Mirboo North win tight battle over Stony Creek

MIRBOO NORTH’S brave eight-point win against Stony Creek on Saturday at Stony Creek’s racecourse oval, saw the mighty Tigers retain sixth position on the Mid Gippsland ladder.

A large and enthusiastic crowd — many of whom were wearing their respective maroon and white and yellow and black club colours — witnessed an entertaining display of hard-running football with plenty of fierce tackling.

Another interested spectator for part of the afternoon was a Holstein cow, grazing in a paddock adjacent to Stony Creek’s electronic scoreboard — that let out a loud “moo” when the final siren signaled a Mirboo North victory.

Julian, Cam and Tom Stone all featured prominently for the Lions and left no stones unturned in their quests for a Stony Creek win.

Other Lions working feverishly for a favorable outcome included Mitchell J Rowe, Cody Loughridge and Jai Bright.

In a fast-moving opening, where much of the play was contained between the 50-metre arcs, it was eight minutes before Mirboo North skipper Hudson Kerr, scored the only goal of the first quarter.

Bright brought up the Lions’ first major after eight minutes of the second term, before teammate, Hayden Funnell, scored Stony Creek’s second goal.

A clever left-foot snap by Jonathon Conlan restored Mirboo North’s lead, before Colby Michael put the Lions three points in front on the half-time siren.

Jesse Chila’s long goal early in the third quarter allowed the Tigers to hit the front again, before Tully Bernaldo marked strongly for the Lions and kicked truly from 45 metres.

Mirboo North suffered a temporary blow when star defender, Beau Peters, left the field until the last change, after being crunched in a pack.

Stony Creek maintained its three-point advantage at three-quarter time, after both sides scored 3.3 during the third term.

The final term was a battle of wills, where no quarter was asked and none given, with both sides refusing to wilt.

Stoppages increased as pressure built on the ball carriers and breaking free of tackles became extremely difficult.

Giant Mirboo North ruckman, Patrick Lewis, repeatedly displayed his palming prowess at the near-endless last-quarter ball-ups.

After the Tigers clawed back the lead through Conlan’s second goal, Stony Creek answered three minutes later when Tylah O’Connor-Linke split the middle of the big white sticks.

When Jacob Blair’s pinpoint 40-metre pass was marked by Riley Oddy in the left forward pocket, the Tigers’ eighth major put the visitors a goal ahead.

Successive minor scores from Harry Mahoney and Archie Woodall increased Mirboo North’s advantage to eight points.

Deep into time-on, veteran Tiger, Alex Windsor, took two overhead intercept marks across half-forward that halted Stony Creek’s advances out of its back 50.

This Saturday, Mirboo North hosts top-of-the-table Foster at Tigerland.