Old Xaverians battled it out for a 92 point victory over St Bede's/Mentone Tigers at Toorak Park today, extending its home superiority over the Seasiders and staying on track for a run at the finals.

In windy conditions, the Red 'n' Blacks kicked away to an early lead, fired by some strong early form from Matt Margin, who had been recalled to the team after missing last week's game with injury.

The Tigers provided plenty of opposition, but rarely posed a threat to the Xaverian dominance. The Red 'n' Blacks converted some basic skill errors into goals and went to the half time break having won both quarters by four goals to one.

As it transpired, that's all the goals that the Claret and Stout would concede for the afternoon, while booting another seven themselves in the second half. Once again, Xavs over-used the football, but they had so much of it, perhaps an extra few dozen hand-passes can be forgiven.

The Xavs' braintrust will be encouraged again with the spread of goal scorers and the continued good form of the younger players in the team. Matt Margin's fine return earned a gold star too.

So the X Men go to the final bye half-a-game behind fourth-placed De La Salle with four to play. Uni Blues are in third spot, with a game plus percentage break on Xavs.

The run home looks like this:

Xavs: v OMs, @Trinity, @ Uni Blacks, v Collegians

De La Salle: v Trinity, @ Collegians, v OMs, @ Uni Blues

Uni Blues: @SBMT, v St Kevin's, @ Beaumaris, v De La Salle.

Dropping a game from here on is not an option.

Old Xaverians                          4.5-29    8.7-55    11.13-79    15.20-110

St Bedes / Mentone Tigers       1.0-6     2.2-14      2.3-15         2.6-18

Goal Kickers: M. Margin 5, T. Richards 2, N. Wynne, H. Troiani, C. Johnston, D. Symeopoulos, M. Handley, S. Ralph, J. Midgley , T. Golds
Best Players: M. Margin, C. Margin, M. Handley, N. Wynne, T. Gilbert, L. Tiernan

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