LAVINGTON broke away in the second half to down North Albury by 33 points at Lavington Oval on Saturday to remain the biggest threat to Ovens and Murray reigning premier Albury.
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From a purist viewpoint, the sooner the first half can be erased from the memory bank the better as both teams managed just three goals between them including a goal-less second term.
The only memorable moment was a brilliant running goal from Myles Aalbers, which pushed the Panthers lead out to 10 points at the first change.
Defences of both teams were right on top with Hunter Lloyd matching up on former Hopper Adam Prior, who was coming a season-high 10 goal haul last round, and North Albury struggling to pick its way through the Lavington backline led by coach James Saker, Nick Meredith and youngster Chris Annett.
Lavington took the upperhand early in the third term when key forwards Justin Koschitzke and Andrew Dess converted from close range off the back of some quality midfield supply from Matt Sharp.
Ryan Polkinghorne pulled one back for the Hoppers, who suffered a blow soon after when Kylin Morey exited the game with a collarbone injury courtesy of a bump from Adam Butler.
A 50-metre penalty gifted another goal to Koschitzke, who finished as the most productive forward on the ground with three.
The Hoppers were wasteful in front of goal and had their chances to be closer than 20 points at the final change.
The Panthers outscored the Hoppers in the final term 4.2 to 2.0 with Tom Hargreave helping put the finishing touches to the victory with two goals in the last quarter.
Lavington has defied a long injury list to be sitting second on the ladder with only two losses, but the challenges keep coming with Wodonga Raiders on the rebound round and then Albury.
Saker said the Panthers were below their best.
“We just took too to long to adjust to the North Albury pressure,” he said.
“We did tinker with a few things with the main ingredient being a change in attitude.
“We had a few good contributors, but most were around par.”
North Albury coach Jason Akermanis said his team wasted its opportunities.
“Our forward line needs to work better because we missed easy goals,” he said.
“The defence was good, but the offence wasn’t there.
“Turnovers have been the reason we’ve lost games and we kicked to their spare (player) too many times."
