COLLEGE’S under 14 side saved its best for last in one of the most dominant seasons the Wangaratta and District Junior Football League has witnessed.
While the Blues didn’t experience the perfect season – their one blemish was a 37-point loss to Mansfield Eagles in round seven – they proved their superiority over the competition in every other way possible.
They avenged that sole defeat on the big stage at the Norm Minns Oval on Saturday, crushing the Eagles by 62 points in the grand final.
It was a massive turnaround from the two home and away season stoushes with Mansfield.
Back in round seven College had been unprepared for the defensive pressure the Eagles were able to apply.
The Blues had won their first five matches by an incredible average of 169 points, yet found their game plan completely stifled when they travelled to Mansfield, kicking only one goal up to three quarter time and just three goals for the game.
The next time they met was in the last round of the home and away season and provided the ideal lead-in to the finals as the Blues got up by 12 points in a hard-fought affair.
The grand final was the rubber match – the tie-breaker.
But despite the best efforts of Eagles stars Alec Ritchie, Robert Parks, Mac Greene, Thomas Dunstan, Kade Spencer and Jake Berry, who all stood up and had a crack, this one was hardly a contest.
The Blues thrived on the occasion and grabbed their chance to take the crown with both hands.
It started with a flurry in the opening term, with Hunter Gottschling, Alex McCarthy and Harvey Burgan all getting involved as the Blues put on four unanswered goals to lead by 24 points at the first change.
With Joel Smith, Lachlan Bray and Hayden Sampson all busy, College went on with the job from there, increasing its lead at every change and going for the kill in the final stanza with another five goals.
McCarthy, Bray and Sampson finished with four majors apiece to highlight the Blues’ potency in attack.
It capped an extraordinary season in which College won 15 of its 16 home and away matches and finished with an outrageous percentage of 857.32.
The Blues won 13 matches by more than 100 points, and their average winning margin for the year – finals included – was a whopping 117 points per game. While the overall story was much different in the under 12 competition, the theme of rising to the occasion was well and truly present as Tigers stunned Saints for the second time in a fortnight to take out the flag.
Saints had gone through the home and away season unbeaten, with two victories over Tigers – one by 81 points and the other by 21.
But the Tigers found their mojo in the finals series, first upsetting Kangaroos – a side they had lost to by 40 points just a month earlier – by 40 points in the qualifying final.
Then they backed that up by inflicting the Saints’ first loss of the year in the second semi when they got up by 31 points.
Was it an aberration? The loss the Saints needed to have? These were the questions that the grand final would answer.
And the answer was an emphatic no.
Tigers came out firing on Saturday, with Darcy Wilson, Judd Schubert and Oliver Sharp leading their side to a 13-point advantage at the first break.
While Matilda Lyons, Tyler Heywood, Jake Skahill, Wil Doodewaard, Ashton McPherson and Lachlan Miotto did their best to turn the tide for the Myrtleford side, Tigers continued to press ahead.
Acadian Vearing, Machlan Corrigan and Deacon Cleal were all impressive as the lead grew larger as the match wore on.
Schubert finished up with six goals, with Michael Sayers adding three and Ned Turner two as Tigers triumphed by 30 points.
McPherson and Brody Bouker were Myrtleford’s top goal scorers with two apiece.
The under 16 grand final was the culmination of a stunning trilogy for Benalla Giants, with the club winning its second straight premiership in the age group, adding to the under 14 flag it won in 2015.
With the group staying largely the same over that period, around half the players have now won three flags in a row, while the rest have experienced two in three years.
It was no cakewalk for the Giants, however, with their opponents from Mansfield putting up a strong fight.
Patrick Smith was superb, while Nick Watson, Blake Hamstead, Harry Mahoney, Mitch Smith and Isaac Murray all dug deep to have the Eagles within five points at halftime.
Even at three quarter time the match was still up for grabs, with Benalla enjoying a 12-point buffer.
By - Scott Anderson.
Wednesday, 13th September, 2017.
https://wangarattachronicle.com.au/2017/09/13/blues-tigers-giants-reign-supreme-wdjfl/
College completed one of the most dominant seasons in WDJFL history when it took out the under 14 flag. PHOTOS: Marc Bongers
Last Modified on 17/09/2017 07:13