THE RETURN OF THE SPEARHEAD

The return of the spearhead forward was on show in Round 8 of the Alinta Energy Gippsland League. Always a fan staple of football is the sight of a forward pilling on majors to lead their team. Round 8 saw this again be one of the features across the senior match days. Third placed Sale took on Fourth placed Traralgon and their respective big key forwards delivered with 7 goals a piece as the two teams vied for the four points. Brett Eddy, who has already landed a 10 goal bag against Drouin earlier in the season, led the Maroons to victory with 7 of his sides 14 goals. 2019 JC Lawless winner Brad Dessent returned to goalkicking form with his best return of the season also finishing with 7 goals for the Magpies.

Brad Dessent taking a strong mark against Warragul in Round 7

Morwell’s Brandon McDonald led all comers as he kicked an amazing 9 goals as the Tiger’s defeated Drouin. McDonald’s tally pipped the Hawks total of 8 goals for the match. A noted goalkicker McDonald has won League goalkicking awards in North Gippsland FNL and has been a strong contributor in front of the sticks whilst at Morwell in previous stints. He also managed a 6 goal match earlier this year against Warragul and sits third in the 2022 Lawless Award with 25 goals.

Morwell's Brandon McDonald in action against Traralgon

Jed Lamb continued his amazing streak in front of goals with another 6 against Maffra. Lamb has booted 6 goals three times in 2022 including the Round 6 Leongatha match where he kicked all 6 of Warragul’s goals to become the first player in Gippsland League history to manage that feat. Up the other end Dan Bedggood also kicked 6 majors to lead the Eagles to a 43 point win. Bedggood had booted 20 goals so far in 2022 and led all comers for the Gippsland League in the 2010 decade between 2010-2019 kicking 396 goals at over 2 goals per game.

Ironically the biggest score of the Round where Leongatha pilled on 21 goals against Moe saw the load spread among 12 individual goalkickers with Aaron Heppell leading the way with 4 goals. It was a similar case in the Power match with midfielder Aiden Lindsay leading the way with 4 of the Power’s 14 goals for the day. They also ended with 20 behinds to their score which greater accuracy could have seen another name added to the list of goal kickers for the weekend.  

JC Lawless Award 2022 leaderboard

GOALKICKERS     

Total             Player                               Club                       (This Round)

32                Brett Eddy                         Traralgon                          (7)

28                Jed Lamb                         Warragul                           (6)

25                Brandon McDonald            Morwell                             (9)

23                Harry Pepper                    Moe                                  (1)

20                Daniel Bedggood               Maffra                              (6)

19                Jack Hume                       Leongatha                        (3)

18                Matthew Barrand               Moe                                  (1)

16                Brad Dessent                    Sale                                  (7)

15                Mitch Bennett                    Maffra                              (1)

15                Jake Best                         Traralgon                          (2)

15                Jack Ginnane                    Leongatha                        (2)