Game of the round: Mandurah v North Beach 

A top of the table battle saw North Beach make the long trip to Rushton Park to take on a strong Mandurah outfit. With both teams coming off wins the previous week and in gusty conditions, it had the makings to be an entertaining game. 

A goal inside the first 3 minutes of the match had North Beach up and about and Mandurah found themselves in trouble early in the first quarter. The quick start from North Beach saw them peppering the sticks early with Mandurah struggling to get things going. A flurry of behinds eventually saw North Beach bag a second goal late in the quarter and had the Mandurah side searching for answers to this attack by North Beach. 

With North Beach holding a 2-goal lead going into the second quarter, the Mandurah coach demanded more from this team for the remaining 3 quarters. 

Mandurah would come out firing in the second quarter and give North Beach a scare as they found themselves eating into the deficit. North Beach would have an answer for everything that Mandurah would throw at them and found a way to hold on to the lead despite Mandurah’s mid field dominance. A margin of just 9 points at the main break in favour of North Beach reflected just big the mid field battle was going to be for the second half. 

As the wind started to pick up in the third quarter, it was North Beach who again dominated the start of the second half winning multiple clearances and putting Mandurah on the back foot early. 

The weather made the third quarter challenging for both teams as they struggled to find any scoring early on but North Beach kept pressing forward and eventually found a goal to push the margin out to 14 points, but Mandurah would quickly respond with a goal of their own to see it back to 8 points. 

As the ball was thrown up, North Beach were again quick to attack the footy and start applying pressure to the Mandurah defenders. Some rushed kicks led to a couple of chances go missing but that was until Liam Sweeney soccered the ball off the ground in the pocket and somehow created the highlight of the game with a dribble goal from the boundary on the three quarter time siren to give North Beach commanding control heading into the final break, 5.8.38 to 3.5.23. 

With Mandurah having the aid of the breeze in the final quarter, it was far from over. Early ruck dominance saw Mandurah winning the mid field battle as they did in the second quarter and start applying pressure with a couple of early scores. North Beach would eventually find their way down forward but could only manage a behind for the whole quarter. The breeze didn’t help Mandurah as they struggled to find the big sticks as they piled on 1 goal 5 behinds in the last and ultimately go down in a Saturday afternoon thriller by 5 points. 

Mandurah 4.10.34 def by North Beach 5.9.39 

OTHER RESULTS - 

Division A: 

Kelmscott 10.8.68 def Coolbinia 7.3.45 

Curtin Uni 5.3.33 def by Swan Districts 6.5.41 

Kingsway 7.6.48 def High Wycombe 3.3.21 

Division B: 

Wanneroo 6.5.41 def by Wembley 9.10.64 

Warnbro 5.5.35 def by University 6.10.46 

Author: Ashley North