Kangaroos now clear favorite for flag after massive win

Written by JEREMY WILSON.

KANGAROOS will head into this year’s Wangaratta and District Junior Football League finals series as red-hot flag favorite after cruising to a 70-point victory over the second placed Junior Magpies on Saturday.

While there are still two matches remaining, the Roos and the Magpies seem the only two legitimate premiership chances being so far ahead of the chasing pack, however, the former stamped its authority on Saturday.

Having contested a closely fought match the last time they met, the Roos were keen to avoid an early slog and bounced out to a 20-point lead at the first change with Sam Maddern, Thomas Frawley and Liam Murphy leading the way.

The Magpies fought valiantly over the next two terms with Anthony Ryan, William Gormly and William Bonwick getting plenty of the ball.

But while Junior Magpies managed to boot four goals, the Kangaroos were able to better that and by the final change the margin was out to a match-winning 34 points.

The final quarter was all the Roos as Jade Cleeland (five goals) was dominant up forward, Pat Eefting won his fair share of possession while Ryan Vandersteeg continued his fantastic form.

These two sides will meet again in the finals and the Magpies will be determined to put in a stronger showing when that time comes.

CENTRALS has moved into third position on the ladder and all but secured its spot in the finals after overcoming a slow start to defeat fellow top three aspirant College by 18 points on Saturday.

With the Hawks starting the match a game behind the Blues, they needed a strong start to ensure they were in the game, however, the first term couldn’t have gone much worse.

The Hawks struggled to get the ball flowing in their direction while the Blues continually pumped the ball forward to take a 17-point lead into the first change.

This seemed to spark Centrals into action and led by Braydon Bertram, Hayden Espejo and James Salafia the Hawks booted four goals to one for the term to hold a slender one-point lead at the main change.

The Hawks continued their surge in the third quarter, kicking three quick goals to open up an 18-point lead before an injury to a Centrals player prematurely ended the match.

Andrew Newton (three goals), Jack Davies and Samuel Neave were best for the Blues.

BRIGHT remains in fifth position after accounting for Imperials by 101 points on Sunday.

Led by Nathan Hollow and Jesse Thomson, the Mountain Boys progressively stretched the margin throughout the match with Tom McDonagh (five goals) the leading goal kicker on the ground.

Bradley Cleal, Ben Caruso and Damien Bradley were Imperials’ best players.

AND Tigers sprung an upset by defeating Saints by 45 poinst to secure its fourth victory of the season.

The Saints led early but the Tigers took over quickly, kicking 12 goals to five after quarter time to run out convincing winners with Daniel Bihun, Luke Brown and Josh Porter the catalysts of the victory.