Bird flu for visiting Gulls as Leongatha Parrots take crucial win

LEONGATHA and Warragul, in third and fourth on the Gippsland League ladder, faced off at Parrot Park on Saturday in a crucial contest to decide which team would secure the “double chance” ahead of the finals in just two weeks’ time.

And it was Leongatha which had the ascendency in the first half but with Warragul managing to stay within arms’ length of the home side on the strength of some great match-ups; Whibley on Sheridan in the ruck, Hobbs against Marriott in the centre and Serong tracking Dyson Heppell’s every move on the wing.

Leongatha got it out to a 40-point lead after Fraser Phillips kicked the first goal of the last quarter but Warragul wasn't done with, stringing four goals together to cut the margin to 15 points still with plenty of time before Jenson Garnham closed it out late in the game.

In a slow but steady start to the match, Leongatha opened their account after six minutes when the Parrots’ full forward Jenson Garnham edged his opponent under the ball to take a nice grab falling back, following a pass from Kim Drew.

He made no mistake from close range.

Leongatha had taken the initiative to the swimming pool end of the ground and were constantly in attack, but Warragul was defending well in the Parrots’ forward 50 with their co-captain Tom Hobbs having slightly the better of a great contest against Leongatha’s Tom Marriott.

In fact, at the end of the quarter Hobbs had 12 possessions and Marriott 10 in an absorbing contest.

Leongatha peppered the scoring zone for points but against the run of play, Jed Lamb marked on the lead, following good work by Serong and Moore, and made no mistake from the angle.

Leongatha continued to push the ball forward but weren’t managing to make Warragul pay and it was Lamb who had the next realistic chance to score from directly in front but it was a let off for Leongatha when he missed.

Lamb and Leongatha’s Jackson Harry were engaged in a classic backman versus key forward battle and while Lamb had started well, Harry redoubled his efforts an d started to get on top.

Leongatha’s Fraser Phillips and Kim Drew were constantly in the play and the two premier ruckmen of the competition, Jack Sheridan and Sam Whibley, were sharing the honours in the clearance work.

Finally, Leongatha got some reward for effort when Sheridan and Phillips cleared the ball from a stoppage on the flank and Ben Fort led up strongly to mark. His goal made it two goals to one at quarter time, but Leongatha could easily have had a few more majors on the board, inaccurate with five behinds.

The Parrots’ dominance on the stats’ sheet was clear for the first quarter, with 16 inside 50s to Warragul’s eight and 12 clearances to the Gulls’ nine but the 10-point margin wasn’t recognition for effort.

The scoring started quickly enough for Leongatha in the second quarter with a free kick to Zavier Lamers and a goal after one minute, but it dried up from there until Fraser Phillips broke the drought at the 27-minute mark with an important goal going into half time.

In the meantime, it was Warragul that had the rub of the green to close within a kick of Leongatha.

While at one end of the ground, the big Warragul ruckman, Whibley, was wrapped up in a shuddering tackle by Kim Drew, after “taking’em on” out of the stoppage, a similar situation up the other end for Warragul resulted in a free kick, a 50-metre penalty and a goal.

Prior to that, Warragul midfielder Vinnie Caia kicked a long, speculative punt towards the scoring zone that miraculously went through for a goal.

When Cooper Leighton followed up soon after with another, off a 50-metre penalty, Warragul had closed to within a straight kick and looked dangerous.

Finally, though, it was Leongatha which stretched the lead back to 14 points when Drew, Sam Bradley and Phillips combined for a running goal late in the quarter.

Again, Leongatha hadn’t quite got reward for effort, but their 14-point lead looked important in a low-scoring, defensive game.

Half time: Leongatha 4.9.33 to Warragul 3.1.19.

Again the Parrots started the quarter better when Finn Donohue stuck a great tackle on Warragul defender Sean Masterson, who had otherwise been having a good game for the Gulls. When Donohue kicked truly from an acute angle, his Parrots’ teammates rushed in to congratulate him on a crucial goal in the context of the game.

The pressure from the Parrots on the Gulls’ ball carriers had lifted and it was noticeable that Leongatha had raised their effort across the ground.

This was exemplified by a stinging tackle on Whibley by Leongatha’s Bradley in the Gulls’ forward line, and when Harry led Lamb strongly towards the incoming ball to defuse another Warragul attack.

It was tight and tough, but just when it seemed that neither side was going to produce a goal, an alert Jenson Garnham intercepted a kick in by Warragul after a point and a slick handpass across to a running Tom Marriott produced a vital goal after eight minutes.

There were to be no further goals until the 26^th minute mark of the third quarter when big Justin Pellicano led up strongly to a pass by Nick Argento before kicking a goal to stretch the lead to 34 points at three-quarter time, a winning margin in a tight game.