THE Victorian Men’s and Mixed M-League returned on Wednesday night, with plenty of huge results playing out across the opening round of Men’s Premier Division action. Across a range of results, we run through our feature match with Ariels sitting out the first round with a bye.

The closest match of the night played out between City Heat and Netblacks, with the Netblacks claiming a seven-goal victory, 63-56. It was the Heat that got off to the stronger start, with the combination of Matt Doyle and David Chisholm working hard to fire at the post, while Jake Noonan and Joel Gosbell provided great midcourt options. James Matthews appeared to have the upper hand over Netblacks goal shooter Junior Levi for the most part as Simon Cartwright worked to negate Kai Suzuki-McGauran in goal attack.

An excellent second and third quarter from the Netblacks was exactly what the doctor ordered however, with Jake Schuster‘s impact in goal keeper becoming very apparent as the match went on. Despite the shared load to post at the Heat front-end, it was the Netblacks that remained firmly in control as the they went into the final change with a seven-goal buffer. A closer final quarter was credit to a hefty defensive effort from the Heat, as Noonan and Deepak Patu fought it out in the centre, while Ronan Pring put in the hard yards to deny Cameron Powell prime position on circle edge. But despite a tighter final quarter, the defensive workrate from the Netblacks was consistent all game as Schuster and Jacob Mudie retained control to keep the Netblacks ahead and finish the match with the six-goal victory.

With 33 goals to his name in the second and third terms alone, Levi held his own against Matthews in a physical battle, finishing with 54 goals to his name. Suzuki-McGauran and Brodie McLeish shared the remainder of the load. For the Heat, it was a shared effort with Chisholm finishing with 33 goals, while Doyle finished with 21 to his name.

In other M-League men’s Round 1 matches, it was Southern Seahawks and St Therese that also got wins on the board, with the Seahawks claiming a 10-goal victory over DDNA, while the Saints outplayed the Sirens despite a slow start to come away with a 20-goal margin. Seahawks defender Tim Malmo was a force to be reckoned with, while Saints midcourt duo Riley Richardson and Guy Keane were pivotal through the centre court.

R1 RESULTS:

DDNA (39) def. by Seahawks (49)
City Heat (56) def. by Netblacks (63)
St Therese (59) def. Sirens (39)

Ariels – BYE

R1 Mixed results

READ>> VIC M-League Premier Men’s and Mixed 2021/22: Team lists