BFNL WRAP | A weekend worthy of finals football

The Lions, scoreless in the first quarter and still 21-points down at the last change, had been beaten over the park by the reigning premier Darley, but somehow still found themselves in with a sniff.

And a sniff was all the Lions needed, slamming five goals in a row to win a thrilling come-from-behind victory in a game both coaches said could easily have been a final.

Sunbury's 10.10 (70) to 9.8 (62) win leaves it as the only undefeated team, with White saying he could not wait for the next installment of what looks to be the start of a long-term rivalry with the Devils.

"Darley, I can't speak any more highly of Darley, that outfit, what Dan (Jordan) has done with the them and what he's doing with them. For what we were able to do in that last quarter was simply unbelievable," White said.

"I'm not sure what happened, if it was the belief of the players or what, but in the last quarter, it was just up to them and the players decided they wanted to step up and we were able to run away with it.

"As a coach you can't run anything more, if that was a finals game of footy, everyone would be very impressed.

"I as a coach, I genuinely will look forward to our battles, I think we're going to have some huge matches over the next few years."

Darley's Dan Jordan agreed that the match was akin to a finals atmosphere.

"I thought we controlled most of it to be honest, but we'd lost a couple of players just before three-quarter-time and I sensed we were a bit flat about it," he said.

"We gave away a couple of free kicks which resulted in goals early in the last and full credit to them, they got their tails up and we couldn't hold them off, but it was a real good game to be a part of."

The Devils lost pressure forward Harley Inglis and Matty Denham was very sore as well with a corked hip, we tried to get him out there but it really limited him and we also had Brady Wright and Andrew Azzopardi work up crook and couldn't get out there.

"They were all over us in the last quarter, we were defending hard, but couldn't resist the tide a bit."

Sunbury 0,0, 3.3, 5.4, 10.10 (70) d Darley 2.4, 4.5, 8.7, 9.8 (62)

GOALS: (Sunbury) M McLean 3, J Sutton 2, L Urbon 2, F Ampulski 1, B Landt 1, T Werner 1 (Darley) J Cadman 2, As Azzopardi 1, L Baker 1, B Bewley 1, H Inglis 1, D Matricardi 1, R Matricardi 1, M Ward 1 BEST: (Sunbury) J Newitt, B Landt, J Bygate, J Tentonello, B Eales, J Egan (Darley) Z Le Huray, L Baker, J Fawcett, M Brett, J Ancrum, J Cadman

Sometimes you have a bogey side and right now, Melton will be scratching its head at just how it gets over the top of East Point after the Kangaroos come-from-behind win at Melton on Saturday.

Just like last season when East Point snatched the semi-final, it managed to pull another rabbit from the hat, with an inspired last quarter move of Jacob Brown to the forward line, as he kicked the winning goal with just over a minute on the clock to give his side a five-point win.

While Melton had one last chance, it was unable to convert the final play of the game as East Point held on for a memorable win.

East Point coach Joe Carmody said it was a game that could have gone in any direction.

"I think at the 20 minute we were 15 or 16 points down, so the last 10 minutes was pleasing," he said.

"We just stuck at it, we had some opportunities where I felt we didn't capitalise and then late we were able to kick our set shots, get the reward for our spring off half back.

"The back six held up really well and I thought we got a lot of spring from that."

Carmody said the win showed his team could match it with any team.

"It gives the guys belief in that any position we are in, we can win the game," he said. "It's especially important for the young guys to see how hard it is to beat a Melton and Melton, they just have to be able to replicate that week-after-week against whoever we play."

Melton coach Troy Scoble said he felt the better team on the day won.

"We learned more than anything, it's amazing what five points either way can do," he said. "It was just a really good game of footy, no-one could really get away, they got in front with a minute to go.

"We definitely had a chance to ice the game, we got two or three goals up. It's something we have to look at because it happened in another quarter too where they pegged us back. I think that will mean a little bit of scenario training needed for us.

"Unfortunately on this occasion we were on the other side of the ledger, the ball was 10 metres from our goal at the end, that happens. I expected East Point were going to be really good today and they were. The better team on the day deserved to win."

East Point 3.3, 4.3, 8.8, 12.11 (83) d Melton 2.0, 6.2, 8.4, 12.6 (78)

GOALS: (East Point) J Brown 2, A Molan 2, J Cairns 1, S Cue 1, J Jeffrey 1, J Johnston 1, B McDougall, J Taylor (Melton) L Heaney 4, B Kight 2, J Kight 2, K Borg 1, R Carter 1, J Hickey 1 BEST: (East Point) M Johnston, D Lual, J Taylor, H Thompson, J Cairns, J Brown (Melton) L Phillips, L Heaney, B Mawson, J Cotter, L Watkins, J O'Brien

Redan has survived the fright of its life, holding off a desperate and late-surging Lake Wendouree to score a thrilling three-point win at City Oval.

The Lakers opened up solid leads in both the first and third quarters and at the last change held an 11-point margin, but Redan dominated the first 20 minutes of the final quarter and themselves looked to be going like winners, leading by as much as 16 points into time on.

But the Lakers kept finding something and goals at the 24^th and 28^th minute reduced the margin to under a kick.

With a sniff of their first win of the season, Lake Wendouree pushed again in the dying moments and had two shots at goal to take the lead, but both sailed wide. They were on the attack for the third time when the siren blew, allowing Redan to escape with a valuable four points.

Redan's injury curse continued again with the in-form Rory Gunsser among the injuries, hurting an ankle, Sam Broadbent also hurt a calf while Lincoln Barnes finished with a bad cork.

Even though it's still early in the season, a close run four points is still a win on what could have otherwise been a disastrous day for the Lions. Redan coach Gary Learmonth said he was relieved to walk away with the points.

"The Lakers had a couple of chances to win the game and luckily for us didn't take it, but I just thought we kept making mistake after mistake, three or four fundamental errors that throughout the course of the game hurt us," he said.

"When you get the momentum, you've got to take the momentum. We were 20 points up in the third quarter and they kicked four goals and got back in front at three-quarter-time and the same thing happened again in the last quarter.

"We knew they would have seen this as a game they could win and we have a young side. They came in prepared and played some decent footy."

Lake Wendouree's Rohan Brown said he had been proud of the way his team fought on, but lamented the inability to finish off a winnable game.

"It was a cracking game of footy and we had our chances to win it, we just couldn't capitalise," he said. "We kept ourselves in it with our pressure, we were super for four quarters and as I said in the rooms 'sometimes you just don't get what you deserve'.

"Redan got us with quick ball movement at times, particularly in the second quarter and that probably was the difference between the two clubs in the end."

Redan 2.2, 5.7, 8.8, 12.13 (85) d Lake Wendouree 5.1, 5.4, 10.7, 12.10 (82)

GOALS (Redan) B Carroll 3, G Bell 2, T Bond 2, K Jess 2, M Boyer 1, L George 1, Z Mortlock 1 (Lake Wendouree) J Jarred 2, L Koliba 2, B McKimmie 2, B Thompson 2, W Clark 1, C James 1, J O'Connel 1, J Wright 1 BEST (Redan) K Jess, Z Mortlock, J Short, J Werts, L George, S Fitzgibbon (Lake Wendouree) L Koliba, J O'Connell, P James, B Helyar, B Thompson, B Ryan

North Ballarat has picked up the pieces after last weekend's disappointments to run out convincing winners over Sebastopol.

While the final margin was 106 points, it was more a gradual wearing down by the Roosters, rather than a poor Sebastopol performance., although the last quarter did turn into a procession for the home side.

The Burra gave as good as they got early, level at the first change, but North led by a best-on-ground performance from Brock Leonard and six goals each from Nedd Nash and James Quick eventually ran away to the big win.

Sebastopol went into this match with a massive injury list and veteran Luke Kiel was another who wasn't able to get up for the game. For the first three quarters they were able to hang in there, but the floodgates eventually opened as the home side ran away with the contest.

North Ballarat coach Brendan McCartney said what pleased him most about the win was the way his team was able to contain a fired-up opponent early, before running away with the contest.

"It was a pretty physical game until we got on top," he said. "I know Sebastopol will always get themselves up for us and they had a real crack at it.

"We started to play better and set the ground up much better. When you do that, it means you can defend it better and you should have people everywhere once you get the balance right.

"Sebastopol came with a plan and they were strong around the contest and wanted to open the ground up. It was a good learning experience for us, and pleasing to work through it."

McCartney also played down injury concerns to Malachi White and Noah Cockerell.

"They were more body knocks, White got a pretty strong tackle and landed on his back and it just jarred everything up, I'm sure he'll be sore for a couple of days. I'm pretty confident he'll be right," he said.

"Noah got a hit to the shoulder, he was pretty brace going back with the flight and got cleaned up, we''ll have a look at him during the week, but he was able to go back on and finish the game and seemed to have good mobility in his shoulder."

North Ballarat 2.1, 7.6, 11.10, 20.14 (134) d Sebastopol 2.1, 3.2, 4.3, 4.4 (28)

GOALS (North Ballarat) N Nash 6, J Quick 6, T McMillan 3, F Loader 1, S McCartin 1, R Polkinghorne 1, H Trigg 1 N Troon 1 (Sebastopol) No details entered BEST (North Ballarat) B Leonard, N Nash, R Polkinghorne, J Quick, H Trigg, E Lamb (Sebastopol) No details entered

It wasn't as straight forward as the final margin would indicate, but Bacchus Marsh has moved into the top six for the first time this season after accounting for Melton South.

The Cobras defensive game was in full swing again, just like it was against Sebastopol the week before. This week, they offered up just seven scoring shots for the day in the 109-point resuly.

The first half was pretty competitive, with the only real difference being Melton South's inability to put a score on the board. Their defence for the most part held up, conceding just seven first half goals.

But after half time, Bacchus Marsh lifted a gear an started to put the scores on the board. Seven third quarter goals and six to finish saw the home side run out strong winners by 109 points.

Bacchus Marsh coach Dennis Armfield said his team was ready for next week's bye, but said if someone had have offered a 100-point win at the start of the day, he would have gladly signed on the line.

"Coming back from the bye, we should come back with only two or three serious injuries which is pleasing," he said.

"Melton South played a good brand in the early days, they controlled the ball and I thought there were winning the contest and we had to adjust to a few things they were throwing at us and they had a couple of players we hadn't seen before, so we had to watch them.

"I thought we got into an arm wrestle and we adjusted well at half time. To hold them to a limited score, and I think one of their goals came from a 50m, that was pleasing."

Bacchus Marsh 4.4, 7.6, 14.9, 20.11 (131) d Melton South 0.1, 1.3, 2.3, 3.4 (22)

GOALS: (Bacchus Marsh) K Hilton 5, J Huxtable 4, I Nixon 3, L Goetz 2, J Owen 2, K Tyrell 2, E McKercher 1, T Shea 1 (Melton South) D Zajac 2, M Fino 1 BEST (Bacchus Marsh) K Hilton, T Shea, J Owen, E McKercher, J Huztable, R Penny (Melton South) J Bibby, D Zajac, L Pritchard, R Rousch, D Wyatt, D Donaldson

LADDER: SUNBURY 20, MELTON 16, DARLEY 16, EAST POINT 16, NORTH BALLARAT 12, BACCHUS MARSH 12, Redan 12, Ballarat 12, Sebastopol 4, Lake Wendouree 0, Melton South 0