At Jack Edwards Reserve on Friday night, Melbourne Knight's Josh Groenewald was the hero for the visitors as they defeated the Oakleigh Cannons 1-0 to open Round Three. For the second week in a row the Cannons have lost at home and the fact that they had a man advantage for almost an hour is not going to make the loss any hard easier to take.

 

Green Gully maintained their position at the top of the table in a hard fought clash with early season surprise packets, Dandenong Thunder on Saturday afternoon. The scoring opportunities were few and far between as the match ended 0-0. The result wasn't without its cost for the home side as Green Gully suffered yet another injury setback as influential midfielder Andy Vargas went off injured after only twenty-five minutes.

 

In Saturday's other clash, the Richmond Eagles travelled to Paisley Park to take on defending champions, Altona Magic. With concerns over whether the floodlights would last the distance the match was moved to an earlier kick off to avoid any repeat of the power disruption that saw the end of Altona's last clash against Preston.

 

In what was a sometimes fiery clash, neither team could find the back of the net although it wasn't through lack of trying as the match ended in a goalless draw. Peter Zois was again the standout in goals for Richmond as he made a number of crucial saves in the closing moments of the match to deny Altona.

 

Sunday saw Hume City kick start their 2009 season with a convincing 3-0 win over the struggling Whittlesea Zebras in front of a home crowd at Broadmeadows Valley Park. Goals to Andy Vlahos, Zoran Petrevski and Caner Ucarli condemned the Zebras to a third consecutive defeat and the foot of the VPL table.

 

South Melbourne also opened their 2009 account on Sunday in convincing style with a 7-1 thrashing of arch rivals Preston at BT Connor Reserve. Preston started of the match on the right note with a goal in the opening minutes as Robert Dolevski capitalised on some confusion amongst the South defence. However that was to be as good as it got for the home side as diminutive South Melbourne midfielder, Goran Zoric found the back of the net an amazing four times in the rout. Joining him on the scoresheet were Steven O'Dor, Joseph Yousseff and Danni Radojicic.

 

The round concluded on Monday night with Heidelberg United hosting the Sunshine Georgies at the Olympic Village with both teams coming off important wins the week before. For most of the match, Heidelberg looked the more likely to score and finally broke through in the 74th minute as Osagie Ederaro found the back of the net after Sunshine failed to clear the area after a scrappy Heidelberg corner.