Oakleigh have begun their season in the best possible way making it two wins from two games with a strong 51 point win over the Western Jets at Visy Park on Sunday as Anthony Cheyne reports.
The Chargers set up their win in the second quarter scoring 6 goals to 1 to break the game open and it was a gap that was never challenged by the Jets despite the super efforts of Sam Critchley, Jordan McKenzie and David Iaccarino to keep their team in the game.
Early on the game was a 50/50 contest with both sides moving the ball up the ground well but falling down at half forward where the defence of both sides were on top. As the game wore on the dominance of ruck man Chris Prowse and defender Jackson McRae started to have an effect as Oakleigh got on top at the stoppages and started to dominate the game through the middle a bit more as their skill level picked up.
Caleb Vearing took a few good marks at half forward and set up goals for the Chargers forwards but it was the efforts of the running defenders and midfielders that really told with the likes of Kristian Jaksch , Jason Ashby, and Joseph Curren that continually rebounded the ball out of the back half that really caused the Jets the most trouble. Their run and support play was great and allowed the Chargers to edge away at every change after quarter time setting up the 51 point win.
After last week’s heart breaking loss the Jets would have been primed to bounce back but they just could not match the run and slightly better skill level of the Chargers on the day. Midfielder Charlie Nastasi had another strong game, Ashlin Brown provided a target at half forward and some run from the wing and Josh Bench was lively in patches and along with the previous mentioned Critchley, McKenzie, and Iaccarino where the Jets best.
Oakleigh will be pleased that they absorbed the early pressure from the Jets and where able to build on their lead in every quarter and also hold out Western in the first 10 minutes of the third term when both sides attacked hard without kicking a goal. It was the ability of players like Daniel Hachem and Caleb Vearing to kick long goals from half forward which really sealed the Jets fate. Forward Ned Walmsley kicked a couple of goals, Jackson Mcrae chipped in for 2 goals as did Mitchell Donoghue as the Chargers had a good spread of eleven goal kickers.
The win has Oakleigh sitting second on the ladder leading into their home clash against Bendigo on Easter Saturday.
Final scores Oakleigh 14.8.96 def Western 6.9.45
Last Modified on 04/04/2012 14:18