North finals bound

North Ballarat 16.11 (107) defeated Darley 5.8 (38)

IT was fourth verses fifth going into this one, as North Ballarat overpowered an undermanned Darley Devils at Mars Stadium last Saturday in the McDonalds Ballarat Football League.

The Roosters win help create a little bit of separation between them and the other contenders closing in on the six.

Unfortunately, the match was marred by an ugly incident with the game paused for well over half-an-hour with an ambulance called on to the ground to pick up Darley’s Adam Azzopardi, who had fractured his leg.

Azzopardi will miss the remainder of the season and most likely a fair chunk of the 2023 campaign, joining the likes of Leigh Spiteri, Matthew Brett and veteran Darren Leonard on the sidelines for the Devils.

The Roosters are no strangers to their own injury crisis this season with the likes of Ryan Hobbs, Joey Symons, Jarrod Curran and Jonathan O’Brien all missing on the weekend as well.

After the lengthy delay, Andrew Azzopardi sparked a Darley surge going into the first break with a couple of goals I what was an emotional term.

North held a slender one-point lead at the first break with Harry Loader doing a terrific job keeping competition’s leading goal kicker, Nick Rodda, to just the one goal for the afternoon in a best on ground performance.

From there North Ballarat were able to wrestle back control with the addition of Ryan Luke in the ruck/forward line, allowing Brendan McCarthy to stretch an undersized Devils back six by sending Cam Maccallum to full forward.

Josh Chatfield was available from the VFL and booted three goals in the victory with his partner in crime, Jack Riding, claiming three final quarter majors to secure the empathic 69-point win.

Moving to next week await a bye for the victors while a return to Darley Park awaits the Devils with a match up with Melton South now a must win if they want to be a part of September action.