Football
26 August, 2025
Thunder sounds warning
Southern Mallee delivered a dominant performance on Saturday, defeating Dimboola by a massive 83 points in the final round of the regular season.
This significant victory secured the Thunder third place and a crucial double opportunity heading into next week's finals, sending a strong warning to their competition.
The Thunder got off to a brilliant start - with 7.6 on the board at the end of the first quarter, while holding their opposition to zero.
Dimboola found the big sticks in quarter two, but the Thunder again outscored them, up 11.8 74 to 2.1 13 at halftime.
The difference was out to 96 points going into the final quarter, but Dimboola were able to bring it in slightly, with the final scores being 21.12 (138) to 8.7 (55).
Sam White booted six for the Thunder, while Jack Williams led Dimboola with three.
Better players for each side were Jack Landt and Simon Hobbs (Dimboola), and Bradley Stokes and Haydn Drew (Southern Mallee).
Andrew Moore, co-coach of Dimboola, admitted it was a challenging game on Saturday, but paid credit to the opposition, commenting they came with the right attitude and were able to get the jump on Dimboola early.
"They really set the standard it is going to take us to be able to be competitive in finals in terms of inside hunt and pressure they applied to us," Moore said.
"They were able to transition the ball from that contest inside to outside cleanly, and that's something we are going to come up against in finals.
"I think it was a great learning curve for a lot of the group as we know how young we are, but in terms of what level we are going to need to get to in finals, we know how classy they are, how good they are, and they have been at the pointy end of the season before, so it was a good test for us."
Moore admitted every time the sides have met, the Thunder have played consistent and good footy, but he said what they displayed on Saturday was pretty impressive.
"They've got their sights on better and bigger things this year, and they did an extremely good job on Saturday, playing consistent footy for all four quarters, so they will be tough to beat," he said.
With a final five position secured for Dimboola before the match result, Moore said it was an eye-opening opportunity for his side to come up against a side that knows what it takes and how to play finals footy.
"I'm hoping the group really took something out of it," he said.
"We definitely addressed it after the game and took a lot of learnings from it, but all honesty, we move on pretty quickly from that game.
"Again, knowing that the final five had been basically set, with changes slightly, potentially, those games are always tricky, depending on how players approach it, and when they jumped us in the first quarter, I think, it's hard to find that motivation to push to the end.
"I did think we finished off the game well, that fourth quarter was impressive for us, but, like I said, we move on pretty quickly and set our sights on Sunday."
On Dimboola's better players, Moore said Simon Hobbs was the standout.
"It's been great to have him back in the side, coming off that half back line, and his ability to be able to read the ball is impressive, but also play his role on his man," he said.
"So he had a good game and a big impact.
"Ashley Clugston had a good game, turning back the clock off the half back line as obviously the ball was down there a bit, but I think his ability to read that play was good.
"Jackson Oneill I thought had a good game, Benny Miller did what he needed to do, and Jack Landt stood up in moments as well."
