by Daniel Paproth, Sunbury Macedon Ranges Weekly
A CLUTCH goal to Brandon Kilty was enough for Diggers Rest to get a two-point win over Sunbury Kangaroos in Riddell District Football League on Saturday.
Diggers Rest went into the final quarter with a three-goal lead and just managed to hold on. Sunbury's Jason King opened the scoring in the last term and, when Matt Welsh ran into an open goal 10 minutes later, the margin was back to three points.
Kilty's mark, set shot and goal was the Burras' only one for the quarter after three crucial misses early in the term.
His major extended the lead back to nine points and despite a late goal to Sunbury's Jake Powell from a 50-metre penalty, Diggers Rest did enough to hold on.
The Burras started the game in terrific style, simply outclassing the Kangaroos, who were lethargic.
Diggers had nine shots on goal to two for the quarter and but for inaccurate kicking would have led by more than 22 points at the first break.
But this Sunbury team cannot be kept down, and despite missing five premiership players, the Kangaroos had cut the margin to just a point at half-time.
Much of the scoring was done to the Houdini Drive end, with just four of the game's 20 goals scored at the primary school end.
Diggers kicked the only three goals of the third quarter.
In the end it was the Burras' pressure that got them over the line. When all signs pointed to Sunbury coming home with a two or three-goal win, Diggers Rest found the extra commitment needed, getting numbers behind the ball to thwart Sunbury's forward-50 entries late in the game.
"We were three goals up at three-quarter-time and we just had to keep the pressure up in the last," said Burras coach Jamie Elliott. "It was our pressure mainly. We had 16 tackles in the last quarter, put our head over the footy and worked pretty hard."
His Sunbury counterpart Chris Meacham wasn't too concerned with the loss.
"To be honest it's not frustrating to come to Diggers Rest and lose by two points. We'll get a lot out of it," he said. "It was a 50-50 hitout and they just wanted to win a lot more in the end."
Sunbury takes on Rockbank on Anzac Day and Diggers Rest travels to Broadford to take on the might of Barry Hall.
Last Modified on 23/04/2013 15:49