Football: Hawks a class above Harvey

Augusta-Margaret River shook off a determined Harvey Bulls to record a 95-point victory on an emotional day at Gloucester Park on Sunday.

Tim Noakes kicked 10 goals to be the Belt Up player of the match, while Cody Miller and Mitch Gerrans were brilliant in the 24.15 (159) to 10.4 (64) win.

Captain David Faulkner led from the front for the Bulls, while Aaron Jetta was outstanding with five goals.

The Hawks were rattled during the week by the deaths of star Hayward Medallist Jeremy Humm’s mother and the mother of club legend and dual Hayward Medallist Ross Tyson.

AMR was in control from the outset, with Noakes booting the first, but kicked a wasteful 4.7 as a goal after the siren to impressive youngster Kieren Germs kept the margin to seven at quarter time.

Harvey got within a point when Jetta kicked his third early in the second, but AMR found its radar with 7.0 to 3.0 as Gerrans added two majors, Cody Enders showed class to kick one and set up another and Aaron Baker won plenty of the footy.

Jetta joined Noakes on four with the last kick of the half to keep his team within 31 points, but the writing was on the wall.

The spearheads traded their fifth goals early in the third, but the Bulls’ resistance was starting to wilt as AMR kicked 4.5 to a single reply from Faulkner, who was in everything in a huge captain’s performance for Harvey.

The Bulls made one last rally early in the final term and couldn’t be accused of wasting opportunities, with only the last of their four behinds not being rushed, but Gerrans’ third opened the floodgates and the Hawks had the last nine scoring shots, with Noakes kicking three in the last three minutes to blow the margin out to 95 – not a true reflection of the visitors’ efforts.

The weight of numbers all day told the ultimate story as AMR kicked 74.51 across the three games to Harvey’s 17.13.

The Hawks were without Humm, Ben Noakes (ankle) and Ben Gerrans (suspended), but Harvey was also without key players, with Greg Sanders (work), Chris Rodgers and Brett Lofthouse (injured) all missing.

This weekend the Hawks take on reigning premiers, and arch-rivals Busselton under lights at Sir Stewart Bovell Park on Saturday night.

The Bulls, who are still searching for their first victory of the season take on a resurgent Donnbyrook team at VC Mitchell Park.

The Dons, who began 2013 with back-to-back victories, have since crashed to three consecutive losses.

Scoreboard

Aug-Marg River 4.7 11.7 17.12 24.15 159 def Harvey Bulls 4.0 7.0 10.1 10.4 64

Goals:

AMR – T. Noakes 10, M. Gerrans 3, B. Nairn, J. Morgan 2, J. Cassidy, D. Atkinson, C. Enders, J. Simmonds, C. Miller, T. Oliver, C. Alexander.

HARVEY BULLS – A. Jetta 5, N. Carney, K. Germs, D. Davis, D. Faulkner, N. Fucile.

Best:

AMR – T. Noakes, C. Miller, M. Gerrans, J. Cassidy, A. Baker, C. Enders.

HARVEY BULLS – D. Faulkner, A. Jetta, K. Germs, M. Robson, B. Jetta, N. Carney