Sport
7 August, 2026
Spoiling role on horizon
CALIVIL went within a whisker of one of the upsets of the season against Macorna, and coach Sam Maher was conflicted after the 11-point loss.
CALIVIL went within a whisker of one of the upsets of the season against Macorna, and coach Sam Maher was conflicted after the 11-point loss.
On the one hand, he was disappointed to be beaten after leading for most of the game, but on the other was pleased to see the positive signs his young side was showing.
The Demons have set themselves as spoilers towards the end of the season.
“It was disappointing for the boys because we knew we could potentially shape the finals – ruin it for some clubs, as bad as that sounds,” Maher said.
Macorna was without top goal scorer Dimitri Fasoulis and coach Fergus Payne, and the Tigers struggled to score on a fairly sticky home surface.
Only in the last quarter, with their finals hopes on the line, did Macorna fire, kicking five goals to two to seal a nervy victory.
Keiren Foley stood up with four goals for the winners, while towering ruckman Matt Colak was again a powerful presence.
Calivil’s Tyler Rasmussen, nominated last week for the league’s Rising Star award, played on Seb Erharter when the Tiger was stationed in the forward line, and more than held his own against a member of last season’s Team of the Year.
Maher played despite a damaged bicep and pectoral muscle and got through the game – “just” he said.
He is 50-50 for this week against the battering ram that is the Mean Machine but is likely to push through the pain to see out the season, which ends against Maiden Gully.
Maher saw that game as winnable, even if the Eagles were still in with a chance of making the finals in that last round.
He wasn’t going to let the last two weeks slide. “That’s 10 per cent of the season, so you don’t want to throw that away.”
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