A fascinating Picola and District Football League season is taking shape with seven teams sitting on three wins after round five.
In the closest game of the round, Picola United came away with a tight, 10-point victory over Katamatite.
The game at the Picola Recreation Reserve could have gone either way, with Katamatite leading by five points at quarter time before holding a small three-point buffer at the main break.
Picola United ran away with the game in the third quarter, outscoring the Tigers by 20 points to enter the last term 17 in front.
The Tigers did well to keep the home side scoreless in the last quarter, but could not manage to come back, with Picola United winning 7.7 (49) to 5.9 (39).
United coach Darby Walsh said the game was very much played between the two 50-metre lines.
“It was a really contested game, a lot of stoppages in the middle of the ground and I think we were just lucky that we stuck to our structures really well,” Walsh said.
“We went in there with a few things we wanted to work on and we were able to work on them and hit our KPIs across the board and come away with the win.”
Walsh believed the low-scoring contest was due to a close midfield battle, with the weather only having an impact when it came to goal kicking accuracy.
He said United had been looking at the third quarter as something to work on throughout the season, with a change in some half time routines and structures having a positive impact in Saturday’s game.
“Once we came out in the first five minutes of the third quarter you can tell we were there to play and it was really good to see that we were able to continue that through the whole third and fourth quarter,” he said.
“We took a bit of belief and a bit of confidence out of Saturday’s game in that it was our first game this year where we’ve played four quarters of football.”
It was an impressive win for United, who now sits in sixth, with Katamatite in fourth.
United’s only injury worry from the game came via a concussion concern to Mitch Hore; he’s set to miss next week’s game.
In other Picola and District results, Katunga bounced back from its loss last week to beat Jerilderie by 36 points at home.
The game was a close affair early, before the Swans kicked clear in the second quarter.
Katandra got things done against Rennie, producing a big 84-point win, while Tocumwal downed Blighty by 130 points.
Berrigan will be happy with its result against Strathmerton, with the Saints running out 42-point victors and Tungamah smashed the Deni Rovers by 127 points.
Waaia had a week off.