DAVID HOBBS – HDFNL – Seniors


HARROW Balmoral kicked another big score in a big win over the Taylors Lake at Harrow last Saturday, adding Will Plush back into the line-up after a hamstring injury.


With byes and interleague in surrounding leagues and the Johnny Mullagh Park overflowing with campers, there were lots of visitors at the match.


For southern readers, Taylors Lake is a farming community on the eastern side of Horsham, not as some think the suburb on the western side of Melbourne with no lakes and lots of power lines, whereas Taylors Lake the district has lots of lakes and with a massive solar farm being built, will have more power lines.


In the first match of the season they had played quite well against Harrow Balmoral, going down by six goals, but after parting ways with their coach recently and seemingly a number of players missing, it was going to be tough for them against the Roos, who make life tough for visiting teams at Harrow.


The Roos played some really attractive attacking football, long chains of handball and splicing kicks and upfield, Simon Close was taking some lovely marks and had five goals at half-time and finished with nine for the day.


Harrow Balmoral were a bit wasteful early, 12 goals and 13 behinds from a lot of shots, but they made amends in the second half for a score of 17.8 to finish just five points short of a double century.


Tom Conheady returned for his second game, his ground play, ability to play tall and kick goals will make him a valuable player heading to the business end of the season.


Jai Thompson was often the catalyst for the Roos’ best moves, his weighted kicks and handball sets up so much and the dash and verve of the Wills, Burbury and Plush raises the Roos’ intensity and brings others into the game.


Connor Deutscher was giving spark at both ends of the ground and the Grant brothers were at their electric best.


This week Harrow Balmoral have the luxury of second home game in a row, facing perennial rival Kalkee and then a bye and some tough games against potential finalists in the last three rounds.