WESTERN Eagles coach Marc Carson says undisciplined acts might have cost his team victory against Irrewarra-Beeac.

Officials reported and sent Eagles James Beasley and Nic Boyd from the field in separate incidents during the second term of their 11.4 (70) to 12.13 (85) loss at Irrewillipe.

The incidents left the Eagles two men down and the Bombers capitalised, booting 5.5 to 0.1 to steal the lead for the remainder of the match.

“It was definitely a winnable match, we probably had 15 minutes of bad footy in the second quarter when we had two blokes sent off and they kicked five goals,” Eagles coach Marc Carson said.

“We’ve spoken to those boys and addressed it, but if you look at the scoreboard, we lost by 15 points so if you take away those five goals we might have won our first game for the season so it’s disappointing,” he said.

“We can’t be happy with 15-point losses whilst it was a big improvement on the week before, we know we’re close and not far away from our first win.”

The Eagles played without injured skipper Sam McGuane which made the narrow loss more impressive, with Nathan McNamara, Matt Kenny and former Bomber Dillyn Fedley stepping up in his absence.

“Apart from that second quarter we competed all day,” Carson said.

“Everything we worked on; our decision making, our run and carry was good and we had a few guys playing in positions they hadn’t played in all year,” he said.

Irrewarra-Beeac coach Khan Beckett said his team was happy to claim the four points but said it failed to capitalise on opportunities in front of goal.

The Bombers finished with 10 more scoring shots than the Eagles.

“Whether you win by 10 goals or one goal, you’ll always take the four points,” he said.

“Last year we did need percentage to make finals though, so you do keep it in the back of your mind a bit, we had plenty of scoring opportunities we just didn’t capitalise so we didn’t take too much out of the game.”

Troy Keating, Jaden Angus and Nigel Plant were the Bombers’ best.

Imperials show strength in convincing win

A RECRUIT and a favourite son steered Colac Imperials to a convincing victory against Otway Districts.

Kyle Roberts, who crossed from Colac Tigers pre-season, and captain Steve Parker played leading hands as the Cats upstaged the Demons 14.10 (94) to 6.7 (43) at Gellibrand.

Roberts had the football “on a string” while collecting close to 40 touches while Parker was back to his physical best after missing last weekend with injury.

Their performances helped turn what appeared a close game into a one-sided affair.

Assistant coach Andrew Scott and midfielder Tyson Finnigan were also prominent in a team which had 10 individual goal kickers.

Tigers’ first win for new coach ends Hawks’ fairytale

SIMPSON has recorded its first win under new coach Jason Cartwright and ended Apollo Bay’s fairytale start to season 2012.

The Hawks stuck with last year’s preliminary finalists hoping to extend their unbeaten streak to four, but the Tigers hit their straps in the second half en route to a 14.10 (94) to 6.8 (44) victory.

Simpson, which had 10 goal kickers for the day, booted nine goals to one to get its first win in front of its home crowd.

“The first few games were pretty tough against some good opposition but we were pretty excited to get the first win,” Tigers assistant coach Adam Courtney said.

“It was good for our new players and good for Jase to get the win and we’ll take a bit of confidence out of it,” he said.

Ruckman returns and Lorne celebrates

LORNE’S Lee Hollmer has made a successful return to the field to help his team claim its third major scalp of the season.

The Dolphins faced a daunting run in the opening five weeks with matches against all four of last year’s other finalists – their latest a 13.7 (85) to 6.8 (44) win against Birregurra.

But the coastal club is in top form and sits second after round five with their only loss coming at the hands of Forrest.

“We’re getting closer to being full strength, we’ve still got our captain Shane Trickey to come in but we’re putting in some good team efforts, we found it hard to distinguish our best players at the weekend,” Lorne coach Drew Steven said.

“I don’t think Birre had the greatest day, I know they’re a class act and they’re in a rebuilding phase after last year but I think our backline was really good and made it hard for their forwards,” he said.

Swans surge but fall short of Lions

A GALLANT Alvie has fallen six points short of upstaging flag favourite Forrest in the latest sign Colac district football is as close as ever.

The young Swans, widely tipped to feature in the bottom half of the ladder, kicked 3.4 to 0.1 in the final term at Forrest Recreation Reserve to go down fighting 11.6 (72) to 11.12 (78).

Goals to Swans Chris Hickey and Spencer Williamson had cut the three-quarter time margin from 27 points to 12 and a come-from-behind win was on the cards.

But despite having the bulk of the play, Alvie couldn’t break through the defence as often as required, leaving the Lions the only unbeaten side this season.

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