Cobras silence the ‘Burra

THE Cobras made it two wins from as many outings in Ballarat, with a morale boosting 72-point win over a disappointing Sebastopol.

After an even first half, the Cobras put together their most complete quarter of the season under new coach Dennis Armfield with seven unanswered goals, to set up a match winning 48-point lead at the final change.

Just how the Cobras would go about finishing off their good work in foreign territory and a seemingly unassailable lead became the narrative for Armfield and his staff to implore.

And they weren’t about to be let down. A young Cobras outfit, full of momentum, added a further 4.5 in the final term outscoring the Burra 2.3 to run out comfortable winners.

Isaac Nixon’s best on ground performance yielded a game high four goals ahead of experienced campaigners Jake Owen and Armfield, who each finished with three.

Usual suspects Jake McReery and Luke Goetz featured prominently again, while livewire Ethan McKercher continued to impress with his clean ball use and explosive pace.

Burras quintet Jed Hill, Ryan Noether, Sam Wilkinson, Tony Lockyer and Bailey Medwell were praised for their efforts in arguably the club’s worst loss of the season, that nestles them in the bottom three on the back of four consecutive losses.

There seems no end in sight for the Burras run outs next week, when they travel to Mars Stadium to front North Ballarat on the rebound.

The Cobras will prepare for a fill-up at home against the winless Panthers.

How the coaches rated their performance

Lockyer (Sebastopol): “A competitive first half with the game in the balance at half time. (Our) third quarter was extremely poor, gave the ball away too easily and efforts to stop the Marsh were lacklustre. (We) simply did not execute what we set out to do for each other. Credit to Dennis and the Marsh, they played some great team footy. Backs against the walls for us, but we won’t give up. Still plenty of season to go.”

Armfield (B/Marsh): “Really positive four-quarter performance built off pressure and effort. We came with a willingness to put our team mates first and a drive to compete. Sebastopol were really strong at uncontested marks in the first half, and we had to change the way we played to take this away and force (them to go) long.”

DEFENCE Armfield (B/Marsh): “Competed hard all day, won their 1v1 contests and were predictable both offensively and defensively.”

MIDS Armfield (B/Marsh): “Found balance between inside and out and trusted each other to execute even spread of contribution.”

FORWARDS Armfield (B/Marsh): “Work rate was finally at a BFNL standard for long enough. Worked together to score goals and were able to start the frontal pressure.”

Final scores: Sebastopol 2.1-13, 5.4-34, 5.4-34, 7.7-49 lost to B/Marsh 4.5-29, 6.10-46, 13.14-92, 17.19-121

Sebastopol (Best): J.Hill, R.Noether, S.Wilkinson, T.Lockyer, B.Medwell.

Sebastopol (Goals): D.Widgery 2, A.Forbes, J.McDonald, L.Latch, L.Stow, J.Hill.

B/Marsh (Best): I.Nixon, J.Kovacevic, E.McKercher, L.Goetz, J.McReery, J.Owen.

B/Marsh (Goals): I.Nixon 4, D.Armfield 3, J.Owen 3, J.Huxtable, A.Lalor, C.Gates, J.McCreery, L.Goetx, C.Freake, K.Hilton