Five goals from Luke Humphries and a four-quarter effort helped Halls Head move into fourth on the ladder with an emphatic victory over the Mandurah Mustangs on Sunday afternoon.
Humphries led the way in the scoring column but it was strong contributions from all 22 players that paved the Lightning’s path to a 19.18 (132) to 11.9 (75) victory at Hot Klobba Stadium.
Battling a strong headwind in the opening term did little to derail the home side, as they piled on five goals against the breeze to kick start the game.
A spirited Mustangs outfit wasn’t far behind with four majors of their own seeing them down just four points at the first change, but Halls Head took over in the second term.
A seven-goal blitz saw the Lightning break the game open, streaming away from a Mustangs side that found themselves down 32 points at half time despite having booted three goals in the second term.
Mandurah responded coming out of half time, piling on a further four goals to keep their scoring rate healthy.
But Halls Head continued to rebound off half back with poise, absorbing Mandurah’s assault and maintaining their five-goal buffer at the final change.
It was all Lightning from there, as they put Mandurah to the sword in the fourth term to cap off the 57-point victory.
Halls Head coach Adam Boone was rapt with his side’s effort across the four quarters.
“It’s the first time we’ve played four good quarters all year,” he said.
“We let South Mandurah back into the game in round one and managed to escape with a win, and we might have beaten Baldivis last week if we didn’t cough it up late in the game, so to see the boys respond and play four full quarters is really pleasing for us.”
Boone was full of praise for half back Joel Evans, who sparked a number of the side’s plays in a stellar performance.
“Joel was great rebounding the ball off half back and he followed up a lot of his work to get the extra handball and keep the passage alive,” he said.
“That’s exactly what you want out of that position so we were really happy with his game.”
The Lightning now sit in fourth with a 3-2 record through five games, behind Rockingham and Pinjarra only on percentage.
Both of their losses have come against premiership contenders in Pinjarra and Baldivis, and they are yet to cough up 100 points in a game.
They will look to keep that form alive when they take on Centrals in Mundijong this coming week, while Mandurah will square off with the unbeaten Baldivis.
Justin Rake
Sports journalist for the Mandurah Mail, Australian Community Media, Fairfax Media.
Sports journalist for the Mandurah Mail, Australian Community Media, Fairfax Media.
