Hawks set a new club record with 180-point victory over Chapman Valley

A young Brigades team made history at Mazzuchelli Oval on Saturday, running out 180-point winners in their biggest ever win over Chapman Valley.

The 33.13 (211) to 5.1 (31) victory broke the previous 2003 record of 178 points.

The contest was Brigades’ right from the start as they won the toss and kicked against the breeze, getting a fast clearance from the centre that resulted in Kaiden Dann’s first goal of 11 for the day.

The Valley made things difficult early, applying plenty of pressure on the ball and managing to win clearances off the back of Michael McConnell’s dominance in the ruck, but the hope was short-lived, with the visitors getting their rebound game going, sling shotting the ball from half-back to full forward in a matter of moments, which helped them kick five unanswered goals to take a 30-point lead into quarter-time.

After addressing their midfield set-up at quarter-time, the Hawks started to get on top in the centre of the park and deliver silver service to their forward line.

With Valley unable to stop the fast transitions, Jayden Schofield capitalised, not missing a target all day and getting second and third efforts thanks to his hard running, with the Hawks leading seven goals to no score at half time.

They continued to outwork the Royals after the break, and Schofield kept up his form.

After not scoring since the opening quarter, the home team got their third major from a ball that went over the back into the waiting arms of Richard Bartlett.

Valley got some consolation in the last, with goals to Tom Warr and Len Papertalk, but there was no stopping Brigades.

Brigades coach Cory Foot said changes to the midfield set-up were crucial.

“We didn’t get our positioning right in the first quarter,” he said.

“We rectified that at quarter time, we halved the ruck … tried to change our hit spots a bit, hence the reason why the clearances started going our way.

“Our forward line functioned pretty well and our backline, as usual, stood up.”

Valley coach Paul Drennan was less buoyant.

“We were totally outclassed, outrun, and outmuscled in every area of the game,” he said.

“We really let ourselves down today.”

Despite the tough loss Drennan praised McConnell and Glenn Rosser for being one of the shining lights, “Prosser was outstanding for us, and ‘MJ’ toiled hard.”