The Bendigo Bombers traveled to Windy Hill to take on the third placed North Ballarat Roosters on Saturday.
The Roosters, who have won only one game on the road so far this season, faced a confident Bendigo outfit that had knocked off the Box Hill Hawks and last season’s Premiers the Geelong Cats in the previous two rounds.
The Bombers had Mal Michael and Ricky Dyson in their lineup for the important clash and coach, Adrian Hickmott, would have been looking for a third straight win.
Bendigo got off to a great start, Brent Hartigan goaled to break the ice after a tough opening few minutes. North Ballarat had the advantage of the wind for the quarter but Bendigo’s defence managed to keep them out in the early stages of the quarter. The Bombers came out firing, however Ballarat grabbed the next couple of goals through Dean Chester and Daniel Feery despite Mal Michael’s efforts in the backline. Bendigo didn’t let this phase them and after consistent pressure Ali Fahour scored to keep Bendigo within a kick.
North Ballarat's Michael Wundke’s goal was the first of five for the day, however, only moments later Jacob Spolding scored to sound a warning to Bendigo that the Roosters were here to play. The Roosters managed to grab another through Wundke before the final siren and entered the first break with a 17-point lead.
Hickmott was happy with the way his team played in the first quarter and the Bombers were looking to take advantage of the wind in the second term.
The Bombers came out hard in the second quarter, registering the first two goals through Cale Hooker and Dean Dick.
Dick’s goal was especially impressive considering he beat three opponents to take the mark and then slotted the goal from 45 metres out. North Melbourne star Eddie Sansbury displayed his skills, dancing around the Bendigo defence before registering an important goal. Slack defence after the bounce meant the Roosters were able to grab another through Jacob Spolding with his second for the first half.
An interesting move by Hickmott saw Michael pushed up forward and the move paid dividends, some great work at ground level by the triple premiership player meant Cale Hooker was able to kick the final goal of the first half. Bendigo went in to the main break trailing by eight points after kicking 4.4 for the quarter. Tom Bellchambers, Michael and Johnny Coghlan were among the best players in the first half.
North Ballarat started the stronger team in the second half, Andrew Swallow scored in the first 30 seconds after Fahour gave away a free kick before the centre bounce. Former Richmond player Tom Roach scored a goal just moments later and it looked as though the Roosters were going to run away with the game.
However Bendigo was up to the task, they scored the next two goals through Danny Chatres and Brent Hartigan. Hartigan scored just moments after missing a regulation shot, misses like these came back to haunt the Bombers in the latter stages of the game. Hayden Skipworth had the opportunity to register Bendigo’s third in a row but his kick failed to make a serious impact on the scoreboard.
Wundke and Josh Smith scored for North Ballarat to extend their team’s lead to 18-points. Jarrod Atkinson brilliantly replied for Bendigo, running for 30 metres before slotting the goal that sparked a revival from Bendigo. Bellchambers took the mark of the day after Fahour kicked high to the hot spot. He easily kicked the goal that cut the Roosters lead to four points.
A big last quarter was required by the boys in black and red and they held the advantage of the wind heading into the last term.
Bendigo kicked off the last quarter as they finished the third, kicking the first two goals to take the lead. Damien Peverill and Michael were the goal kickers that registered in the opening five minutes.
The Bombers held the momentum and had a lot of the ball however their refusal to kick long with the wind into the forward line meant North Ballarat’s defence was under little pressure. Hartigan’s second big miss really hurt the Bombers, he hit the post despite running into an open goal with no pressure on him. He made up for the miss just moments later though scoring after Brett Goodes had registered for the Roosters up the other end of the ground.
Goals were traded for the next 10 minutes before North Ballarat scored the last four goals of the game to run out 13-point winners.
Bendigo really should have got more out of the contest, having lead for most of the last quarter but their inaccuracy in front of goal cost them. Bendigo kicked 4.3 in the last quarter while the Roosters managed 6.0. The Bombers had seven more scoring shots than their opponents and, had some of those gone through in the last quarter, we would have seen a different result.
Bendigo face two tough weeks on the road, traveling to Casey next week and then facing Port Melbourne at TEAC Oval in Round 13.
The Bendigo reserves who were still searching for their first win of the season faced North Ballarat who was looking for a win to get into the top five. Bendigo challenged well in to opening stages of the game, keeping in touch with its opponent.
Heading Into the last quarter Bendigo only trailed by 17-points and it could sniff its first win of the season.
However, a dominant last quarter by the Roosters ensured they notched up their fifth win of the season. North Ballarat ran out 68 point winners. Simon Davies, Michael Pilcher and Jono Gawthrop were Bendigo’s best in a game that could have gone either way.
