MGFNL Season 2026 - Round 8 Review (Split Round)

A bumper crowd was on hand at Shark Park in Tarwin on Saturday for the culmination of MGFNL Round 8 action. The locals left disappointed however with Fish Creek affirming their top two intent running out comfortable winners 14-8-92 to 7-5-47.

 Fish Creek welcomed back power forward William McTaggart and the big man wasted little time reminding everyone what he was capable of slotting the games first two goals. His first effort saw him grab the ball form the ruck and wade his way through a throng of Tarwin defenders before kicking truly, while his second was a more typical lead, mark, goal type of arrangement. In fact, if the big fella had his kicking shoes on he’d have had the first three of the game with a second set shot pushed wide in the breezy conditions.

 With Oscar Bright snapping truly before a pair of marks led to Tom Cameron helping himself to a couple of first quarter goals it was Fish Creek with five of the finest before the Sharks had really settled. 

It took twenty four minutes for Tarwin to register a major with Troy Harley kicking the first of his three for the game late in the quarter.  

For Fish Creek it was the usual suspects who dominated with Jack Wiedemann, Luke Williams and Mitch Hicks regularly pumping the ball into the Kangaroos’ front half. Jack’s brother Rhett pivotal in the supply chain in his rucking role which saw Fishy win the centre clearances six to three according to Gippy FMs stats man Sam Crane. 

Any hopes of a quarter time rev up seeing the home side jump to a faster start in the second term where dashed when Rhett Wiedemann won a free kick and goaled form the best part of sixty meters to open the second stanza.

 Were the flood gates about to open was the question rather than was a comeback imminent. 

But the Sharks are made of sterner stuff than that and with Dylan Garham, the retuning Matt Williams and boom recruit Kyle Yann playing their way into the game the home side crept closer on the scoreboard. Firstly, it was Yann who goaled after a spearing pass from Garnham, then it was Garnham himself who kicked truly before Rem Dal pozzo got a gift from Harley in the square and before you knew it the Sharks were back in the contest.

 In fact were it not for some ill-discipline that saw best on ground Jack Davis have his free kick relayed from centre half back to the goal line on the back of a trio of fifty meter penalties the Sharks could have been within two straight kicks at the main break. As it was hey crept back to within fifteen points when Bertacco finished off the handy work of skipper Ben Ellen to kick the final goal of the half.  

The margin did feel gettable and there was a buzz amongst the crowd with the expectation of a huge third term.

 Well, that buzz didn’t last long. 

Fishy put the game to bed by keeping Tarwin to just two behinds in the premiership quarter while adding three themselves to lead by a tick over five goals by the time the hooter sounded. It was the usual suspects for the Kangas with Williams’ and Mitchell’s goals notable but the irrepressible Jacko Wiedemann went one better registering the goal of the day with an amazing effort from outside fifty hard up against the boundary. 

The last quarter saw Wiedemann kick back to back goals to commence proceedings and put any doubt about the result, or him getting another three votes, to bed. 

Troy Harley, playing a lone hand in the Tarwin front half took two strong grabs and goaled. But these were countered by two more to Fishy to finish the match and the visitors started a big weekend for them which saw their mid-season ball held Saturday night followed by their annual reverse raffle day held Sunday precisely as they would have hoped. 

Garnham, Ellen and coach Lachi Jones, who toiled manfully in the back half after nasty accidental kick to the shin early in the game, were best for Tarwin with Jacko Wiedemann, Jack Davis, Bready Mitchell and Mitch Hicks the best for Fishy. 

 Post game Tarwin coach Lachi Jones lamented his sides slow start commenting that “we know Fish Creek are a classy side and to give them that start was really disappointing.” He continued that he was “pleased with the response in the second quarter” adding that “effort and endeavour lifted but we need to focus on playing a complete quarter of football if we are to match it with the best sides”. 

The coach concurred with his assessment of his best player noting that “Dylan Garnham was busy all day and went to work around the packs” and added that “McCall and Staley in defence held their own”.

 Jarrod Walker, the winning coach, labelled the result “a solid win” before adding he was “happy with a four quarter performance”. He added that he felt his opponents “were also really good all day and caught us on a few slingshot goals”. When asked about his better performers the pragmatic Walker commented that his side had “a few standout performers but everyone had their moment”.