Gold Coast SUNS v Werribee Tigers

Fankhauser Reserve, Southport
Saturday, 14 August 2010

SUNS outlast Tigers in a nailbiter

The Gold Coast SUNS held on for a heart stopping one-point win against North Melbourne-aligned Werribee Tigers at Southport this afternoon.

In a free-flowing match, the SUNS recorded their fifth win of the year after surviving a barnstorming third quarter from a desperate Tigers outfit.

Best for the SUNS was Daniel Harris whose tireless work all over the ground was exceptional. Brandon Matera kicked four goals in a brilliant display. Sam Iles, Charlie Dixon, Alik Magin and running defender Joey Daye also starred.

The game was only ten seconds old when a clean Zac Smith tap found Sam Iles. He pin-pointed a pass to Charlie Dixon who slotted a regulation six pointer to give the SUNS the first goal. But despite the SUNS’ spectacular start, it was Werribee who controlled the ball best and their early poise and slick delivery saw them slot the next two.

The industrious Maverick Weller settled things for the home side when he snagged one thanks to a deft Alik Magin hand pass. Seconds later Magin was again up to his neck in it when he finished another clean Iles centre clearance to give the SUNS a seven-point lead. Werribee rediscovered it’s groove late in the term, and hit back in the shadows of quarter time to draw level on the scoreboard.

Magin goaled from close range in the second term’s opening moments to give the SUNS the perfect start. When some frenzied forward defensive pressure set up Daniel Harris’ first and Matera was gifted another after a Tigers’ indiscretion, the home side had skipped out to a 19-point lead.

Werribee struck back immediately to reduce the margin once more, but a spectacular Rex Liddy burst soon after the next centre bounce set up Luke Russell whose clever toe-poke gave the SUNS the quick response they needed. Matthew Shaw’s roost from 55 metres saw the SUNS push the lead out further and Matera’s crisply struck running effort was the icing on the cake of his side’s wind-assisted six goal-to-one second quarter. At half time, it was the SUNS by an impressive 30, but still with plenty left to do.

The home side almost landed a third perfect start to a quarter in a row when Jack Stanlake marked out wide from another quick takeaway. Unfortunately his snap hit the post and he could only manage a point. That was the only bright news for the SUNS in the opening stages of the second half with Werribee kicking the next two and looking the goods. It took the deadly left boot of Trent McKenzie to spark the SUNS. Camped deep in defence he rifled one long and low to Zac Smith in the centre. Smith spotted up Matera who went back and coolly converted for his third of the afternoon. It was a rare third quarter highlight for the SUNS who were struggling to find any offensive rhythm into the strengthening breeze. The Tigers on the other hand were on a roll and sniffing an opportunity and with an even combination of in-close tenacity, crisp field-kicking and hard run, they kicked four straight in the middle part of the term to take the lead for the first time all day.

To their credit, the SUNS – led by midfielders Hayden Jolly, Sam Iles, Danny Stanley, and Daniel Harris - managed to stem the tide in the term’s later moments. Their effort was rewarded when Matera’s fourth sailed through against the sound of the three-quarter time siren.

The late score gave the SUNS a much-needed lift heading into the huddle, and the home side came out in the third term with plenty of energy. The ever-reliable Danny Stanley gave the SUNS the first goal of the stanza when he marked and goaled from forty out. Jack Stanlake added another with a sterling effort from out wide minutes later. He bobbed up again to reward a classic Weller burst along the grandstand wing and give the SUNS a three goal break.

But as was the case all day, Werribee refused to lie down. And when the Tigers kicked two on the trot to reduce the SUNS’ lead to just two with 12 minutes left to play, the game was on a knife’s edge.

The game-breaker came from an unlikely source in SUNS’ schoolboy defender Piers Flanagan who picked a great time to kick his first VFL goal. When his intuitive snap sailed through the SUNS had an eight-point lead. Still, the Tigers kept coming. They goaled late to claw within a kick and soon after had the chance to steal the lead and possibly the match when veteran Tigers’ forward Alan Obst broke clear just twenty out. But under pressure from SUNS defender Joel Tippett, his kick slammed into timber and he only registered a point.

Thereafter it was desperate stuff. Many players were cramping and those who weren’t were throwing themselves into every contest as if their lives depended on it.

But in the end, in a game that deserved to be anyone’s, it was the SUNS who bravely prevailed

Gold Coast SUNS 3.3 (21) 9.5 (59) 11.8 (74) 15.9 (99)
Werribee Tigers 3.3 (21) 4.5 (29) 10.10 (70) 14.14 (98)

Goals: Matera 4, Stanlake 2, Magin, Dixon, Weller, Shaw, Harris, Russell, Stanley, Flanagan.
Best: Harris, Iles, Matera, Dixon, Daye, Magin.