By RUSSELL BENNETT
Yarra Valley Mountain District Football League
GEMBROOK Cockatoo’s battle for a finals spot has rapidly descended into a fight to stave off relegation following a horror loss to hills rival Emerald on Saturday.
The injury-hit Brookers, Division 1 grand finalists in each of the past three YVMDFL seasons, are now in ninth and second-last spot on the ladder – in the relegation zone with Mount Evelyn, just a game clear of bottom side Monbulk.
The Bombers have fast become the Brookers’ bogey side – defeating them in each of their past three encounters.
This time Gembrook had a catastrophic third quarter to blame, as the side went down 12.15 (87) to 9.11 (65) at Chandler Reserve.
The Bombers led by just eight points at the first break after low-scoring and nervous start for both sides. Brookers player-coach Rick Clark and star on-baller Daniel Feild were in plenty of the early action for the visitors, while Clark’s counterpart Josh Taylor and Matt Livermore looked in dangerous touch for the Bombers.
Gembrook Cockatoo giant Craig Clarke and ruck-forward David Main looked unstoppable in the second term, both in the centre square and the goal square. But the Brookers just couldn’t put Emerald away. Nick Jansen and namesake Nick Green provided plenty of dash for the Bombers, while Matt Steer and Michael Dompietro constantly hit spot-up targets. Despite locking the ball in their half of the ground for much of the term, the Brookers only led by 13 at the main break and had even more injury concerns on their hands with Clark limping to the rooms with an ice-pack on a re-strained left hamstring.
The Bombers were merciless in the third term, running riot when they gained the momentum in the early going. Emerald piled on eight un-answered goals in a 53-point term. Gembrook, by contrast, could manage just a solitary behind. Jansen, Taylor, Steer and Livermore were nothing short of sensation for the Bombers – with an inspirational effort from the player-coach setting the standard for his charges.
Winded from a big hit late in the term, Taylor recovered to take a big contested mark. The resulting goal just put the cherry on the cake for the home side.
But in his three-quarter-time address, he wasn’t taking anything for granted.
“Do not let this slip!” he blasted.
“How many times have we been in this position before?
“That was possibly our best quarter since being up in Division 1, but it’s not over.
“Forget about that one and move on!”
Though Emerald couldn’t quite finish the job the way Taylor would have liked – as the Bombers were outscored 25 points to eight in the final term – the side still had more than enough of a buffer to come out near four-goal winners.
