Depleted Nyora starts brightly against Lang Lang

NYORA delivered a competitive first quarter, the severely depleted Saints holding their own around the ground and having the best of the opening 15 or so minutes but not capitalising on the scoreboard, trailing by just eight points at the first break, but Lang Lang ultimately ran out 92-point winners. 

When the game started, both sides were moving the ball quickly, making for entertaining footy in cracking sunny conditions, a light breeze blowing across the ground.

Unfortunately for Nyora, its good work in creating gettable opportunities was squandered with missed shots on goal from 20 or 30 metres out.

“We should have gone in with a nice little lead,” Saints assistant coach Scott Battams said.

While polished finishing was missing, the effort level was noteworthy with so much senior experience sidelined by injuries.

Dylan Heylen led the way for the Saints in the midfield, getting some good support from other onballers, being Nyora’s best and managing a couple of its three goals for the match.

Matthew Hughes in just his second senior game since his arrival at Nyora led well and marked strongly around half forward, Battams remarking he offered a strong presence for the Saints in that part of the ground.

As well as his marking, Hughes showed leadership attributes.

“He helped us at stages to calm down, and gave us a good option going forward,” Battams said.

Liam Simpson was another solid contributor for the Saints, particularly impressing with his four or five commanding intercept marks early in the match, having to be shifted onto talented man-mountain

Marc Holt for the second half. It was a commendable effort from Simpson, who injured himself at training before Round 1 and was playing his first match of the season on Saturday.

Holt’s imposing figure and skill were difficult to contain and he finished the match with six goals, a tally equalled by his teammate Darcy Walls, albeit Battams praised Simpson’s efforts to contain Holt when he went to him after the long break. Holt managed just one second-half major.

Young ruckman Liam Casey was the triumphant Tigers’ best player, Battams commending his performance.

For the Saints, there’s plenty to be positive about down the track, with an estimated 60 per cent of Saturday’s side having only about 10-15 games’ experience at senior level.

Jesse Heylen, Paul Delaroche and Cam Stow are among those who are out of action for the season. For all its challenges, Nyora is hopeful of beating Poowong this weekend, albeit the Magpies will be confident they can record a breakthrough win.