The game between South and Weeroona Bay at Bennett Oval on Saturday started in beautiful sunny conditions with South kicking with the aid of a two goal breeze.
South has been struggling of late and were desperate to get back on the winners list.
They welcomed back Ray McIntosh from a three-week lay off with an ankle injury and within minutes he had snapped through a goal from inside the goal square which would be his first of four first quarter goals.
The young tigers looked out classed as Gav Jonker, Reggie Reid and Matt Perry provided that much needed run that had been missing in previous weeks across half back and they continually pumped the ball into there forward 50m giving the likes of McIntosh and Colson plenty of opportunities and South skipped out to a 28 point lead at quarter time.
The second quarter started much the same as the first with two more Ray McIntosh goals and when Baker received a Motlop-like give to goal from 50m, the alarm bells started to ring for the Bays as South were running riot.
A few push and shoves crept into the game and the Young Bays stood up and showed some bottle, tackling harder, chasing and harassing and managed two goals giving themselves confidence going in at half time
The Bays started well continuing on with their good second quarter form but just didn’t have the finishing qualities of that of the Demons.
Play started to become scrambled due to the added pressure from both teams and the worsening weather conditions.
Enter Ed Wilson who gave the game a spark with 3 goals in 7 minutes, one a pearler on the run from 45 meters which gave the Dees a 45 point lead at the last break.
The Bays to their credit never gave up but South just had too many good players and continued on their merry way in the final quarter to run out easy winners by 67 points.
Best on ground and best for the Demons was Brad Page who was workman like in the centre with a solid four quarter effort, Jonker was creative at half back along with Reggie Reid who was turning defence into attack, Ray McIntosh with seven goals, Jimmy Martin, Ryan Baker and Guy Sultan were all solid performers.
For the Bays Josh Parker was terrific with a number of strong marks around the ground, James Gruitt , Ryan Wingfield , Lee Ringland played some good patches of footy and young Aubre Harmse from South Africa tackled hard and gave his all.
After the first quarter the Bays lifted there work rate and played some good pressure footy forcing the Demons into errors so they shouldn’t be totally disappointed with their effort.
As for South, it is back on the winners list and would be happy with their performance but know they still have some hard work to do to get back to their best and give themselves a real chance at the big one in September.