Gold Coast Football Club v Frankston Dolphins
Gold Coast Football Club has enjoyed an emphatic 57 point victory over Frankston at Merrimac Oval this afternoon.
An estimated 4000 people were on hand to see Karmichael Hunt’s first home game.
The club’s newest recruit lined up in defence today and although his contribution was nowhere near as spectacular as his two goal debut a fortnight ago, he worked hard, tackled strongly and would have learned plenty in just his second VFL hitout.
It was far from pretty football early with both sides struggling to crack well drilled defensive structures.
GCFC eventually struck first when Rory Thompson took a strong grab and goaled from forty metres out. Dixon snared the homes side’s second a few minutes later with a terrific gather and snap from a tough angle.
Although GCFC had the best of an intense first quarter it was struggling to convert, so much so that when Frankston kicked their first major in time on there was only five points in it.
The visitors came out firing in the second term and hit the lead with an early goal. They consolidated with two more in quick succession to push the margin to 14 points.
A clever goal to Sam Iles closed the gap. Although Frankston answered immediately, GCFC was slowly beginning to find some offensive rhythm. GCFC’s midfield - led by the lively Brandon Matera and the seemingly tireless Swallow - was finding space and heavier involvement by the impressive Taylor Hine, Charlie Dixon, and Josh Toy and a general lift in intensity across the ground saw opportunities begin to flow for the home side.
Still, for all its dominance, GCFC’s effort wasn’t translating to points.
It took a stroke of luck for GCFC to make a dent in the visitor’s lead when a miscued Liam Patrick shot on goal was snaffled by Luke Russell dead in front. He kicked truly to shrink the margin to one straight kick.
Despite the closeness of the scoreline, it was all-in-all a sluggish effort from the home side in first half, a fact not lost on Senior Coach Guy McKenna who left his players in no doubt of the second half improvement he expected during a tough talking-to behind closed doors during the main break.
Whatever McKenna said had an instant effect.
Within seconds of the bounce Daniel Harris slotted a tough set shot to draw GCFC level, soon after a Liam Patrick point saw the home side pinch back the lead and all of a sudden, with its tackles sticking and its players running harder, GCFC was gaining the ascendancy.
When Patrick slotted one from an acute angle and McKenzie followed up with a terrific long bomb, the game was getting away from the visitors. A Stanley behind on the three quarter time siren gave GCFC a 16 point advantage going into the final quarter, a lead that could have been much larger had Magin, Patrick, Thompson, Stanley and Smith all kicked gettable chances.
The final stanza couldn’t have started better for GCFC when some fine David Swallow lead up work helped Magin push the margin to 22 in the opening minute. Patrick nailed his second moments later to further stretch the lead and when an explosive burst from Swallow saw him nail his first for the day, the game was at risk of blowing out in GCFC’s favour. And so it proved. Further goals to Swallow, Magin, Dixon, Patrick and Matthew Shaw capped an impressive second half for the home side, one in which they had scored a remarkable 53 points and conceded just 12.
GCFC 2.0 (12) 4.2 (26) 7.8 (50) 15.13 (103)
Frankston 1.1 (7) 5.2 (32) 5.4 (34) 7.4 (46)
Goals: Patrick 3, Magin 2, Dixon 2, Swallow 2, Thompson, Iles, Russell, Harris, McKenzie, Shaw.
Best: Hine, Swallow, Toy, Ah Chee, Dixon, Iles
