A blistering seven-goal-to-one opening term was exactly what Lamont had hoped for before his side’s Goulburn Valley League round seven outing and it was Nield who was the fore.
Last year’s competition leading goal-kicker snagged seven majors and silenced his critics as he moved into second spot on the leaderboard he won in 2022.
Nield booted four goals and was involved in four scoring opportunities as the Cats got the early jump on the home side.
And it all began at the coalface.
Mooroopna went into the contest with a plan to get on top around the stoppages and Lamont’s charges did exactly that to win clearances (11-8), contested possessions (38-28) and total ground ball gets (29-15) in the first term.
“That was part of our game plan before the match,” Lamont said.
“We noticed that they have started well and that game against United they kicked eight goals, so it was part of our focus to really get on top early and not allow them to get their tails up.
“They have a strong midfield and we have a lot of respect for players like Marchbank, Martiniello and Mennen. We knew we had to get on top there, or at least not get smacked, because that’s where it starts. We had to really nullify them and I was very pleased to see us execute that plan.”
Lamont has his outfit’s forward line purring along and in that dominate first term the Cats went at 81 per cent scoring efficiency.
Former junior and Footscray talent Nathan Drummond had 18 disposals in his return from a broken finger, while defender Ben Hicks and on-baller Jack Hunt rounded out the better players.
Tom Bennett, Jayden Guppy and David Mennen were the standouts for Benalla.
Lamont was full of praise for his club’s prized forward in the wash-up of a win that takes his side to a 5-2 record.
“What is more interesting for me was that after the last game when Jackson kicked 10 I sat down with Chris and we went over his game. He had 19 involvements which is just incredible for a full-forward,” he said.
“I’m really pleased with his team-first orientation. I thought he worked really hard, his hands were clean and he had a really positive game.”
