Hungry Hungry Hippos
For the second week in a row Jakob De Winter has put together a big bag of goals for the Magpies. De Winter’s seven goal haul against Sandgate takes his total to 12 goals in two weeks. Five of his round two goals came in a purple patch in the first quarter, in which he single-handedly blew Sandgate out of the water. The small forward has Jamie Elliot qualities, including the tats, he is dangerous in the air and damaging at ground level. He’ll be important this season.
Alex Mitchell kicked five for the Panthers in their showdown with Wilson Grange, his strength on the lead helping the team notch its first win for the season. Mitchell’s Panthers teammate Ben Murray also got on the board with four. At the other end, in a bit of a shoot-out, Declan Beavan kicked four for Grange and Brent Moloney bagged three.
Clash of the titans
Adam Clarke seemed to be everywhere for Labrador in their 20 point win over Palm Beach Currumbin and was influential in the big moments. The solid midfielder got hands on the ball in the middle and then moved forward and hit the scoreboard.
The game was tight right up until the last few minutes when the Tigers piled on two goals to put the game out of reach. On the day the Tigers had a whole host of winners in the midfield, Zach Brain, Jackson Powell and Jacob Kenny all played their part.
For the visiting side, the Lions, their captain was again huge this week. Derrick worked up and down the ground, was strong in the air and kicked a crucial goal in the last quarter to rally the troops. Jason Burge and Dylan Troutman got plenty of the ball and particularly Burge showed some excellent foot skills.
It was QAFL footy at its best, fiery, fast and furious and we can’t wait for these two to go at it again.
Man of the moment
In a tight, contested and low scoring affair at Ord Minnet Oval, between the Cats and the Demons, David King kicked the winning point for Broadbeach with a few minutes to go in the last quarter. King drifted across the pack at centre half forward, taking a courageous mark, then went back from about 40 out directly in front and missed to the left, but put the Cats up by a point.
New recruit Robbie Blood played well for the Cats, while Jye Davies looked good when he got the ball out in space, using his pace and clean disposal on a scrappy day.
For the Demons, Haberfield was again the general down back, spoiling all day and staying composed under pressure. Daniel Van De Werken went on a nice run in the last quarter and kicked a tumbling goal to give his team a sniff, but the Cats were too strong in the end.
Flexible backs
The Western Magpies have Davey Lewis, the Demons Haberfield and Labrador Jayden Young, there are probably other exciting mobile defenders throughout the league, but Morningside have three in the one team. Is there a better trio of flexible tall backs in the league than Matthew Surrurier, Ryley Buntain and Daniel Frame?
They chop the ball off in the air, they tackle hard and they are creative by foot going out of their back half. This mobile backline trio made it pretty hard for Wilston Grange to move the ball forward and score and they’ll do the same to a few teams this season. Palm Beach managed to run over the top of them, but it’ll be fascinating to see what the Morningside defence makes of a stampeding Labrador in round three.
Stacking them up
Sandgate key forward Connor Stackelberg’s form is building. The big fella has kicked five in two weeks and while it’s not as many as the competition’s leaders, his supply hasn’t been the same either. Stackelberg works hard on the lead and is near impossible to defend against when he gets the dukes up out in front. It’s no surprise he was named in the best and look for the youngster to get better as the season progresses.
By Sean Melrose.
Twitter: @seanmelrose
