FOR JUST the second time in North Central senior football history a team has been held scoreless in a game, with Wedderburn crushing Donald by 121 points last Saturday.
The hapless Royal Blues joined the Birchip Watchem side from round nine in 1981 in failing to score.
Wedderburn coach Tom Metherell was unaware of his team’s historic feat and played down its significance with a season-defining clash with arch-rivals Boort coming this weekend.
“It’s a good little stat,” he said, but it was not something his team had focused on.
In sloppy conditions at Donaldson Park, the Redbacks steadily increased their lead throughout the match.
Four goals in the first quarter were followed with six, three and four majors respectively in the other terms as Donald struggled to get the football into its forward line.
Metherell said his team had played to the conditions, sharing the ball around in attack when they might normally have had shots on goal.
“We played smart footy in the forward half, and we were good in the one-on-ones.”
Star forward Mitch Jensen kicked seven goals for the Redbacks to move to 49 for the season, and was among the best along with Zach Pallpratt, who booted three goals of his own, Jye Mortlock and Noah Furlong.
For Donald, coach Daniel Pearce stood out in a side where good players were hard to find with his hard work in the midfield.
The Royal Blues finished fourth last season but have not won a match this year and have a woeful percentage of 13.85 with games against Sea Lake Nandaly (third), Calder United (second) and Boort to come.
Boort sadly missed star utility Jhye Baddeley-Kelly in its 71-point loss to Birchip Watchem on Saturday. The Magpies could only manage four goals against the top of the ladder Bulls, recording their second-lowest total for the season.
Baddeley-Kelly is averaging five goals per game himself, with 60 from 12 matches, and has been named in the best players list nine times.
The Magpies could score just one goal in the first half – the first of the match in the eighth minute to Ethan Coleman – as the Bulls charged to a 50-point lead at the main break.
Boort was more competitive in the third quarter, kicking 2.2 to 2.4, but gave up another four goals to two in the last term.
The Bulls’ dominance showed with 31 scoring shots to Boort’s 10 on a day of awful weather.
Four players kicked a single goal each for the Magpies – Coleman, Jayden Dick, Lachlan Hall and Nick Whyte.
Named as Boort’s best were Jonathan Lanyon down from Darwin for the weekend, Carlos Egan, Tom Potter, Matt Austin, James Keeble and goalkicker Dick.
The Magpies now have a must-win clash with local rivals Wedderburn at Boort Park as they cling on to fourth spot and the last place in the finals.
The Redbacks, two games behind the Magpies but with a superior percentage, are the only side which can dislodge Boort from fourth, but they can’t afford a slip up in their remaining three games.
After Wedderburn, Boort has two matches that should reap comfortable victories, against St Arnaud away and Charlton at home.
Other matches were also desperately one-sided, with Sea Lake Nandaly moving into third place on the ladder after beating Charlton 21.16 to 1.1. Likewise, St Arnaud could only score 1.1 against Calder United, which kicked a lopsided 13.25 for a 96-point win.
- GARY WALSH