Noosa Tigers win Pineapple Cup
Paul Munnings | 12th September 2010
Noosa Tigers, winners of the Pineapple Hotel Cup.
The Noosa Tigers finally captured the Pineapple Hotel Cup yesterday, beating Sandgate by seven points at Brisbane's Hickey Park to end a 13-year premiership drought.
After finishing third in 2008 and second in 2009, it seemed only fair that the Tigers would eventually get to the No.1 spot in AFL Queensland's second-tier competition, but they had to shake off some jitters to do it.
Coach Wayne Fletcher claimed post-match that he had been as “cool as a cucumber” when he saw a 25-point lead in the final quarter shrink to just seven at the 26-minute mark, although the pacing he was doing along the boundary line would suggest otherwise.
He would not be human if he wasn't getting as nervous as the hundreds of Noosa supporters who were worried about how long the final quarter would last and whether the Tigers would hold on or blow it.
Thankfully, the minor premiers steadied and when the final siren sounded, albeit so faintly that not everyone at the ground heard it, they had secured the club's first senior flag since a triumph in the old BAFL competition in 1997.
“It was a fantastic team performance. The whole 22 of them committed themselves today,” Fletcher said.
“Everyone played their role at some stage of the game.
“I'm just so proud of them and everyone in Noosa can be proud of them.
“It's been a long time coming and I'm sure they'll enjoy it tonight.
“We've got the premiership cup and I'm as happy as.”
It was a grand final where no one managed to lead by more than three goals until Noosa surged midway through the final quarter.
Sandgate started better and, with the help of the breeze, led by nine points at quarter-time before the Tigers' seven-goal second quarter – which featured the best football of the game – gave them a one-point lead at the half-time break.
Noosa managed to shoot 16 points clear midway through the third term, but the Hawks kicked the last two goals of the quarter to cut the lead to four and show they were not about to surrender their quest for a first flag since 1994.
Sandgate's chances looked to be gone when the Tigers kicked four of the first five goals of the final quarter, but that was when the ghosts of grand final defeats of the past appeared to emerge to haunt a nervous Noosa.
One Hawks goal wasn't that much to worry about, nor was a second, but when Trent Morrissey kicked a third to reduce the margin to seven points, Noosa supporters who had been relaxing and thinking about how to celebrate were standing or sitting still, looking worried.
“They kept coming back and coming back,” Noosa captain Adam Bovalino said.
“Everyone didn't want to feel like how we felt last year.
“That hunger was inside us.
“Our motto all year was to go one better and we turned it on today for everyone.”
James Brain matched his four-goal effort from the preliminary final win against Burleigh, and Jay Reynolds booted three, all in the second quarter.
Last Modified on 21/09/2010 08:58