Melton draws Kanga Blood

MAYBE a sixth and final contender has emerged for this year’s McDonald’s Ballarat Football League premiership with the Bloods recording a 27-point victory over the reigning premiers on Saturday at the Eastern Oval, winning 16.14 (110) to 12.13 (83)

With a red-hot North Ballarat City gunning for the Bloods place in the top six, Melton produced a remarkable 63-point turnaround to keep their season alive and illustrate to the footballing world that they are once again a contender to go one step further this year.

It was a disastrous start for the Bloods with the Kangaroos taking a 30-point lead at the first break as star on-baller Matthew Johnston booted two first-quarter goals in his first game back since battling severe concussion symptoms.

Despite trailing and being under all sorts of pressure from a rampant East Point outfit, Melton coach Aaron Tymms remained cool, calm and collected at his quarter-time address.

He uurged his chargers to clean up their skill level as a starting point and to continue to play with “no fear and no pressure, let’s get the footy in quicker to give our tall forwards the best opportunity out the back.”

The approach seemed to work with Bloods reducing the margin to only nine points at the major break thanks to three special second-quarter goals from Shaun Campbell in a six-goal quarter.

Convincingly winning the second half from here, Melton can thank co-captains, Ben Archard, and Bradean Kight, with Archard putting in a best on ground performance in the ruck, while Kight would go on to kick two sealing goals in the final term to secure victory.

The loss for the Kangas means they join Darley, Sebastopol, Sunbury and Redan all locked on 40 premiership points, and with a tough run home and an injury list that continues to pile up, it is quite possible they could drop as low as fifth by this season conclusion.