Wickers win a nail-biter

Doveton star Sam Raru weaves his way through traffic with Ash Smith in hot pursuit. 170799 Pictures: ROB CAREW

By David Nagel

Berwick has added a healthy dose of belief to an already lethal cocktail of hunger and talent after stealing a four-point victory over a gallant Doveton at Edwin Flack Reserve on Saturday.
The undefeated Wickers looked cooked at various stages of the match.
First when the Doves kicked 6.2 to 0.0 in the second term to open up a 15-point lead at half time, and again when the visitors led by 10 points at the 24-minute mark of the final term.
Kicking into a four-goal wind, the Wickers’ 12-game winning streak appeared over, but a classy finish from Lucas Jellyman-Turner cut the margin to within a kick, before running half back Luke Sheppard kicked the winner at the 30-minute mark of an engrossing quarter of football.
His thoughts were swirling as he ran into goal.
“I was crapping my pants to be honest,” Sheppard said shortly after the victory.
“It was a clean tap on by Gunny (Tim Gunn), then (Jayden) Graham gave me the hands and it was pretty straight forward in the end, but very nerve-racking.”
The Wickers have been dominant in recent times, but it took a completely different skill set to get across the line against the Doves.
“We’ve been travelling alright; beating teams convincingly, but today was our first real challenge to see how we would respond under real pressure,” Sheppard said.
“Doveton took it to us for pretty much the whole game, they pressed forward real well, their midfield got on top of ours I thought, but just to dig deep, when we hadn’t had that opportunity this year, to do that was really pleasing.”
Berwick led by 23 points at quarter time before the Doves exposed the Wickers defence for the first times this year. With Russ Gabriel dominating the ruck and Sam Raru superb in the clinches, the Doves kicked the first six-goal quarter against the Wickers this year … in fact no team had kicked five!
Nick Battle and Aaron Davey were mesmerising swinging on to their left feet, while Matt Jameson, Jake Blackwood and Travis Davis were keeping the dangerous Berwick forward line under wraps.
The Wickers responded like good teams do in the third, with two goals to Harry Money and singles to Gunn and Reece Piper kicking the Wickers 10 points clear at the final change.
“We’re here to win,” Davey told his players at the break.
“We knew they would come at us, but now we need the courage to take the game on but at the same time keep our composure. I don’t want any excuses, no should haves or could haves when we walk off the ground, we keep on running.”
An early goal to Taylor Joyce cut the deficit to three before Davey and Tyson Bellinger gave the Doves a 10-point buffer in the shadows of the final siren. Berwick’s quest appeared lost when Harley Primrose won a crucial one-on-one in the Wickers’ forward line before Jellyman-Turner and Sheppard dug the knives in.
The Doves should be compensated as a victim of crime!
Money kicked three in his first game for the season for the winners, while skipper Madi Andrews joined Sheppard and Jayden Joyce as his sides’ best performers.
Gabriel was superb, feeding Raru, Battle and Davey on a silver platter, while Taylor Joyce kicked three including his booming team-lifter in the final term.
Berwick – now three games clear on top – have the bye this weekend while the fifth-placed Doves hit the road to take on Tooradin.

BERWICK 10.11(71) v DOVETON 10.7(67)