The Spartans on top of the ladder met the second on the ladder team Therry Penola in what could be described as the match of the round. The match was played on quite a good surface considering Friday night’s drenching. It was the visitors who took the game by the scruff of the neck early on until the Spartans brought their running game to play. It was a tight first quarter but two late goals to the Spartans saw them in front by 14 points at the first change.

In the second quarter, the Spartans took the initiative early and worked their hand ball and overlap game to break the opposition lines scoring seven goals to one to be 54 up at half time. It looked like it was going to become another Hawthorn footy whitewash, but Therry Penola players had other ideas for the second half.

The third quarter was all about the opposition who outscored the Spartans four goals to one for the quarter as the Spartans struggled to find form, however the team steadied towards the bottom half of the quarter and returned the pressure. Even after the opposition threw everything at them, the Spartans were still 7 goals up going into the final break.

Finding form and accuracy in front of goal the Hawthorn Spartans unleashed a barrage of inside 50’s and made every one count kicking 5 goals 2 behinds to Therry Penola’s 1.1., running out comfortable victors by 70 points and more important two games clear on top of the ladder.

Final Scores: HAFC: 17.24.126 Def. Therry Penola: 8.8.56
Goal kickers: A. Mitropoulos (6), T. Demetriou (2), G. Dellaportas (2), J.Bartzis (2),P. Pipertzis (1), C.Terzoglou (1), J.Farah (1),C. Seely (1), M.Wawrzynczak(1) Best Players: M. Murray, C. Terzoglou, A. Hachem, A. Mitropoulos, J. Farah, A. Stavridis and A. Demetriou

The Spartans win was soured by a number of injuries, one serious enough in the final quarter to stop the game for 5 minutes, while Hawthorn’s Simon, who was tackled hard lay motionless on the ground. He was eventually revived by trainers and taken off with a shoulder injury that could prove to be season ending for the midfielder.

On Saturday, the Spartans home at the Rathmines Road Oval (Melway Ref: 45 G10) take on bottom half of the ladder side, Kew at 11.40 am.