Port Malmö 22.15 (147) def. Helsingborg 2.5 (17)
The Maulers returned from the mid-season break in fine fettle trouncing the lowly Sainters by a percentage-boosting 130 points. A tuesday night game at Limhamnsfältet provided the teams with ideal conditions for football. Mild, wind-still, clear. Indeed, the conditons could not have been further from the traditional Saturday six-goal breeze!
Port Malmö, in an attempt to rein in their Aussie credit average, decided to play just the two of our antipodean friends. There is always a risk that leaving some of your best players out could backfire but a devastating first quarter made sure an upset was never on the cards. Port blew the Saints off the park back-line with what captain Ward likes to term ‘the shock-and-awe approach’. With Helsingborg seemingly still on holiday Malmö booted an impressive 10.2 for the first quarter with Verngren, one of the best all day, and McMahan doing much of the damage. By the time the Saints registered in the ‘G’ column, the Maulers were out of site. The on-ball trio of Ward, McClaer and Scotford won the majority of possession and anything they didn’t was dealt with brilliantly the all-Irish half-back line who prompted so much of Malmö’s good attacking play with strong running, slick hand-balling and excellent support play.
Helsingborg returned after the first break with more purpose and competed well for much of the second quarter. Full-back Rasmussen, Helsingborgs best on the night, started to win more contests and with the help of his back-line colleagues they halved the number of scoring shots allowed in the first quarter. Port were accurate with their shots, however, and were able to stretch out the lead to 74 points at the main interval. Once again the Maulers defence held firm allowing the Sainters a mere 1.1 for the term.
The third saw Malmö’s accuracy desert them with 7 behinds being kicked to just 4 majors. It did, nevertheless, provide one of the most pleasing goals of the night with full-forward Arnstrup, after marking under pressure from three Saints, laying off a delightful handball to the on-rushing Lynch who slotted home for the goal his all-round game deserved. On debut in DAFL the latest Irish recruit provided options al evening with intelligent running and only a slight lack of composure in front of goal cost him a bagful!
With the game over, the fourth quarter followed the same pattern as the previous two with Port dominating throughout. McClaer grabbed a couple, as did the latest Port Malmö pappa Ward to round off another Best on Ground performance in honour of baby Milla!
So on to Saturday when the teams meet again in what promises to be a closer affair. Port are rarely as strong on their travels as they are at Limhamn and the Saints will welcome back a few of their Aussie contingent so do not bank on another thrashing. The Helsingborg boys will be determined to show they are a better football team than the last result suggests.
Port Malmö best: Ward, Verngren, Mårtensson, Lynch, O’Riordan
Match details can be found here
Good work boys