By ADEM SARICAOGLU
THE Western Jets’ round four clash with the Northern Territory was a non-event at Cragieburn’s Highgate Reserve on Sunday.
In what was the Territory’s first competitive hit-out ahead of the national under-18 carnival later this year, the winless Jets scored their first win of their 2014 campaign in cruise control, finishing up 122-point victors.
The result was sealed after just one quarter of footy, with the Jets storming out of the block with five unanswered goals in the opening term.
By half-time the margin had already blown out to 44 points and in the third term it only got worse for the visiting Thunder, with the Jets piling on another 10 unanswered goals to break away to a three-figure lead before the three-quarter time siren.
In the end the Jets kicked 23 goals for the game to the Territory’s three in what could prove an important percentage-booster come season’s end.
Coach Torin Baker has been upbeat about his side’s form in recent weeks and on Sunday was happy to finally see his boys enjoy a win.
“We’ve been getting better and better each week,” Baker said.
“But ultimately we hadn’t got a win on the board and the players were obviously keen for that, so to get a result like that today – even though Northern Territory were obviously experimenting with their squad – we were still really happy with the way the guys played.
“We dominated the clearances and I think we had a little bit of extra height than they had, so we had some match-ups that were well in our favour and we were able to expose that.”
Tylar Vujanic backed up his good showing against Oakleigh last week with a five-goal haul on Sunday, while Mitch Norton and Brenton Payne got three.
Payne’s marking presence inside forward 50 was a feature of the otherwise featureless game.
“Brenton Payne’s been really good in every game that he’s played,” Baker said.
“He’s kicked 10 goals to date in his four games and he keeps providing really good contests for us and he leads up really well at the footy and he converts well, so he’s had a great start to the year.
“I thought Billy Myers (one goal, second-best on ground) put in a real four-quarter performance today. Whether he played forward or on-ball, he was one that just provided great entries into our forward line.
“And then we just continue to get a huge output out of Corey Ellis (two goals and best on ground) every week. His season’s been outstanding to date.”
