By ADEM SARICAOGLU
BACCHUS Marsh had its season on the line against fierce local rival Darley on Saturday, but it was the Devils who took another step closer toward finals football.
The Cobras had revived their season with a three-game winning streak heading into the weekend’s Ballarat Football League showdown, but in none of those games did they face a finals contender.
On Saturday they did, and were caught out in the final term to go down by 21 points after drawing the game level at three-quarter time.
For the most part it was an entertaining affair at the Marsh’s Maddingly Park, with seven goals kicked in the opening term.
However, it was Darley who got the early break, establishing a 10-point buffer by quarter-time.
Poor kicking by the visitors then let the Cobras off the hook in the second term as Bacchus Marsh slowly fought their way back, but by half-time their deficit was only whittled down to eight.
After Doug Hawkins’ Cobras again won the third quarter the two neighbours couldn’t be split at the final change, but the day belonged to the finals-bound Devils, who took control in the final term with six goals to Bacchus Marsh’s two.
Darley coach Rod MacPherson told Star he was expecting a tough game, and in the end got one.
“They’ve come off three really big wins and been a really free-scoring team – so we knew it was going to be tough and it certainly was,” MacPherson said.
“We lost a player (Casey Nance to a hamstring injury) in the first few minutes and we were pretty restricted with our bench rotations.
“They’ve certainly got a lot of youth and speed through the midfield and they were giving us a lot of headaches with their extra rotations.”
However, through the implementation of some key match-ups around the ground, MacPherson’s men eventually managed eased their pain.
“We sat on (Alec) Del Papa with Jake Ancrum, a young 17-year-old, and played Drew Edwards on (Trevor) Hilton, who was their deep forward,” MacPherson explained.
“Ash Mayfosh also did a really good job on Daniel Velden, but it was hard work all day.”
Jake Edwards led the way up forward for Darley with three goals for the day, while Dane Grenfell contributed two of his own.
Velden, Hilton and Leigh Wilson all snagged two each for the Cobras.
With all their byes now out of the way, the Devils face a relatively kind run home with only one game against a fellow finals contender, which will be at home against East Point in two weeks’ time.
This Saturday Darley will host Sebastopol, while Bacchus Marsh face the daunting task of travelling to Clarke Oval to play Sunbury.
