By Ben Carbonaro
North Ballarat (18.12.120) defeated Port Melbourne (11.9.75) to claim its first VFL premiership since entering the competition in 1996.
The Borough put in a strong last quarter performance against Williamstown last week and were confident of outperforming a North Ballarat line-up who played out a close preliminary final against Werribee.
After a slow start, the Roosters kicked two goals to keep themselves in the game in what was a closely contested first quarter. It looked like the Borough was going to dominate, but some strong defensive pressure from Mathew Sharkey and skipper Shaune Moloney kept them in the game.
It was the Roosters who were ahead half way through the third quarter, but a goal from John Baird bought it back to a goal. Tight checking, particularly in the respective forward line and midfield helped North Ballarat to be up by a goal 8.3(51) to 7.5(47) at half time.
An error riddled third quarter was costly for the Borough, as North Ballarat capitalised on this and kicked away to a two goal lead. Another late goal from Jacob Spolding helped the Roosters to end the quarter with a three goal lead and the Borough wondering how they let it slip away from them.
Three early goals from the Roosters all but sealed victory for a side that had it season underpinned from a super record at home. Port Melbourne played a poor brand of last quarter football as the Roosters forwards,in particular Kangaroos rookie Josh Smith, received perfect delivery.
It wasn’t just the forwards who played well, the defenders Moloney and Michael Searl were superb and forced the Borough to cough up the ball too many times.
Roosters coach Gerrard Fitzgerald was relieved to the Roosters first VFL premiership.
"We certainly got the monkey off our back," he told the Sunday Herald Sun.
Roosters Ruckman Orren Stephenson went into the game underdone and Fitzgerald decided that he needed to have some extra options available to come from the bench.
“We needed to try and have a lot of run on the bench, we just didn’t know whether Orren could go the trip,” he said.
Smith was awarded the North Goss Medal for both his dominant five goal performance and a midfield stint, which helped prove his versatility and he should push for AFL games next year.
North Ballarat 4.2 8.3 12.6 18.12.120
Port Melbourne 3.2 7.5 9.6 11.9.75
North Ballarat-Goal Kickers: J. Smith 5, J. Spolding 2, T. Roach 2, M. Wundke 2, B. Grima, B. Driscoll, S. Clifton, G. Urquhart, A. Swallow, P. McMahon, C. Garlett
North Ballarat-Best: J. Smith, S. Clifton, M. Searl, E. Sansbury, M. Greig, T. Roach
Port Melbourne-Goal Kickers: J. Baird 3, C. Cain 3, J. Mullins 2, D. McLaren, A. Bonaddio, R. Nahas
Port Melbourne-Best: S. Dwyer, M. Smith, J. Baird, C. McGrath, T. Pinwill, J. Mullins
Last Modified on 13/01/2009 18:03