Hounds to the Ball

Leading the news this week is the result for the SKOB Dogs in Thirds Div 3, as the unlikely lads advanced to the Grand Final with a resounding win over Caulfield in the Prelim on Saturday. At TH King for Life Members Day we had back to back 100 point wins as SKOB Seniors and Reserves both romped against an inexperienced De La outfit. The Saints Gold also saluted by over a ton with an emphatic 108 point win against Willy CY's. The Saints Blue were big winners too in their final game for the season. Balancing out these big wins were two heartbreaking losses. Firstly, the Under 19 2s went down to a kick after the siren (albeit from the goal line after a 50m penalty was awarded as the bell rang) then on Sunday, the Stingers went under in a thriller at Elsternwick Park to Old Trinity in their Preliminary Final. Our Under 19 Premier team also tasted defeat for the first time in a while, ending up on the wrong side of the ledger in an entertaining game against Uni Blues. All up it was 5 from 8 on yet another superb weekend for football fans.

All Roads lead to Major Town

The SKOB Seniors cruised to a big win over De La at TH King in the main game on Saturday. With a forward line missing Kerr, Barnett and Darmody, any concerns that the Seniors would struggle to rack up a score were immediately dismissed, as Coach Lynch found multiple avenues to majors, with no less than 5 players hitting the scoreboard at least three times with another couple of multi snag contributors. With some great "ins" this week, none more so anticipated than the return of inspirational captain Tom Jok. The skipper was straight into the action with a short pass to Critchley in the first minute of play that resulted in a goal (welcome back!). When Adduci fed the returning Mansfield on 6 mins and moments later Jack Mahony - against his dad’s old side - booting the third, any thought of an upset from the local rivals were put to bed. To their credit, De La never gave in all day and showed plenty in some passages of good play, but SKOB had all the answers - and all the avenues to goal - and as the visitors tired, the home team was able to pile up the points late.

Sam Critchley lead the long list of goal kickers with 4, whilst Ollie Gill, Jack Mahony, Eliot Mahoney and Ben Mansfield all got three and Pfeiffer and Winter managed multiple strikes too, giving SKOB so many scoring options. Better players on the day were Jack Mahony, Tom Ferguson, Sam Critchley, Luke Winter, Andrew Mathieson and Tom Jok

Ressies go large - again

The Reserves got the day back on track after the early morning heartache in the Under 19s. Coach Cloughs lads maintained their streak with their fourth win in a row - the average margin of 105 points highlighting a bit of a chasm in the competition - to guarantee themselves a top two finish with one round left to play. Twelve goals to zip in the second half told the tale, whilst Tom Williams had a bit of a day out with 7 major Toms, enjoying plenty of supply thanks to the likes of Hamish Reimers, Xavier Duke, Tom Davidson, Conor Lynch and Luke Mazzeo. Good to see Angus Hart back on the park after an extended layoff.

Nine is fine at Hannah Time

For the second time this season, Hannah Smith filled her boots with 9 snags at Old Rigret as the Saints Gold dined out on the Willy CYs under sunny skies at the Corral. The Saints have a bye next weekend and can't improve their third position before season's end, but they tuned up in the best way possible with a big win over the CYs who had shocked them earlier this year. There would be no repeat of that performance with the Saints rolling out some big guns against their under strength opponents. Bree Doyle, Sarah Cameron, Hannah Smith, Bella Stutt, Aly Hynes and Kate Stanton were all stars for Coach Tommy's team as they take a breather next week and sharpen up for another big finals campaign.

It's all over now baby Blues

The siren has sounded on the Saints Blues season with a final round bye next weekend putting an early end on 2025. The Blues finished in the best way possible with a solid win over Willy CYs at Old Rigret. Although there won't be finals for the Blues, they have shown tremendous improvement this season and things bode well for the team in 2026. For Coach Kim, the better players were Molly Howard, Remi Fiorentini, Rachael Wilson, Holly Cook, Steph Chong and Teagan Berkowitz

Tess Debuts with Roos

Huge news in the Saints world with our very own Tessa Boyd making her AFLW debut with North Melbourne Kanagaroos on the weekend. A huge group of Saints fans went down to support Tess who became the first Saint to make it into the big time. A Premiership player from 2022 and a member of the Team of the Decade, Tess still trains when she can with the Saints and was thrilled to have such a big contingent of fans in her corner. The Roos had a big win and Tess picked up 16 touches in a pretty handy debut. We wish Tess all the best for the future and can't help but think what Coach Tommy might say - "How good's footy?"

Hounds are off to the Dance

A huge win in the end was quite the surprise for the SKOB Dogs as they completely dominated Caulfield Grammarians who were hosting the Prelim Final on their home deck. SuperCoach Sam Doyle took his lads out to Bouys Pizza following their loss to Caulfield in the last round of the season, and whatever they put on those Capricciosas seems to have done the trick, as the SKOB Dogs have been flying ever since and are now in the Grand Final next weekend against St Bedes. After a tight first term, the hounds went berserk in the second quarter and were never troubled as they cruised to an 84 point win. Big Bad Ben Griffen booted 3, as did Flyin' Harry Ryan, and even Captain Billy Branagan chimed in for a couple of majors that set the socials alight as the Dogs booked their ticket to the dance. Will Batchelor, Gus Simpfendorfer, Harry Ryan, Roshan Fernandes, Andrew Smale and Oli Garlick were all dominant in a great team performance.

Ouch....this one is really gonna Sting

More heartache for SKOB on Sunday when the Stingers went down in an absolute thriller at Elsternwick Park in the Preliminary Final against Old Trinity. A rematch with Old Xavs will

have to wait another season as the Stingers just couldn't get over the line despite having all the play in their forward half late in the game. It was a typical tight finals match in the first half with goals an absolute premium. As the game opened up in the third the Stingers managed to wrestle some ascendancy and hit the front after Anthony Parente made a great intercept to draw the free, SKOB took the advantage and Julian Chaffey kicked a miracle dribbling goal. That was the one they needed! Then immediately from the centre bounce clearance Lachy Haig drilled a magnificent running goal from 50m. The Stingers had hit the front! SKOB gave back the lead before the final change but early in the last Tom Briggs took a big clunk and converted to put the Stingers back in front. The ball went end to end and after a couple of near misses, Trinity goaled to put their noses in front. SKOB immediately attacked but could only manage behinds and the T's held on to win by 2 points. For the Stingers Lachie Haig, Julian Chaffey, Oliver Phillips, Cooper Lanyon, Anthony Parente and Tom Briggs were the better players in a great team effort that only just came up short.

Premier lads let one slip

The under 19 Premier team loosened their grip on the minor premiership ever so slightly with a tight loss to Uni Blues at JJ Holland Park. After a bright start, SKOB fell behind in the middle two terms and left themselves too much to do in the last quarter - kicking 2.6 in the final term probably didn't help the cause either. The defeat was no great surprise given that the Blues have shown some good form of late and it might just help to sharpen up the Premier Boys as they approach September. For Coach Greeny, Noah Spiteri, Tom Bromhead, Matthew Redenbach, Ged Saunders, Liam Edwards and Aiden McGrath were all fine contributors.

19 2's oh so close...

It was a heart wrenching finish in the Under 19 2's when, after a see sawing battle that had great swings of momentum and edge of your seat excitement, an infringement on the mark saw a 50m penalty applied as the siren sounded. De La kicked the goal from the square to snatch back the lead after the bell and go on to play next week. Curtains for the 19 2s who were gallant throughout and have enjoyed a fantastic season.

Best for Coach Joey's boys were Francis Mancini, Jacob McMillan, Liam Cornish, Luke Arthur, Fred Walshe, Jacob Choi