By LIAM TWOMEY
HOPPERS Crossing has moved to a 3-1 win/loss record for the season after accounting for Yarraville Seddon by 66 points on Saturday.
The Warriors were forced to fight during a hotly contested first quarter with neither team able to get a clear breakaway on the scoreboard.
However, the longer the match went, the better Hoppers Crossing began to look and a six goal to nil second quarter broke the game open.
From there the Warriors were never challenged, controlling the rest of the match to secure the 17. 12 (114) to 6.12 (48) win.
“They were probably a class above us in the end,” Yarraville coach David Connell said.
“I thought our effort was really great and we competed really hard and I don’t think there was that much difference in terms of contested footy. They were just a lot more polished than we were,” he said.
“Throughout the four games we have had in division one so far, I think we have been able to compete really well and in contested footy we are really breaking even, we are just getting beaten by a bit of outside ball at the moment.”
Gun recruit James Mulligan was at his best for Hoppers Crossing, booting two goals and winning a lot of the ball to be named his side’s best player. He was well supported by Ryan Kitchen and Brad Murphy who both finished with four goals.
On what was a tough day for the Eagles, Kieran Pearce was impressive under constant pressure to be named Yarraville’s best player.
Saturday’s result sees Hoppers Crossing move to fifth spot on the WRFL ladder while Yarraville occupy eighth.
This week the Warriors will take on Sunshine and the Eagles will meet St Albans.
“I think our concentration this week will be on trying to use the ball a bit better and probably training at a higher intensity,” Connell said.
“I think for us, we are pretty happy with the way things are going with structure and winning the football. It is probably more about our ball use that is letting us down a bit.
“We need to fix that and that really starts on the track so that will be our focus for this week.”
