Curnow’s Dolphins deliver top performance

LORNE mentor Ed Curnow labelled his team’s CDFL win against second-placed Birregurra as one of the best in his 18-month tenure as coach.

The Dolphins defeated the Saints 21.16 (132) to 11.9 (75) at home in Round 10 last weekend.

James Hughes booted seven goals and Charlie McCartin bagged six, while Corey Przastek also played well.

“It was just a really even performance from the side and Birre, the scoreboard got away from them at the end, but it was a really close match,” the coach and former Carlton AFL player said.

“It was pretty tight in the third quarter and our team was able to withstand their [the Saints’] time in the sun and respond convincingly. So it was a good fun day, a nice winter’s day down in Lorne.”

The Dolphins are top of the ladder with eight wins and two losses and their next game is against the winless Apollo Bay tomorrow (Saturday, June 28) at 2.15pm.

“We’ll try to play a brand of footy that’s encouraging of taking on a short kick and getting that handball-receive game going off our back line, which we’ve probably got a bit of improvement to do [on],” Curnow said.

“But really, it’s just about getting to another ground and enjoying the away game and Apollo Bay is a bit bigger than Lorne, so the guys get excited because we’ve generally got a lot of running players in our team that run into congestion at Lorne.

“It’s nice to go to the bigger grounds like Apollo Bay and Simpson and Centrals in Colac.”

Lorne’s only losses this season have come against South Colac by 14 points and Colac Imperials by 11 points.