Island Bulldogs lead the pack

The Phillip Island Bulldogs headed to the ‘other’ WGFNC kennel at Bunyip for a bulldog face-off.

Red, White and Blue everywhere, confusing everybody including the coaches, supporters, support staff and players at different times.

Coaches heading to the wrong bench, team management walking to the wrong rooms, it was all happening!

The weather was surprisingly accommodating, and the Bunyip ground was in remarkably good condition given the overnight rains.

Seniors

Headlining the pre-game preparations were the acknowledgments of 50 senior games for two of the favourite bulldogs - Billy Taylor and Eli Richards.

Taking different paths to a 50^th senior game, it was certainly a proud moment for both players.

Also noteworthy in the pregame was the shuffle of volunteers in the team management panel with lots of absences due to illness, injury and alternate activities impacting!

The first quarter saw a much tighter contest that may have been expected given the relative ladder positions of the two sides. Jack (Bison) Taylor took charge early in the forward line, and that forward-turned-defender Levi Robinson heading the backline, including kicking his own early goal!

The Bunyip bulldogs displayed a clear preference for a chip, pass, chip and switch game which had undone the Island boys in previous games, but it was certainly lacking forward penetration this day.

The second quarter saw the Bulldogs break clear of the tight rein from the first Zac Vernon in particular took matters into his own hands with three outstanding goals for the quarter, ably assisted by Max Blake who was making his presence felt in the forward line.

Orlando (Noosh) Kane-Gillard was having his best game for some time – seems he had his own ‘players box’ on the forward flank that were cheering on his efforts!

The locals continued their uncontested chip and pass game into the third, recording an astounding 20+ uncontested marks on their way to, well not much!

A third quarter blitz from the Island boys saw seven goals to one and a 13-goal lead at the final break.

A spread of goal kickers in the third, and a total of 9 different goal kickers illustrated the contributions from all, in what was looming as a dominant overall team effort.

The final quarter saw complete domination from the Island boys, which strangely was not translated into scores on the board.

Stoppages dominated in the last as the Bunyip bulldogs scrapped as much as possible as they clearly began to run out of ‘legs’ to match their game style from the previous three quarters.

Max Blake continued to dominate the forward line, and Noosh continued his excellent effort with further goals.

Cameron Pedersen coming off for a rest – a rare moment indeed driven by the changed team management panel – was also a notable occurrence in a dominate final quarter.

An excellent 96-point win in the finish for the Island Bulldogs, as thoughts turned to the final home-and-away next week against Korumburra before heading in the finals.

Scores:

Phillip Island: 3.5.23, 9.9.63, 16.13.109, 19.20.134.

Bunyip: 1.4.10, 3.5.23, 5.7.37, 5.8.38.

Goals:

Phillip Island: Zak Vernon 3, Orlando Kane-Gillard 3, Max Blake 3, Jesse Patullo 3, Jack Taylor 2, Cameron Brown, Billy Taylor, Cameron Pedersen, Levi Robinson, Eli Richards.

Bunyip: Tahj Murphy 2, Lachlan Petch, William Papley, Daniel Helmore.

Best Players:

Phillip Island: Jack Taylor, Zak Vernon, Levi Robinson, Brendan Kimber, Cameron Pedersen, Orlando Kane Gillard.

Bunyip: Jye Keath, Jeb McLeod, Dylan Gallasch, Ryan Quirk, Nathan Allen, Matt Ross.