PANMURE continued their finals-shaping run to end the Warrnambool and District league season, with South Rovers the latest addition to their bag of scalps.
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The Bulldogs all but ended the Lions’ finals hopes with victory at Panmure Recreation Reserve.
Coach David Haynes booted seven goals and best-afield Paddy Mahony added three in the 15.14 (104) to 13.11 (89) triumph.
The win came a fortnight after Panmure upstaged Nirranda – a result which effectively condemned the Blues to another season without finals action.
The Lions are now likely to suffer the same fate, having entered the weekend with the odds in their favour. They need a miracle to snatch an elimination final berth away from Old Collegians.
Haynes was pleased his men could extract another positive from their rapidly improving campaign.
The result on Saturday represented a 52-point turnaround from when the sides met in round three. They have a 7-9 record, with six of their wins coming in the past nine weeks.
“I always knew we were going to be better (in the second half of the season),” Haynes said.
“It’s been good to put performances in where it’s going to affect what happens above us on the ladder.
“We had a big focus on Nirranda and another focus on today. Whether that’s extra motivation or not I don’t know, but the boys never gave in and worked hard. We didn’t want to lose our last game at home.”
South Rovers had the better of the early stages and opened up a 5.4-to-3.3 lead by quarter-time.
But Panmure rebounded to take a three-point lead into half-time, which they increased that to 10 at the last break.
The Lions closed to within two points midway through the final term before the Bulldogs kicked clear – just as they did when they beat Kolora-Noorat by a point in round 10.
John Meade joined Haynes and Mahony as the Bulldogs’ multiple goalkickers. Shaun Griffin was effective at half-back while Dan Meade and Sam Melican contested well in the forward line.
Tom Wright was the other key figure for the hosts. Wright kept Lions livewire Mark Murphy to a sole goal, having done likewise on Jet Dowie a week earlier.
“We were just first in for the footy and were able to use it a little bit better and had an even contribution. There were no real standouts, everyone contributed at different times during the game,” Haynes said.
Harry Ponting (four) and Reece Cracknell (three) led the Lions’ goals tally while onballer Braden Hotker was their best in his third game back from injury.
