Panthers blitz young Lions

Carey Park made it four wins in a row when it comfortably accounted for a tenacious Harvey-Brunswick-Leschenault 20.24 (144) to 10.4 (64) at Kelly Park on Sunday.

Panthers captain Matt Martin had the chance to goal inside thirty seconds as ruckman Michael Robinson hit the ball straight to Brayden Lawler who burst out of the centre and drove it to a leading Martin.

He missed but made up for it by booting six of the nine goals the Panthers had by half-time and added another couple in the second half.

Lawler went on to be a thorn in the Lions’ side all day with his strong play all around the ground, vying with David Roche and Viv Blurton for best on ground.

Blurton won plenty of possessions in the middle and capped off his good game with four great goals under pressure.

The rebuilding Lions welcomed back David Newman from overseas and he took just under two minutes to show he had lost none of his kicking skills when he goaled from where the 50m arc meets the boundary at left half-forward.

He continued to win possessions and, along with John Klumpp, provided valuable experience, showing enough to indicate that with selective recruiting the Lions could easily rise up the ladder in 2015.

Although the Panthers steadily increased their lead over the four quarters the Lions were able to provide Ashley Thornton with enough opportunities to score five of their goals in succession in the middle quarters.

HBL could not find other scoring options but had a number of players around the ground who did well to keep a competitive edge on the game.

Josh Quinn, Logan Hughes and Zac Piper in particular won plenty of the ball while the more experienced players in Travis Obal, Simon Hallsworth, Thornton and brother Bryce helped prevent the Panthers from kicking a bigger score.

Scoreboard

Carey Park 4.2 9.10 13.18 20.24 144 def Harv-Bruns-Lesch 2.1 5.3 8.3 10.4 64

Goals: PANTHERS – M. Martin 8, V. Blurton 4, J. Aitken 2, D. Roche, R. Richardson, J. Sebire, T. Wells, B.

Lawler, C. Garlett. LIONS – A. Thornton 5, Z. Piper, B. Stemp, B. Strano, D. Newman, K. Aitken. Best:

PANTHERS – D. Roche, V. Blurton, B. Lawler, M. Martin, J. Aitken, M. Robinson. LIONS – J. Quinn, L.

Hughes, Z. Piper, A. Thornton, S. Hallsworth, B. Thornton.

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