to kick his first senior goal, but there were precious few highlights for Gembrook in the second half.
In a grossly over-umpired affair, Emerald went on to comfortably record its third consecutive win over Gembrook.
The Brookers, thankfully, have a bye next weekend.
Gembrook-Cockatoo host bottom-placed Monbulk on July 27 in the most important game of the season.
Emerald 12.15 (87) d Gembrook-Cockatoo 9.11 (65)
