With finals out of the question, Bendigo was playing for pride against the North Melbourne affiliated Werribee Tigers on Saturday.
 
The Bombers fielded only two Essendon players, Danny Chartres and John Williams, as the seniors' long injury list has taken a toll on Bendigo. As more of the Dons’ younger players gain senior selection, less have been playing for Bendigo and this has been reflected on the scoreboard.
 
Werribee, which defeated the Box Hill Hawks and Collingwood in the previous two rounds leading up to the match, came in as hot favourites against a severely undermanned Bomber outfit.

The last time these two teams met was at Werribee in Round 3 of this season, that match ended in a 20 point win for the Tigers. James Podsiadly, who was second on the league goal kickers coming into the Round 19 clash with 63 goals, would be a man Bendigo would need to keep under control if they were to have any chance of snatching a surprise win.

Hayden Skipworth gave Werribee a reminder that Bendigo still wanted to win games this season, first clearing the ball from defence then following it up at the other end of the ground, kicking the first goal of the match. James Podsiadly signaled his intention early, immediately replying for the visitors and setting himself up for a big day. Goals were traded in the opening stages of the quarter and Bendigo were playing their best football for a while. They were moving the ball well and applying pressure all over the ground, Johnny Coghlan’s great tackle highlighted this. Brent Taylor, Grant Weekes and Ali Fahour managed to register goals for Bendigo and this coupled with good defensive pressure meant Bendigo was well placed heading into the second quarter.
 
North Melbourne player Leigh Brown was dominating up forward for Werribee, he managed to bag three goal in the opening term and his goals were the difference at the first break, the Tigers held a nine point lead.

Werribee came out hard in the second quarter, grabbing the first two goals. Bendigo however, were up to the task, Grant Weekes scored two in a row to keep his team in the hunt. The Bombers had plenty of chances, but some wayward shots meant the Tigers were able to pull away. They kicked three of the next four goals to take a 20 point lead into the main break. Podsiadly kicked another two goals to add to the two he kicked in the first quarter and he looked set to grab another bag, just like last week when he scored six against Box Hill. Blair Holmes missed a shot and a needed goal went begging for Bendigo. They weren’t out of the contest but Werribee was slowly pulling away and a big second half was required if the Bombers wanted to take anything away from the match.

Bendigo had a dream start to the second half, they managed to score the first two goals of the quarter through Shannon Geary and Steven Stroobants who notched up his third of the game. The lead had been cut to just seven points and the QEO crowd could sense an upset. Werribee however had other ideas, they scored three of the next four goals, to extend their half time lead by five points. James Podsiadly could only manage one more goal and Leigh Brown scored his fourth. Captain, James Flaherty was given the difficult task of marking either of those two dominant forwards while Danny Chartres took the other. Both did decent jobs but were outplayed by their strong opponents.

Bendigo were still in the contest as the final quarter started. However any hope of snatching a win was demolished by a dominant display by the Tigers, they grabbed six goals, including two to Podsiadly who finished with seven and held Bendigo scoreless to secure a 66 point win. The final margin didn’t reflect how well Bendigo played. They played three quarters of decent football and only a last quarter fade out pushed them out of the game. They attacked the ball and played an attractive game of football and with only one round of football left they should look to end the season on a high against Coburg at Windy Hill. Werribee now look towards their final round clash with Williamstown in a big match before the finals.

Meanwhile, having been comprehensively beaten by Williamstown last week, the Bendigo reserves faced the second last Werribee Tigers. They looked to restore some pride and register their first win of the season at their home ground against the Tigers who have won only one game. However the gap between Bendigo and the rest of the competition was evident as the Bombers lost by 154 points. Bendigo managed to grab the first goal of the game but couldn’t go on with the job, conceding 30 goals including 12 in the last quarter. With the off season now approaching Bendigo can look to recruit new players so they don’t have to rely on top up players to field a team each week.