Sport
7 April, 2026
Maldon takes the Good Friday chocolates
A perfect half-dozen from Bailey Brown has allowed Maldon to open their 2026 winning account with a slice of Good Friday delight, defeating Dunolly by 31 points.
After an evenly matched first half, the Eagles held a narrow advantage midway through the third quarter. That was until Brown booted three quickfire goals to end the term, building a lead the Bombers never relinquished.
Before the seniors contest kicked off, players, officials and supporters observed a minute’s silence in memory of Dunolly club legends Darren “Bob” Freemantle and Caryl McFadden.
Despite Maldon dominating the early stages with five inside 50s to one in the opening five minutes, it was Dunolly who kicked the first two goals with set shots from Mitchell Goodwin and Kyle McClellan.
An excellent pick-up and swing onto the left boot by Noah Thompson gave the Bombers their first goal 12 minutes into the term, but Dunolly maintained their early advantage, with neither team splitting the big sticks for the remainder of the quarter.
Maldon’s Callum Buchanan and Dunolly’s Jay McDonald were standouts in defence early.
While Buchanan made several key intercept marks in the contest, McDonald was a reliable ball user in the backline, beginning several Dunolly counterattacks that helped the visitors take a four-point lead into quarter-time.
It didn’t take long for the Eagles to hit the scoreboard in the second quarter, as Cody Schepers made the most of a clever one-two from McDonald and Joel Fisher with a brilliant kick right on the boundary that pushed their advantage to double digits.
That commenced a frantic 11 minutes of football that pinballed around Bill Woodfull Reserve, with the two teams combining for five goals as the Eagles stayed ahead.
Despite their surge of second-quarter goals, the Eagles were wasteful with their scoring opportunities late in the half.
Starting with a Brown soccer from a ruck contest in the goal square, he and Harrison Tulloch kicked three unanswered goals for Maldon, allowing them to snatch a three-point lead just before half time.
After Thompson finished a well-worked passage of play by Maldon to kick the first goal of the second half, Dunolly managed to retake the lead seven minutes into the third, thanks to conversions from Schepers and Goodwin.
With three goals to his name in the first half, Brown wasn’t done causing havoc in Maldon’s forward 50, adding another trifecta in the third quarter to give Maldon a 22-point cushion heading into the final term.
An early Darcy Kelly major to begin the fourth quarter proved to be the dagger for Maldon, as their defence led by Matthew Gray, Isaiah Hartley and Xavior Noy didn’t concede a goal until the 15-minute mark of the term.
Ash Humphrey impressed in the 95-64 win, named among Maldon’s best players alongside the returning Tadgh Cananzi, midfield maestro Damian Wust, goal-kicking machine Brown, Kane Harris and Ethan Freemantle.
With a team-high four goals, Goodwin was listed in Dunolly’s best players along with Ryan Burt, who battled well in the ruck against Maldon’s platoon, and Robert Miller, who shone in the middle for the Eagles. McDonald, Bailey Morton and Mathew Bradley were also named among the best players for the visitors.