It was great to back home on a “real” football ground last Saturday.

Kicking six of the seven first quarter goals 7 goals, we were off to a flyer, a stark contrast to the previous week at Lower Plenty.

Our dominance in the midfield along with our fierce tackling and desire for the ball were the contributing factors. We were constantly able to drive the ball into our forward line. Macleod backmen had no answers to the dominance of James Kroussoratis who scored three first quarter goals and could have been more but for a few shots off target.

With, three of the first four goals in the second term and our advantage had blown out to 45 points at the 12 minute mark.

But unfortunately we seemed to drop off in our intensity from that point with Macleod kicking the final 5 goals of the term to reduce the margin to just 15 points at the main break.

The third quarter was an even battle with three goals to Eltham and two to Macleod, that was until the Kangas slammed on three late goals in quick succession in the time on period.

Macleod continued their momentum kicking another two major  in the first few minutes of the final quarter to take the lead for first time in the game with a seven point advantage.

The Panthers again regaining the lead with two successive goals to Kroussoratis soon after, then a great goal by Darcy Vallance. Another Ratta goal at the 18 minute was the answer to a Macleod goal just prior.

A dour struggle ensured over the final stages with the ball spending most on the Macleod forward line, in the final stages of the game

The game finished off with a quick transition to the forward line and a mark to James Kroussouratis just before the siren sounded. An attempt for his 10th goal went desperately close with the ball just drifted off at the last minute to hit the the left goal post.

 

Eltham 6.3-39 9.6-60 12.10-82 16.14-110
Macleod 1.0-6 7.3-45 12.5-77 16.8-104
Eltham
Goal Kickers: J. Kroussoratis 9, L. Glasgow 2, B. Taglieri , J. Merkel , B. Glasgow , D. Vallance , A. Woods
Best Players: , J. Kroussoratis , B. Taglieri , L. Glasgow , B. Glasgow , S. Witkowski , A. Woods

Reserves

Eight goals to one Macleod goal in the first half and result of the game was pretty well decided.  The second half saw us put on an inaccurate  7.10 to 4.2  for a 77 point win to keep our unbeaten record intact.

Eltham 5.5-35 8.9-57 10.14-74 15.19-109
Macleod 0.0 1.1-7 3.1-19 5.2-32
Eltham
Goal Kickers: T. Snell 3, H. Burns 3, K. O”Sullivan 2, M. Jessop 2, A. Hourigan , M. Lillie , T. Owen , K. Keane , J. Doukas
Best Players: , H. Burns , K. O”Sullivan , L. McCreery , J. Doukas , J. Anderson , T. Owen

Under 19s

The 19s started off well too lead in the first quarter, but then struggled to find the goals for the remainder of the game, compounded by inaccurate kicking

Eltham 3.5-23 6.7-43 6.11-47 9.13-67
Macleod 1.0-6 6.1-37 8.7-55 12.9-81
Eltham
Goal Kickers: T. Burns 4, K. Dwyer , M. Cantwell , S. Carafa , L. Guerin , D. Clough
Best Players: , T. Burns , D. French , S. Krug , J. Dell , C. McCormick , P. Turnbull