Dragons eye Eagles after taming Lions

SEVENTH-PLACED Bell Park is aiming to back up its impressive performance against Leopold with a strong showing against Newtown & Chilwell.

The Dragons and Eagles go head-to-head tomorrow (Saturday, July 5) at Hamlyn Park at 2.10pm.

Bell Park defeated the sixth-ranked Lions 16.6 (102) to 7.6 (48) in GFL Round 10 after leading by 13 points at half-time.

They kicked away in the third quarter with seven goals to one.

Coach James Saker agreed it was one of their best wins for the year.

“It was mainly our ability to match their stoppage work and contest work,” he said.

“We were able to apply lots of pressure and eventually got some scoreboard reward for that and obviously kicked pretty straight too, which helps.”

It was the Dragons’ first win against a side that is currently above them this season.

“A bit has been made about getting a scalp and all this sort of stuff, but I think it’s more, internally, we feel like our footy this year has been better than what we were doing last year,” Saker said.

“We’ve just probably been on the end of a couple of narrow losses this time around, which can happen.

“So aside from the game against St. Joseph’s earlier in the year, we think our form stacks up pretty solidly after 10 games.”

The Dragons lost to the Eagles by 11 points earlier this year after leading by five at three-quarter-time.

“We’re looking forward to it and these are the sort of games you want to be involved in,” Saker said.

“It’s a big occasion for our club as well, the Zoe Kennedy Foundation game. So we hope to get plenty of people down to watch a good game of country footy.”

The Zoe Kennedy Tribute Match is an annual community event honouring the life of a much-loved Geelong netballer and footballer who tragically passed away from an asthma attack at just 13 years old.