Half way point of the Minor Round and slowly but surely things are starting to sort themselves out just a little bit but still enough time for some twists and turns to happen yet
Compass, Willunga and Victor all with a 7 & 2 record have a very handy break on the rest of the field in regards to a coveted Top 3 finish being a game and healthy % ahead of their nearest challengers.
Last years Grand Finalists McLaren 6 & 3 and Creeks 5 & 4 occupy 4th and 5th and will certainly need to find a little more consistency in the 2nd half to challenge for a Top 3 spot.
Strath 5 & 4 just trail the Creeks on % in 6th whilst E Bay 7th would be very disappointed with a 4 & 5 record considering they impressively beat the Creeks in Round 1 and only a few weeks back led one of the Premiership favorites in Compass by 9 goals at one stage before incredibly losing
Yankalilla 8th with a 3 & 6 record have fallen off the pace markedly in recent times after a very promising start to the season which also included a narrow win over the Creeks but would need a miracle from here to turn their season around and challenge for Finals.
Goowla/PE broke the ice with a win over fellow cellar dweller Myp/Sellicks who would have been disappointed after pushing the Creeks all the way last match.
With just about every match involving the top 7 or 8 teams being Finals like, its gonna be very tough for teams to string wins together to climb the ladder in the 2nd half so i'd be surprised if any of the Top 3 drop out of the Double chance even tho i have no doubt they will lose a few games to teams currently ranked 4th to 7th simply because the Comp is so incredibly even.
Creek / Victor game yesterday was as good as they come with intense Finals like pressure from start to finish with the likely winner changing 4 or 5 times during the day with Victor eventually prevailing as their Forward talls eventually overwhelmed the Creek defense which was stretched for height especially after Sellar was forced to sit out the rest of the match from just prior to half time after copping a blow to the head in a ruck contest. Creeks battled brilliantly in the 2nd half and despite getting out to a 3 goal lead half way through the last quarter, it looked like they had given their all and were just looking to hang on in the final stages and as a result Victor took more risks which they had to do and it paid dividends as they kicked 5 of the last 6 goals.
A massive win for Victor that sets their season up whilst the reigning Premiers have plenty to think about in the run home to position themselves for a crack at back to back.
A bit disconcerting for the Creeks is that after being undefeated on Hawk Park last year they have dropped 3 of their 5 home games this year after blowing good leads in all of them
E Bay - Were 5 goals up in 1st Qtr and lost by 14 points
Willunga - were 5 goals up in 2nd Qtr and lost by 9 points
Victor - were 3 goals up in last Qtr and lost by 9 points
Creeks other loss for the year was at Yank when they led by 3 points with a minute to go and lost by 3 points
With the Additions of McGregor and Helyar the Hawks are still a genuine Premiership threat but will find it extremely tough from an Elimination Final if indeed they make Finals which they should but nothing would surprise me. To get the double chance from here with their relative low % they will probably need to win 8 of their last 9 games which whilst possible is highly unlikely given the tightness of the comp.
Gonna be a cracker 2nd half of the season.