The race for a top-three finish by the time the finals come around in the Kowree Naracoorte-Tatiara Football League has shortened down to four teams after Mundulla took care of Kingston on their home ground in the game of the round.
Round 13 saw the favourites mostly get the victories to add to their season win totals.
Mundulla proved too strong for Kingston at home by 38 points.
The Tigers and Saints had a good battle for most of the game.
The Tigers got great service out of James Hinge in the forward line as he took a huge pack mark during the game and put through five goals.
Jack Guy and Nathan Studham were elusive as well up forward as both added three goals apiece in the victory.
Nick Mosey, Tom Gaden and Devon Ridgway were Mundulla’s best players.
Kingston had their chances at times during the game and got great service in front of the goals by Hugo Fahlbusch-Moore, Jack Harding and Thomas Matsouliadis who each put through two goals each for the game.
Thomas Matsouliadis, Ethan Murdock and Jack Harding were the Saints’ best players.
Zac Peake had a big day out for Naracoorte as the Demons took care of Lucindale to the tune of 105 points.
Zac was dominant all game as he ended up kicking a bag of eleven goals.
Rory Taggert and Sam Willson also got in on the goal-kicking act as they added four goals each in the victory.
Josh Gregg, Keenan Jacobs and Zac Peake were the Demons’ best players.
Lucindale continued to find goal-kickers as they have all season.
Josh Trembath has been the main constant forward force as he kicked three goals in the loss.
Henry Tregoweth with two goals and Luke Kelsh with one goal were the only other two Roos to register a goal.
Thomas Gould, Henry Tregoweth and Henry Gould were Lucindale’s best players.
Border Districts flexed their muscles after halftime against Penola in the battle of the Eagles to come away with a big 64-point victory.
Harrison Pretlove had a day out with five goals and Mackenzie Bower put through four goals of his own in the victory.
Chase Bower, Mackenzie Bower and Isaac Hewson were strong contributors towards the victory for Border Districts.
Penola’s leading goalkickers were Scott Merrett with three and Brodie Foster with two as they tried hard to keep Penola in the game.
Bradley Bryant, Jayden Eldridge and Scott Merrett were Penola’s best players.
Kybybolite had to withstand a furious last-quarter comeback by Padthaway to get across the line by five points.
The Tigers had worked hard across the first three quarters to set up a three-quarter time lead of 32 points.
Padthaway found form in the fourth quarter and made a big comeback that just fell short by the final siren.
The Tigers did a good job to hold on and record their second victory of the season.
Kybybolite had a great spread of multiple goal-kickers in the victory as six players kicked two goals apiece.
Remi Brown, Stephen Craig, Billy Laurie, Callum Masters, Angus McKenzie and Thomas Taheny all were able to get on the score sheet twice in the victory.
William Thorp, Callum Masters and Joseph Schultz were the Tigers’ best players.
Padthaway fought hard to get back in the game in the fourth quarter and this was led by an amazing two-man attack.
Daniel Menzel kicked eight goals and Will Rivers added five as they combined to kick 13 of Padthaway’s 14 goals for the game.
Mitchell Minns, Daniel Menzel and Tarquin Brown were the Lions’ best players.
Keith continued their chase for a top-three finish after they defeated a plucky Bordertown team by 23 points.
The Roosters took the game up to the Crows and led by five points at halftime.
Keith took over the game in the third quarter as they held Bordertown goalless and put on five goals of their own to take a 28-point lead into the fourth quarter.
The Crows and the Roosters traded blows as the home team did enough to get across the line.
Blake Read kicked three goals in the victory for Keith.
George Johnson, Colby Read and Seb Schreiber also hit the scorers list with two goals each.
Billy Wade, Seb Schreiber and George Johnson were the Crows’ best players.
Curtis McCarthy had a great game for Bordertown as he tried to keep them close.
Curtis kicked six goals in a valiant effort.
Jacob Eats and Joshua Searle also got on the Bordertown goal list with two goals each.
Petros Politis, Matt Leigh and Curtis McCarthy were Bordertown’s best players.
Round 14 this week and the chase for the double chance heats up as the big clash of Naracoorte vs Keith will take place at Naracoorte on Saturday as the match of the round.
The winner of this game on Saturday will be in third position on the ladder come Saturday night and in control of their own top three destiny.
Naracoorte enter the game on a four-game winning streak and coach Matt Willson will have his team ready for battle.
Demons forward Zac Peake has found form as he has kicked 24 goals in the past four games to take the lead in the league’s leading goal-kicking award.
The Crows will have to plan for him as he is in much better form than when they first played earlier in the season.
Naracoorte also has been getting great service from Nathan Davey and Mitch Pulmer who have hit a rich vein of form.
The return of Will Schreiber to Keith has been a welcome one as he has slotted straight back into the team.
Will’s brother Seb is enjoying a good season in the midfield and has enjoyed a good patch of form in the last month.
This game could come down to who does more damage between Keith’s Lewis Hender and Naracoorte’s Rory Taggert.
Both are prime movers in the forward line, but can also push up the ground and win the ball.
This game is a toss of the coin as I think the margin will be two goals or less.
I’m picking Keith by six points in a close game but would not be surprised if Naracoorte gets up.
Padthaway is at home to Border Districts and the question is not whether the Lions can cause an upset, the question is how many goals will Daniel Menzel kick this weekend.
Daniel has been on fire since joining the Lions as he has 15 goals from the three games he has played.
Padthaway really needs to see what a Menzel-Rivers-Cox forward line will look like consistently before next season.
Tobin Cox has been out the past two games and is a big loss to the team.
Border Districts have no such problems knowing what their firepower looks like as they lead the league in scoring.
Dylan Schoenmakers is in a battle for the League goal-kicking award.
The Eagles have quite a few options when going forward.
Mackenzie Bower is another Eagles player who has been in good form all season in front of the goals.
The Eagles have way too many options for the Lions to cover and I would think Border Districts should get across the line by a comfortable margin.
Kybybolite heads into their game against Penola as a favourite because of their home-ground advantage.
The Tigers are also looking to end a streak of not having won consecutive games since Rounds 10 and 11 in 2018 when they recorded back-to-back three-point victories against Padthaway and Naracoorte respectively.
The Tigers are in some great form at the moment and gun midfielder Billy Laurie is leading the charge.
Stephen Craig, Callum Masters and Joseph Schultz have been in great recent form for Kybybolite as well.
Penola will need a great team performance from everyone to get across the line.
Bradley Bryant, Scott Merrett and Jordan Galpin are going to have to lead the charge for the Eagles to get the victory.
Brodie Foster will have to kick a bag of goals for Penola to challenge a Kybybolite team that is very good defensively.
The Tigers have everything going for them at the moment and should sneak home just.
Lucindale are up against it this week as they come up against Mundulla who are in great form at the moment.
The Roos are a much different team from last year as they lost several premiership players and it is showing late in the season.
Mundulla have been taking all before them lately as they are on a six-game winning streak.
The only downside is injuries as the Tigers lost two important players last week to injury in Darcy King and Jacob Grosser.
They will be hard to cover in the run home before the finals.
Lucindale can only hope to keep the margin under 100 if they cannot get a few players back.
Thomas Gould, Henry Tregoweth, Josh Trembath, Bradley Gould, Riley McFarlane and Bradley Agnew are going to need to play great games to keep the contest competitive.
Mundulla by 10+ goals.
Kingston travels to Bordertown looking to get back in the winners’ circle after consecutive losses have left their top three chances in tatters.
The Saints lost a close game against Naracoorte a fortnight ago and then last week they ran into a Mundulla train that proved too strong for them.
Bordertown will be determined to make it a third straight loss for the Saints.
Curtis McCarthy has returned to the team in the past two weeks and has kicked nine goals in his return.
Add Curtis next to Jacob Eats and Thomas Whittlesea and you have dangerous scoring power.
Kingston will be hoping to be able to nullify the Bordertown midfield to stop the chances of the Roosters forwards getting hold of this game.
Kingston’s Campbell Watts is a prime mover that Bordertown will look to shut down.
Kingston’s midfield rotation is one of the league’s best as players such as Campbell Watts, Thomas Matsouliadis, Ethan Murdock, Ben Warner and Chris Draper lead the clearance work for the Saints.
Kingston is missing Jack Armfield and William Watts as well at the moment and they add to the midfield group as well.
This is shaping to be a good game as the Roosters seem to have some recent play that resembles their best and they play their home ground very well.
Kingston will be the favourite to get the victory but the home team will push them all the way.
