General News
11 July, 2024
Mitchell Park masters: Dogs stop Marong
By ANDREW MOLE CAN Pyramid Hill climb the mountain in season 2024? You bloody betcha. The Bulldogs turned Marong’s 42-game winning streak into a trainwreck at Mitchell Park on Saturday afternoon with its 11.5 (71) to 9.12 (66) victory. The last...
By ANDREW MOLE
CAN Pyramid Hill climb the mountain in season 2024? You bloody betcha.
The Bulldogs turned Marong’s 42-game winning streak into a trainwreck at Mitchell Park on Saturday afternoon with its 11.5 (71) to 9.12 (66) victory.
The last team to defeat Marong in 2022 and on the losing end of an eight-point loss earlied this year, the Bulldogfs showed real bite on home turf.
A scoreline which does not fully reflect the home team’s dominance through the game – it led at every turn.
Even when Marong jumped two goals clear in the second quarter it did not faze the Bulldogs – bang, bang, bang, and they were a goal up going into the long break.
And while Pyramid Hill kicked enough to win, it was a rock solid defence, marshalled by an inspired Tom McGregor, which simply smothered the reigning premiers all day long.
At the pointy end of the ground, Bailey George booted three and Jesse Sheahan was a target over and over, constantly paralysing the Marong defenders, and he finished with a pair of his own.
While Ben Knight was workhorse from go to whoa, and another of the day’s stars – along with Damon Hemphill and Bryden and Dylan Morison.
When the final siren went, Mitchell Park erupted, with coach Nathan Fitzpatrick pumping the air in jubilation.
Although moments later – after hearing the club song belted out in the rooms – he made it very clear it is just July and there are still six long weeks of home-and-away football to go.
Including this week’s showdown with Bridgewater and the chance to lock in a top three spot for the finals.
“For more than a year we have been saying ‘we can get them, we can get them’,” Fitzpatrick said in the rooms post-game.
“Well we got them today, and now we can get them again,” he said. “But let’s not get too excited, it’s the first week in July and I don’t want us to put too much in one win at this stage of the season.
“Right now Bridgewater is all that matters, and first thing we will be doing this week is having a look at our last quarter today.”
The Bulldogs were 27 points up at three-quarter time but managed just one more point for the game.
Under siege throughout the last quarter, Fitzpatrick’s plan to restrict Marong’s flowing, running game almost unravelled – but didn’t.
Marong managed three goals but need almost 30 minutes to achieve that, and in the end they simply couldn’t find enough space and enough loose men.
Pyramid Hill’s disciplined slowdown tactics clearly unsettled the Marong juggernaut, with several melees breaking out early in the third quarter.
But the home team won most of those as well – with Marong’s Ryan Wellington literally having the shirt ripped from his back in one fracas.
“We took everything they had to throw at us, we set up well, and yes, the last quarter got a bit tense, but we stuck to the plan to keep possession of the ball as much as we could,” Fitzpatrick added.
“And we were really good at stoppages all day long. I think a couple of errors on our part in the first half let them get as close as they did then, but we rebounded well from those, and our control of the stoppages is what kept us going as well as we did.
“Right now we are juggling four or five injuries but today showed the real depth and determination of this group.”
With the Loddon Valley competition clearly split in half, this week’s game against Bridgewater is Pyramid Hill’s last in the home and away season against a side in the top four.
If Fitzpatrick and his team have another masterplan up their collective sleeves that top three spot could be a lock.