VFL Women's Round 15 2016 - St Kilda Sharks v Diamond Creek
- Jul 31, 2016
- 3 min read
An extraordinary burst from St Kilda forward Jasmine Garner helped the Sharks find a way to overcome a dogged Diamond Creek to all but seal a place in the finals.
The Sharks were challenged all the way against the Creekers at Peanut Farm Reserve, who held the lead until late in the third quarter. However, a four-goal third quarter burst from Garner turned the match on its head and provided St Kilda with a springboard to their eleventh win of the season, 12.6 to 7.8.
After a big week for the club with forward Mo Hope and midfielder Brianna Davey announced as 2017 marquee players, St Kilda were caught out early by Diamond Creek’s desperate attack on the footy. The Creekers, needing to win after their shock Round 14 loss to the Spurs, curbed St Kilda’s run and carry game. The injuries of key defenders Kirby Hicks and Lauren Morecroft left Diamond Creek exposed against VFL Women’s most dangerous forward line but in the first quarter the Creekers’ defenders dictated terms. Laura Attard blanketed Hope whilst the bullocking Davey had more than met her match against Dianna Haines.
A week after keeping Darebin captain Daisy Pearce quiet, Shark tagger Ellie George couldn’t keep up with Stephanie Chiocci, whose blistering pace set up her side’s attacks. When Creek on-baller Kirsty Lamb snapped a goal halfway through the second quarter, Diamond Creek were 16 points up and looking a real chance of causing an upset.
However, the Sharks finally woke up and turned the tables on Diamond Creek in contested possession. Emily Gilder and Tilly Lucas-Rodd spearheaded their side’s revitalisation with their pace through the centre of the ground, working the ball directly to give their forwards the chance to find some space. The pressure piled on the Creek’s patched-up defence until Georgia Harris received a holding the ball free in the square to give St Kilda the half time lead despite having controlled the contest for only 15 minutes.
The third quarter again saw Diamond Creek burst out of the blocks only to be left rueing their absentees and a touch of poise with their disposal. Although Steph De Bortoli, Lisa Williams and Lauren Brazzale dominated the Sharks in winning fifty-fifty contests, the Creekers’ lack of a key forward target meant Shark defenders Phoebe McWilliams and Georgia Fisher had easy pickings for intercept marks and loose ball. St Kilda held out seventeen minutes of siege before Williams put Diamond Creek ahead. As they have done all season, the Sharks rallied when they were challenged.
St Kilda looked at their best when they got numbers around the ball. For the last six minutes of the third quarter they did just that and were rewarded by a scorching cameo from forward Jasmine Garner.
Garner reclaimed the Sharks’ lead when a fortuitous bounce left her alone in the goal square but there was nothing fluky about her goal on the run three minutes later to give her side their biggest lead of the match. She took a strong mark to convert from the very next play and then, to the Creekers’ horror, slotted her fifth goal of the game after the siren from a marking infringement. After nearly three quarters of struggle and wrestle, Garner had single-handedly broken the game open to lead St Kilda to a 20-point final break buffer.
The never-say-die Creekers came at the Sharks with one last charge from the start of the fourth. Chiocci stormed away with the first two clearances to set up goals to Karly Cobern and Jess Cameron to slash the lead to single figures with plenty of time left. The symbolic final blow came when Hope – visible only through reputation against the dogmatic Attard – plucked an impossible one-handed mark from four-deep in the pack to kick her first. When Gilder picked a tap-out to slam through her second, the Sharks had restored their three quarter time lead after soaking up half a quarter. Garner rubbed salt into the wound with her sixth goal to seal a victory in which St Kilda had defeated a respected opponent despite rarely having been able to play their best football. For Diamond Creek, an uphill battle to make finals is now only a mathematic possibility.
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