Sunbury Kangaroos fail to catch Diggers Rest

Roger Allen
Roger Allen reached high but couldn’t complete the mark. Photo: Shawn Smits

Diggers Rest hit its target of starting well against Sunbury Kangaroos in its Riddell District Football League clash.

The Burras dominated play early at Bloomdale Oval and were up 32 points by quarter-time.

The Kangaroos pegged back the Burras’ scoring but couldn’t peg back the lead with the Burras winning 13.13 (91) – 7.6 (48).

For the Burras it was a massive win as they fell short against an injury riddled Kangaroo side earlier in the season.

The Kangaroos struggled to find goal kicking avenues on Saturday as marks in the forward 50 were a rarity.

Burras coach Shaun Sims said it was good to get a win against one of the top sides.

“With all due respect to the bottom sides, we are expected to win against them,” he said.

“These games with the top six or seven … toss of the coin sort of stuff.

“I thought we played really well against Riddell a couple of weeks ago but didn’t get the points. We capitalised early today.”

Sims said his side should have gone further in front in the first half.

“We started the game really well and I thought we could have been up further in the first half but the conditions were tricky.

“I’m pleased to win. We wanted to play well … we did for the most part of it.

“We need to build towards finals. The forward line is starting to work much better.”

He said there was still plenty of potential to be tapped in the lead-up to finals.

“Our ball movement is getting much better,” Sims said. “Especially in our first half, I thought a couple of passages were fantastic. [We] had about 15 handball receives from the back pocket to the forward pocket.

“We gave up a couple of undisciplined things in the last quarter … that is something we have to get out of our game. It doesn’t matter if it is a little ticky touch wood things – we need to get them out of our game.”

Sims said there were players to come back into the side.

“BJ Kilty played twos, Brett Caton played twos, as did Mick Kilty,” he said.

“Jamma [Jamerson Campbell] didn’t play. They have to prove themselves in the twos to get back into the team.”

In other results, Romsey beat Macedon, Rupertswood smashed Lancefield, Riddell was too good for Melton Centrals, Woodend-Hesket got over Rockbank and Broadford defeated Wallan.