THE South Broken Hill Football Club has tuned up perfectly for finals in the last minor round game of the year and the Roos dismantled Central in a ruthless display, winning by 48 points.
Having lost the grand final by two points last year, South will be desperate to make sure that they go one better three weeks from now.“It’s been a good year,” Mitchell Henderson, South’s senior coach said. “I think we dropped sort of two games there throughout the year.
“West challenged us one game and that was sort of the kick in the arse that we needed. I think you can see from that game, we’ve really built on our structure and nailed the spots for the boys and [had them] playing good footy.”
Central coach Greg Wellington said South had “South came out to play.”
“A big difference is that they were hitting their targets and our skills weren’t up to scratch,” he said.
Across the day, South had contributions from every line.
Connor Washbrook was solid in defence, either taking marks or distributing from the back, Marc Purcell was able to get the ball forward from the centre, while Brock Elliott ended the day with three goals, and Mitchell Henderson had four goals.
Central’s Samuel Wilson presented well in the forward line, also ending the day with four and from the centre Jordan Etto played a lone hand as he won the ball from stoppage.
Wellington was full of praise for his skipper.
“He’s a great captain and a great human being,” Wellington said. “He’s led the club well this year.
“I think he’s taken out the goal kicking for the A-Grade, that’s all down to the hard work that he’s put in from preseason onwards. We’re very lucky to have him.”
Marc Purcell opened proceedings for the Roos, goaling inside the opening minutes of the contest. It was a wonderful tap down as the captain ran through to kick true.
South’s crisp ball movement was penetrating the defence of the Magpies. Brock Elliott’s diving mark gave him an opportunity at goal that he converted, as the Roos went bouncing away early.
In the first, both teams were trying to use the football quickly and it was a hot game, but because of the pressure both teams applied, the ball was turned over at either end on a regular basis.
Inaccuracy hurt Central and while they were able to get enough football inside the forward 50, when Rhain Curtis missed his opportunity from 30 metres out, the Magpies had no goals from their three attempts.
Central had to turn to their captain for their first, moments after Curtis missed, Wilson would lean back on the ball and send it through the middle.
Two Roo goals inside eight minutes at the start of the second saw Centrals on the rope, and still the inaccuracy continued.
“You don’t coach skill errors on game day,” Wellington said. “Our structure was holding up for a majority of the game, but we didn’t take our opportunities when they were there.”
The worse offender was Ethan Kimball, maybe not because of the shot, but because of what happened next.
A gettable chance presented itself after some great team play, and he missed from 20 metres out directly in front.
The miss was only made worse when South proceeded to work the ball from the kickout down the outer wing. It ended at the feet of Brock Elliott, who’s eighteenth goal of the season had South at a game high 27-point lead.
Elliott’s game was special, three goals playing out of position, so often it’s the superstars that take the spotlight, but role players that have games like these week-in, week-out turn great teams into premiers.
The Roos continued to do as they liked. Slicing and dicing inside and out by hand and foot as Central put up no resistance, at half time South returned to the sheds with a 33-point lead.
For the Magpies, one goal from seven shots is not good enough in any conditions, let alone at a sunsoaked Alma Oval.
By the second half, the game had long since been decided.
The two headed monster inside the forward 50 for South unloaded when Henderson kicked a beautiful goal, and he talked through the approach post game.
“I didn’t want to do what I did on the last one when I went the torp and left it very short and turned it over,” Henderson said. “I sort of just backed myself in and thought I’ll try curl it back a little bit and fortunately it was good enough to go in.”
Wilson added another highlight from the boundary line, and gave the Central faithful something to cling too when from 50, his set shot was picture perfect from right against the fence.
South would win the final quarter by one point, as both teams kicked two goals a piece to confirm a final score of 12.8 (80) to 4.8 (32) with everyone now looking at two weeks’ time.
To make matters worse for Central, Aaron Duncan was taken from the ground late in the fourth.
South also didn’t have a clean bill of health, with Alex Johnston spending the final 20 minutes on the bench with ice on his ankle.
In terms of the ladder, The Roos have had top spot secured for a while, and that often means you go from the hunting to the hunted, but Henderson still feels that they are hunting at South as well.
“When you win and finish minor premiers it does feel that way [that you’re the hunted] but at the end of the day, we’re not the premiers so we are still chasing that,” Henderson said.
“We’ll go into our next game feeling that way as well. We still need to tackle chase do all those dirty things and present and just get the job done really. There’s no resting on previous years’ results.”
North was the team that got South last year in the grand final, and Henderson didn’t hide from the fact it would be nice to get one over them when they clash in 2025’s qualifying final.
“It’s always good to get one back against North,” he said. “Obviously losing that one last year does hurt and it’s always in the back of our minds.
“We’re looking forward to that game in a couple of weeks. To win that game, go straight through and avoid the elimination game. That’ll be top-notch and we’ll get ourselves ready for that one.”
Meanwhile, an elimination final against the bottom placed West await Wellington’s men when the competition resumes.
“We’ll regroup,” he said. “We’ll get a couple lads to come back in the side and work on what didn’t work today and hopefully we can get the A-side of things where our good is really good.
“We’re not holding it for four quarters at the moment. So that’s pretty much what we’ll do.”
South: 3.2, 7.3, 10.5, 12.8 (80)
Central: 1.4, 1.6, 2.6, 4.8 (32)
Goalkickers:
South: Henderson 4, Elliott 3, Browne, Holmes, McKenzie, Marc Purcell, Marcus Purcell
Central: Wilson 4
Best:
South: Elliott, Henderson, Marc Purcell, Washbrook
Central: Etto, Wilson
Tonky’s Take
The result of this game truly shows where central are at in my opinion.
They may be able to bandage some gaps when they play the other two teams but when u play south you can’t hide anything really.
South won this game by 48 points and I can only imagine how they got the job done precise kicking utilising there talls.
And winning the ball at the source I would suggest anything could happen in the elimination final in two weeks time when Centrals play West and in the qualifying final and the Roos will play the Dogs
My pick all year has been the Dogs but I think the Roos have gone past them as I don’t think North are playing as good as footy as they potentially are able too.
The Roos simply too good at this stage and it seems they are full speed to the finish line.
We all have a rest next week then we are in to the serious stuff south hold the key position and congratulations Roo boys for the minor premiership.
