by Jim Gordon
In a fitting end to the 2010 Mallee Football League season, the Beulah Blues won a hard fought Grand Final over Ouyen United by 26 points at Sea Lake on Saturday.
Undefeated all year, the Blues were on top for key parts of a match in which they proved to be too big and too strong for a valiant Ouyen United.
Beulah did not have it all their own way. At times it looked like the Demons were going to match it with the Blues. Ouyen United finished the first quarter ahead and in the third, they outscored the Blues four goals to two to set up a tantalising last quarter.
In the final stanza Beulah steadied and choked the life out of United by playing close and not giving the Demons any room to move the ball around and left little space in the Ouyen United forward line in which the Demon forwards could create leads.
Scott Smith was an inspiration for the Blues. In his three quarter time address he reminded his charges of their goals for the season and he warned his charges of Ouyen United’s ability to challenge right up until the last minute. Smith then lead by example and he turned out to be one of Beulah’s best players on the day.
Defenders Chris McKenzie and Tim Hill were two others who had great games. All year these two have been tight and mean in defence and although Ouyen United’s Sonny Lindsay got four goals and Ash Connick bagged three, the Beulah defence won many telling battles during the afternoon.
In the Beulah forward line, Adam Carter and Jarrod Combe were the stand out forwards capping off what has been a great year for both of them.
Marc Hahnel was Ouyen United’s best. His run out of the centre was one of the reasons the Demons closed in on the Blues in that nail biting third term. Together with Brett Knowles and Glenn Joyce, Hahnel kept the ball in the Demon forward line for long passages of play. These three Demons kept going all day and were still fighting on right up until the final siren.
In defence for Ouyen United, Kieran O’Shannessy worked hard and Corey O’Callaghan was often able to propel the Dees into attack with his long penetrating kicking. Ben Gregg was lively around the packs when neither side’s big man was able to dominate. Jason Hahnel and Stephen Saunders battle all day was great to watch, but Beulah ended up having an edge around the packs.
In a best on ground performance, Ouyen United could not contain Garry Hallam and he did a lot of damage acting as a sweeper in defence. Not only did he repel many Demon attacks, but he also was able to create movement from the backline often ending up with the Blues deep in attack just when you thought United had a chance to score.
Hallam did most of his damage in the second quarter. This was when Ouyen United were reduced to 17 men after Robbie Miller was sent off for what seemed an innocuous bump after a Beulah player had marked. In what turned out to be a draconian sentence, in the 22 minutes that Miller was off, Beulah scored six of their seven gaols for the quarter and try as they might, Ouyen United couldn’t get the ball passed Hallam when they did go forward.
It was a great day for the Beulah Blues. They backed up their win in the Seniors with a victory in the Reserves also over Ouyen United. The Demons only bright spot on the day was a win to their Under 16s.
Last Modified on 12/09/2010 22:12