It's that one day in September come Sunday at Sunset Park at 1.00 pm where the Pickerings Premiership Competition two best sides in Mount Isa play off to win the Stewie Horwood Perpetual Premiership Trophy. This is the one both Rovers & Tigers have been aiming for all season & past victories during the year mean little when it comes to this prize.
Rovers will be hot favourites after a very polished second semi final performance which was nothing short of being clinical. With the bitter taste of defeat from last years Grand Final behind them there is no more motivation this team needs. Tigers coming off a tough Preliminary Final on the other hand have got the chance to win back to back Premierships for the first time since the 70's.
With so much at stake, match ups will be critical. Rovers strengths lies with their forward line of Jeremy Doolan, Rory Evans & Daniel Willersdorf, & with Cargill Medallist Clinton Asterbery at Centre Half Forward the Tigers defence will have their hands full, without Mick Murnane who is out with an ankle injury, his likely replacement Daniel Kerr at fullback, with support from Greg Davey & Toby Oliver who have had great seasons in defence. Tigers drive & strength lie in their mid-field of Jack Doyle, Johnny & Calvin Hockley, who are in awesome form, the probable match ups for Rovers are Alex Farrer, Jim Faulkner & Jim Thornton, this promises to be where this game is won or lost. Other match ups will include Tigers forwards Jimbo Emsley & Clinton Nemo, they will be against fullback Dale Atkinson, Dale will have his hands full with Jimbo, but will be well supported by Hayden Bachmann & Adam Beswick.
With all the match ups in place, these two sides have met each other in the last three Grand Finals & both are out to spoil each others celebrations. One lesson to be learnt in the Pickerings Premiership Competition is that you have to have a great start right from the first quarter, all sides who have won the first quarter have gone on to win their respective Finals.
Both Rovers & Tigers have developed a fierce rivalry over the years & this years Grand Final will be no different, discipline & hardness at the ball for four quarters will determine which side holds up The Stewie Horwood Premiership Trophy at 3.30pm.
This is a fitting climax for what has been a sensational 2007 season for AFL Mount Isa. This is your last chance to see two great sides battle it out. Pre-game build up starts at 12.30pm with the first bounce at 1.00pm sharp.PRELIMINARY FINAL - TIGERS v BUFFS
In the AFL Mount Isa Pickerings 2007 Premiership season, its crunch time for both the Tigers and the Buffaloes, the winner of this game would progress into next Sundays Grand Final against the Rovers while the losers will ponder, on what could have been.
The Buffs had a few withdrawals from last weeks semi-final win against the Bats, ball magnets Harvey Edmonds and Nathan Searle left town and Full-back Gavin Hill was unavailable due to work commitments, this would surely leave the Buffs undermanned. The Tigers on the other hand, after a few weeks in the wilderness, finally it seems coach and local celebrity Uncle Fester had gathered his players back to the training track and switched their minds back onto football during the week, which was a must if they were to have any chance on a Grand Final birth.
With the crowd bellowing and the players pumped before the first siren sounded, it was obvious that both sides wanted the first touch of the Sherrin, as Umpire Ronnie Watson bounced the ball, it was hell for leather, Buffs ruckman Ryan Whyte clearly got the first tap out, however the Tigers on-ballers were in the waiting and quickly scooped the ball to drive themselves deep into their own forward line and within the minute the Tigers had kicked a major. Although Buffs had control of the centre knock-outs, time and time again the Tigers small brigade crumbed the ball off the deck to maintain possession and move forward with consummate ease, if not for inaccurate shooting at goal, the Tigers could have put the game out of reach at the end of the first quarter,
Tigers 5.9.39 to Buffs nil.
It would be a brave man to write off the Buffs, even with such a large deficit, as they have proven all year, its not over until the fat lady sings.
Buffs would need to concentrate of gaining possession instead of going the man as they did in the first quarter.
A fairly even, but scrappy affair in the second quarter, Buffs managed to boot a couple of goals and seemed to be more focused on the ball. Coach Jason Eaton led by example, and his troops followed suit, while Tigers centreman John Hockley was in career best form picking up many hard-ball gets around the ground. Tigers increased their lead going into half time by only by 2 points. Scores Tigers 7.13.55 to Buffs 2.2.14, that's 20 scoring shots to 4.
Buffs coach must have given his players some words of wisdom during his half time speech, cause when they came out in the second half, it was like a new team, they began to win the centre breaks and full-forward Jason Fevola was marking strongly and slotting goals from everywhere, the Tigers seemed to drop away and their accuracy in front of the big stick was very second-hand, maybe they thought they had a winning margin! Buffs booted 5 goals to Tigers 1 goal for a scoreline of Tigers 8.19.67 to Buffs 7.3.45 - just 4 straight kicks.
Tigers coach Uncle Fester was none to pleased with players at the
Last Modified on 06/04/2009 17:19