Benalla falls to classy Mooroopna in a tough outing for the Saints

John Lamont’s men rebounded from an inaccurate first quarter where they trailed by four points to run over the top of a knock-stricken Saints.

Benalla player-coach Waite said that result aside, he was happy with the effort shown by his injury-riddled side.

“We were down to one bloke on the bench halfway through the second quarter, so I was really happy with how we sorted it out,” he said.

“We kept trying to play the style that we are trying to bring to the club and to the boy’s credit, the scoreboard didn’t go our way, but I was super proud of the way they fought it out.

“Obviously, Mooroopna is a very well-drilled team.

“John Lamont has had them for a few years now, and he has got them playing a really good game style, so they are going to be challenging at the best of times, let alone where we have been in the last two weeks when we have lost eight players.

“Not making excuses, but depth is probably our issue at the moment.”

Though he went on to kick nine majors for the match, Mooroopna’s Daniel Johnston failed to cash in early, while Benalla youngster Will O’Donoghue pushed the Saints ahead.

Classy ruckman Mark Marriott (two goals) extended the visitors’ lead after latching onto a sky-bound bomb from Jarrad Waite and the Saints were soon on cloud nine as another goal went sailing through the sticks.

Cats forward Johnston finally kicked one at the third time of asking for Mooroopna’s first major and, shortly after, Dom Gugliotti swung forward, claimed an uncontested grab and kicked sweetly to convert.

Minutes into the second term Darcy Russell split Benalla’s defence with an incisive run and expert finish to give Mooroopna its first lead of the game.

The Cats were more patient and measured with their inside 50 entries, finding the right man — and, often, the right man was Gus Hanrahan.

Hanrahan, formerly of Port Melbourne VFL, kicked a pair of pulsating goals as Mooroopna tallied 40 points to Benalla’s two in the second period, flipping the Saints’ slim lead into a disastrous deficit.

Tom Havers produced a flash kick on the angle from 50 for Benalla’s first goal in nearly 45 minutes during the third quarter. However, by then, the Cats had already bashed the final nail in the coffin.

Johnston continued to add to his bag during the last term to cap a fine display up forward, while Jack Johnston, Jack Lear, Rory Huggard, Xavier Chandler, Coby McCarthy, Jed Woods and Gugliotti were others to catch Lamont’s eye.

For Benalla, Marriott, Wade King and debutant Hamish Willett stood tall during the heavy loss.

However, despite Mooroopna’s domination on the scoreboard, Benalla stayed even around the contest, winning hitouts 52-26 and clearances 38-36.

Waite, who is in his first season as coach, believes that his star ruckman has been a clear standout for the Saints this season.

“Mark Marriott is obviously an elite ruckman and gives us really good looks out of the centre and around the grounds,” he said.

“Clearances and bringing it out of there is one strength of ours, but you can’t rest on that.

“We have to work on the way we are going inside 50; Mooroopna, on the other hand, had a couple of really good key forwards that were pretty easy to get to.

“I think they got us in uncontested marks pretty heavily, so we will try to rectify that on the weekend.

“We are a firm believer that in the second half of the season, we will start to see what we have been training for since the middle of November.”