Tigers in fine style with big win

It was a glorious day at Rea Park Oval on Saturday for the Tigers Football Club as it celebrated the centenary celebration of the Jardee Football Club (1918) and its 1978 premiership reunion in grand style by eclipsing Southerners to the tune of 131 points.

Cutting the banner as they entered the arena adorned in the Jardee colours of green and gold, the Tigers certainly made an impressive sight and that fact did not stop there as they took all before them on the auspicious occasion to romp to a 26.10 (166) to 5.5 (35) win over a determined yet undermanned Souths outfit.

The big crowd on hand to enjoy the celebrations took great delight as Tigers gained the initiative from the get-go and through some swift, clean ball movement, raced forward to fly through five first-quarter majors.

Dan Ward and Shaun Hodgson gave the home side the drive forward and in tandem with Ryan Marsh and Nathan Ward, they had Souths struggling to contain the scoreboard damage.

To Souths’ credit, particularly their defensive zone, they did enjoy some positive passages with Matt Fox, Viv Blurton, Brett Dobson and Dean Collins all contributing, albeit in the face of a rampaging Tigers outfit.

Despite these spirited efforts, Souths simply could not contain the Tigers’ run out of defence and with some pinpoint ball delivery, the home side hit up key forwards Jeff Smith and Lyndon Muir to take a 63-point lead at the break.

Although they maintained their determination, Souths could match the Tigers onslaught with Shaun Hodgson, Jethro Namnik, Kurt Donohoe, Rob Dawson and Tim Ioannou producing fine performances.

To further delight the crowd, forward maestro Muir sparked up forward with a nine-goal return for the game while Dan and Nathan Ward delivered some old fashioned hard clash football.