Roosters walk over soggy Marsh

North Ballarat 8.11 (59) defeated Bacchus Marsh 4.8 (32)

THE North Ballarat Roosters returned to the winners list with a comfortable twenty-seven-point victory over an undermanned Bacchus Marsh at Mars Stadium last Saturday.

After scores were level at quarter time, Brendan Macartney’s men booted the next six goals of the game to put the contest beyond doubt in trying conditions.

The victory puts the Roosters ahead in the win/loss ledger, and back into fourth place on the McDonalds Ballarat Football League ladder.

Bacchus Marsh now sits in eighth, a game and percentage outside the top six.

Trying conditions may be the understatement of the year given all nature’s elements were represented as winter announced its arrival.

The lights of Mars Stadium had little effect on improving the spectacle but without them, it would’ve been near impossible to watch.

Cobras coach Tom German, while disappointed with the loss commended his players for effort.

“We had quite a few out but the guys battled hard all day,” he said. “We just didn’t get reward for our effort in the first quarter especially.”

Bacchus Marsh was depleted and made the trip without German, Jack Williams, Jason Robinson, Nick Stuhldrier, Daniel Veldon and Max Eastmure.

The task on the road was always going to be difficult but with the combination of willing effort and challenging conditions, the end result wasn’t too damaging on the scoreboard.

MaCartney endorsed the sentiments of German in the post-match.

“An undermanned Bacchus Marsh did a mighty job as a club,” he said. “We worked harder this week and resembled much more of how we want to be.”

The next generation of Cobras to honour the call up over recent weeks have been Michael Garafolo, Josh Calvitto, William Cook, Ashton Craig, Jack Kovacevik, Ethan McKercher, Miesen brothers Dominic and Zachary and 21-year-old Xavier Jenks.

When you include more seasoned trio Jack Parente, Alex and Riley Porter it equates to a very young list, not mentioning promising forward Joel Freeman who debuted in round six.

For the Roosters, Jack Riding with one goal, and Harry Loader and Jamie Quick both on two, were the cleanest ball users in the conditions.

– BY TODD WHELAN