By DAVID NAGEL
IT’S a question that has been lingering all season and is still probably the most relevant when assessing all the teams in the South East Football Netball League in 2015.
Is Doveton any good?
Well, we still really don’t know do we, despite the Doves impressive 34-point victory over Tooradin at Westernport Oval.
We’ll find out more this week when the Doves host Beaconsfield but Saturday’s win was impressive considering the calibre of player that was sitting on the sidelines.
Jarrad Boumann, Michael Henry, Aaron Henwood, Russell Gabriel, Mitch Peirce and Ricky Hayes are all valuable members of the Doves’ best 22 while Jordy Temopoulos and Nathan Wilson are more than capable replacements sitting in the twos.
The Doves have used more players than any other club this season, 41, so it will be intriguing to see what happens when they finally get their best cattle on the park.
As it stands right now, they haven’t beaten a team inside the top-five and, until they do, it’s extremely hard to rate them.
Doveton hit the ground running on the weekend, the inclusion of Dandenong Stingrays pair Lachie Batten and Josh Battle adding some class while Mitch Lewis made his debut in his first game up from the under 18s.
The Doves kicked 7.3 to 2.1 in the first quarter and were never seriously threatened from that point forward.
Speaking of forwards, it was Doveton coach Shannon Henwood who hit the scoreboard hardest, kicking five goals, while Travis Davis booted four to top off a new-look forward line.
Henwood and Davis had kicked just seven goals between them prior to Saturday’s contest and proved a real surprise packet for the Seagulls.
Batten had plenty of it for the Doves through the midfield, while big-men Frank D’Agostino and Mitch Davies were also impressive.
Just what is going on with Tooradin?
If ever a team was going to be fired up it would had to have been the Seagulls on the weekend.
They owed the Doves after being robbed of the four points in round one but came out breathing cream-puffs instead of fire.
The Seagulls may cause an upset or two this season but must be realistic now that they really do belong in that bottom group of three alongside ROC and Hampton Park.
Julian Suarez kicked three while Michael Wallace, Adam Galea, Matt Wade and Kyle Van Der Pluym populate a best-players list that has a very familiar look about it.
