General News
31 July, 2025
Slapstick in the goal square as Sharp nears century
By GARY WALSH AT THREE-QUARTER time against Newbridge on Saturday, Bridgewater coach Lachlan Sharp – sitting on 97 goals for the season – told his players, “If it comes, it comes”, encouraging them not to focus on his looming milestone. For...
By GARY WALSH
AT THREE-QUARTER time against Newbridge on Saturday, Bridgewater coach Lachlan Sharp – sitting on 97 goals for the season – told his players, “If it comes, it comes”, encouraging them not to focus on his looming milestone.
For the next 30 minutes those players totally focused on Sharp’s chase for the century in a quarter that at times verged on the slapstick.
The Mean Machine was leading by 104 points, so trying to feed the boss was unlikely to do any harm.
Sharp kicked his 98th for the year – and 12th for the game – early in the term from off the ground, and it appeared a matter of time before he brought up the ton in front of his home crowd.
Then things went a bit silly.
Sharp took a strong grab, had a set shot and hit the post; another set shot was touched by the player on the mark; other pings at the sticks were skied, fell short or were rushed through for a behind.
He was double-teamed, scragged and generally harassed by a Newbridge side that had little to play for other than stopping Sharp.
The real vaudeville moment was when Tyler Estrada ran to within 15 metres of the goal, paused, looked behind him and contemplated handballing backwards to the coach who was jogging about 10 metres behind him.
Sanity prevailed, and Estrada kicked the goal.
The Mean Machine managed a ridiculous 46 scoring shots to four in the wet, won by 132 points after kicking 8.15 in the second half, and now sits on top of the ladder ahead of a bye.
Who knows what the margin might have been had the Bridgewater players kicked straight and kept their heads in the last quarter.
Sharp’s 12 goals (making it 23 in two weeks) saw him as Bridgey’s best, along with the exceptional Luke Ellings, whose clean hands on a dirty day were remarkable. Darcy Ferguson, Jack Merrin, Estrada and Bo Alexander also stood out.
For Newbridge, Liam Nihill, Ben McKinley, Cooper Hoye, Jack Teasdale and Caleb Argus were named as best players.
Veteran Chris Dixon and Hugh McGillivray kicked the goals, both in the second quarter.
Bridgewater now rests before travelling to Mitiamo in the final round, when Sharp would be expected to kick the two goals needed to reach 100.
The Maroons are away at Bears Lagoon Serpentine.