Most tipsters would have gone five from five in Round 10 of the Gippsland League.
No major surprises came to hand as results were made official on Saturday night.
With Round 10 ordinarily the time the fixture mirrors what was seen at the start of the year, this season, the Gippsland League has mixed up its second half of the season.
Matches last Saturday replayed those from Round 4 earlier in the year.
Teams have one more game before a league-wide bye, which will run into the last seven rounds of the season spread across eight weeks.
There is still a split round to come in August, by which time the equation for clubs aiming to play finals or secure a double chance will be set in stone.
Until then, teams still in the hunt will be doing all they can to ensure they won’t have to rely on results falling their way.
There is still a train line running in Wonthaggi.
It isn’t taking passengers though – because it’s a freight train.
The freight train that is Wonthaggi seniors was running express at the weekend, after the Power electrocuted Maffra by 133 points.
The home side dominated proceedings from the get-go, adding goals of five, five, six and six across each quarter, to see the scoreboard blow out to read 22.14 (146) to 2.1 (13).
Conversely, Maffra started the match as they finished it – without scoring. The Eagles scored no goals, no behinds, no nothing in the first and last term.
Brayden Monk, Nathan Pollard, Alex Carr, James Read, Ed Carr and Sam Robbins battled hard in the losing cause.
Maffra added another two youngsters to the growing list of senior debutants this season in Ashton Wright and Jonathan Boyd.
If the day held any positives for the Eagles, their next generation saw first-hand just how the best in the business go about it.
While they are third on the ladder, there is no doubting Wonthaggi are currently the best team in the Gippsland League.
The Power has the highest percentage, and has won seven games in a row.
Their form line is scary good.
In the last five weeks they have won games by 74 points, 138, 79, 85 and 133 – and that 79-point win was against finals-bound Traralgon.
Wonthaggi midfielder Ryan Sparkes is walking on water at the moment.
He was best on again at the weekend, and was leading the league MVP by a staggering nine votes before last round.
Skipper Aidan Lindsay also played well in the win, as did Shannon Bray, Kyle Reid, Jordan Staley and Cooper McInnes.
Sale found itself engaged in a good contest against Leongatha.
The Magpies were ahead at halftime, before the ladder-leading Parrots took ascendency and went on to win 14.14 (98) to 9.6 (60).
Sale started the match with a positive first quarter at home, making better use of their inside 50s. The Magpies scored three goals, while a wasteful Leongatha went into the first break with five behinds to their name.
Honours were relatively even in the second, as the Parrots added four goals and Sale kicked two.
With the sniff of victory permeating in the home rooms, the class of Leongatha came to fruition in the third quarter. The Parrots kicked five goals to one to take a 23-point lead into three quarter time.
The game opened up in the last, with eight goals kicked collectively between the two sides.
Guy Dickson, Jack Hume, Jesse Burns, Cade Maskell, Tom Marriott and Ben Willis won plaudits for the winners.
The Leslie brothers of Jack and Will were best for Sale, while Jack McLaren was named in the best once again.
Midfield gun Shannen Lange also featured, as did Daine McGuiness and Kane Martin, who kicked three goals.
The rise of McGuiness in the last few years has made for one of the great stories in local footy.
The ruckman was battling away in the reserves only five years ago, and has now been named among Sale’s best in the seniors for the last six weeks.
Speaking of reserves, the Sale reserves recorded one of the better home-and-away wins you are likely to see in that grade, when they rolled Leongatha by a point.
Along with Maffra, the Parrots have been a powerhouse of the early game for many years. Leongatha went undefeated last season, getting past Sale in the decider.
For Sale to defeat Leongatha this time around was a remarkable result considering not only that history, but the fact that the last time they met earlier in the year, the Parrots inflicted the Magpies with a margin well over 100 points.
Under coach Peter Morrison, Sale has recorded some memorable wins in the last 12 months. The Magpies sent Wonthaggi out in straight sets during last year’s finals series, and backed it up by winning a thriller against Maffra in the preliminary final.
There will be cause for massive celebration in a couple of weeks, when Sale legend Shane Fyfe plays his 300th game.
In what would surely be a rarity, there could be three 300 gamers all in the one reserves game, with Fyfe joining fellow Sale stalwarts Chris Laverty and Chris Hudson.
Laverty is the senior games record holder, now helping the club in the early game, while Fyfe is doing likewise, following a decorated career that has seen him win five senior best-and-fairests, leading to the nickname ‘Five Time Fyfe’.
Hudson too has been loyal to the bone at the Magpies, and enjoyed multiple finals series.
A number of Sale players toasted their Leongatha victory at the Gippsland Hotel on Saturday night, joined by Moe players coming back from Bairnsdale.
Moe was never really troubled by Bairnsdale.
The Lions made the trip east, and had the game sewn up at halftime, before easing off to win 15.9 (99) to 11.8 (74).
Perfect conditions made for free-flowing and high-scoring football. The visitor’s opened their account with six goals in the first quarter, and added another five in the second.
The Redlegs only managed one goal in the second term, as it quickly became clear they needed two Logan Austins – one at either end.
The key position Bairnsdale playing-coach was busy in defence, trying in vain to stop the dominance of Billy Gowers, who ended up kicking seven goals.
Moe continued on their way in the third, and led by 49 points at three quarter time.
With a huge game against Wonthaggi to come, the Lions put a few players on ice in the second half.
Playing-coach Declan Keilty watched on, while speedy half-forward Harri Sim played limited minutes.
The Redlegs went all-out attack in the last, and got some respectability on the scoreboard by kicking five goals to one.
Austin was in the best, as was Lachlan Byrne-Jones (four goals), Nathan Dennison, Harrison Cook, Andrew Nelson and Link McKenna.
Gowers received good support from Brock Smith, Scott van Dyk, Tyler Pratt, Jordan Ceppi and Riley Baldi.
Baldi was available due to a break in his VFL schedule with Casey. Moe will be pleased to now have Baldi qualified for finals, with Saturday being his fourth match for his home club.
The day carried significance for Moe veteran Ben Morrow, who ran out for his 200th senior game.
The F word is still alive at Morwell.
No, not that one – finals.
Morwell can genuinely still make finals.
The Tigers went to equal-fifth at the weekend after comfortably defeating Warragul.
Travelling to Western Park, the visitor’s led from start to finish, with the final scoreboard reading 12.11 (83) to 5.7 (37).
Morwell did most of their good work either side of halftime. The Tigers only conceded 1.2 (8) across the second and third terms, with Warragul not even troubling the scorers in the second. Morwell added 4.6 (30) in the same time.
The Tigers finished the game as they started, kicking four goals.
Brandon Mcauliffe played well for the winners, as did Burkely Macfarlane, Aidan Quigley, Zac Anderson, Blake Couling and coach Boyd Bailey.
Better players for Warragul were Lane Ward, Sean Masterson, Riley Senini, Cooper Alger, Patrick Carpenter and Nick Stevenson.
The unfortunate Gulls are staring down the barrel of a very long end to the season.
The new West Gippsland Hospital can’t come quick enough for Warragul footballers, who look like they will be spending some time in similar places over the next few months.
Ruckman Sam Whibley broke his leg in the last quarter, joining playing-coach Jed Lamb, who suffered the same fate in horrific scenes a few weeks ago.
New recruit and ex-Carlton midfielder Liam Sumner was also a late withdrawal after injuring his ankle in the warmup.
So, the Gulls now have to get through the last eight games of the season without their best ruckman, best forward and minus a key midfielder.
For a team that is currently second-last on the ladder, one can only imagine just what the next few weeks will look like.
Traralgon played in another high-scoring match against Drouin.
There was a sense of deja vu, as the Maroons’ final score at the weekend was only two points off their game against the Hawks from earlier in the year.
Traralgon was ahead at every break, but Drouin, as they have done for most of the year, kept the goal umpires busy, in a final tally that read 21.8 (134) to 10.13 (73) at Terry Hunter Oval.
More than 30 goals were kicked, a fair effort considering 10 of them came from a team on the bottom of the ladder.
The Maroons broke the game open in the second, kicking seven goals to two, taking a 34-point lead into the main break.
Traralgon was able to manage the game from there, and finished full of running, scoring six goals in a dominant final term.
The home side had an excellent spread of goal-kickers, which would have no doubt pleased coach Jake Best, who has maintained all season Brett Eddy can’t be the one to do it all.
Eddy kicked four, and was joined by Max Jacobsen and Billy Schilling who returned the same amount.
Young gun Tom Hamilton contributed three, while skipper Dylan Loprese was back in his natural habitat up forward, and finished with two.
Jacobsen and Schilling were listed in the best, as was Luis D’Angelo, Jordan Cunico, Jackson McMahon and Harvey Neocelous.
Sebastian Amoroso, Charlie Bethune, Shay Harvey, Tom Evans, Bailey Stephens and Joe Collins were best for Drouin.
A league-wide bye on July 1 means next round is the last time Gippsland League followers will see names they are familiar with on team sheets.
With clearances open until June 30, clubs still have a few days to try and bolster their stocks.
While it is hard to see any current club pulling in a player from outside, pundits will watch on with interest to see if there are any sneaky selections or funny-bugger business that takes place.
