Class and ticker get the Lions home
PALM Beach-Currumbin took on Noosa at their own trademark take-no-prisoners game style and emerged victorious in a fiercely-contested Pineapple Hotel Cup grand final at Fisherman’s Road on Saturday.
Noosa are renowned for their aggressive approach - unflinching and unrelenting - yet it was the Lions who successfully matched, then beat them at their own game, before claiming another premiership cup with victory by 14-15 (99) to 10-11 (71).
It was PBC’s second premiership from the last three grand finals and their fifth in 11 years.
After three even quarters, PBC blew the game apart in the final term when key forwards Adrian Hill and James Drake emerged as match-clinchers.
Hill kicked 4.2 for the match and Drake finished with 2.3 after an inaccurate start.
Noosa led 2.2 to 1.2 at quarter-time, PBC were ahead 6.7 to 5.4 at half-time, then were further ahead by 9.12 to 7.8 at the final break.
Despite running to the southern end of the ground for the final term – which had been the main scoring end all day – PBC were still far from over the line given their habit in recent years of running out of legs late.
But the opposite happened and two Drake goals, and Hill’s fourth for the game, sealed a wonderful win for the Gold Coast side.
But it was hard going, especially after a fiery start that featured several violent collisions.
Umpires had to stop play for five blood-bins in as many minutes as the rivals bored into each other.
Rowan Sawers and Ryan Jeffrey (Noosa) and PBC’s Aaron Lohrey were all sin-binned for 15 minutes after getting yellow cards and Jeffrey later accepted a one-match suspension for striking PBC midfielder Brent Rynehart in another incident.
Michael Gafa, certainly far from Noosa’s worst, kicked the opening goal of the game at the five-minute mark and Scott Maddern goaled at the 21st-minute mark to put the Tigers two up.
But Jedd Williams finally found the middle of the big sticks for PBC three minutes later.
In the second quarter, PBC seemed to be gaining control. They kicked 5.5 for the quarter and that was to be the pattern for the remainder of the match because, after an early third-term spurt from Noosa, the Lions settled back into stride and increased their lead.
PBC coach Craig O’Brien, who now has two grand final medals to his name at the Lions, knew his players were in for a physical start, so wisely placed some stronger bodies in for the first bounce.
He used Greg Pires, Darryl Dyson and Mark Mooney in there to keep his smaller, more skilled players, away from the early physical onslaught.
It worked a treat, especially with rover Mikal Bloom, who emerged as a clear man of the match after picking up five possessions in as many minutes in the opening stages when used up forward.
“They were always going to put it to us,” said O’Brien. “We’ve been the best side for three years.
“Every week is like a final to us. When you‘re on top they want to keep coming at you.”
At the back of O’Brien’s mind were events o the second semi-final two weeks previous when Noosa downed a badly-tiring PBC side at Salk Oval.
“We lose one final and everyone up here (the Sunshine Coast) thinks we were going to get beaten,” said O’Brien.
“ They thought we were soft.
“But I wasn’t worried about that. I thought the game we lost to Noosa, if we had beaten them (and had the next week off) we’d have run out of legs today.
“Noosa used up a lot of energy early and we were able to run over the top of them.”
Noosa coach Wayne Fletcher acknowledged the Lions were the better side and also agreed their spread of class players was a difference.
“They were too slick for us around the stoppages,” he said, giving special credit to the performance of Bloom.
“He caused a lot of headaches with his pace and work around the stoppages.
“But they used the ball far better than we did, their pressure was good and our skills struggled under that pressure.
“I thought our defence was good but our midfield and up forward fell down a bit.”
Fletcher also acknowledged that the Lions turned on a Noosa style against his Tigers.
“Yes, they were certainly hard and aggressive at the footy. I thought our blokes were too, but they were just a bit slicker than we were.
“They are a good football team and we had to be on our game. Unfortunately we weren’t.”
Away from the classy display from Bloom, PBC had a number of outstanding performers.
Young wingman Angus Munroe, who kicked two key goals in the third quarter, was impressive. Drake, used at centre half-forward, was a close second to Bloom in the race for the Ray Poulter Medal.
Ruckman Michael I’Anson, big of hart and stamina, was superb. He rucked solo after back-up Aaron Lohrey had further problems with a knee injury.
Then there were free-running backmen Arnold Knight and Matt Flynn, and veteran centreman Mark Mooney, whose work in close was invaluable.
Surprisingly, Noosa’s official best-player list did not include Jay Reynolds, yet he was one Tiger who certainly deserved credit because he took a number of heavy knocks yet was still running on strongly at the finish.
Defender Gary Wallace was strong at the back, Gafa (3.1) looked dangerous in attack, especially early, and Jeffrey battled hard.
Noosa simply lacked the polish of their opponents, but coach Fletcher believes there are plenty of good times ahead.
“I’m certain the players will learn from it and be better and stronger next season and the seasons going forward,” he said.
Fletcher indicated he will be putting his hand up for the Noosa job again in 2010.
“That makes it (positions) three and two for me here in two years, so one sounds good,” he said.
Last Modified on 02/05/2010 12:17