For the 5th time in a row the Mackay City Hawks senior team was in the Grand Final this time up against the Moranbah Bulldogs. In front of a big crowd at Harrup Park for twilight Grand Finale the Hawks went into the match with 3 Key Players out Due to Injury. Even with these injuries the Hawks were confident of a very good showing even though knowing everyone bar the Hawks would be barracking for the Bulldogs.
The first Quarter started with some free flowing quick footy played. Moranbah were the first to score and well on top buy quarter time and with some interesting umpiring decisions they had opened up a 4 goal lead.
The 2nd quarter was very even with 1 goal each.
After a big Half time speech from Coach Johnno the boys came out pumped and keen to get right back into the game. The Hawks had plenty of shots on goal kicking 2.7 for the quarter but failing to capitalise on our opportunities. At 3 quarter time it was 20 points the dfifference. In Johnno's final address he just asked all the boys to give everything we had left and that we were right in the game Moranbah looked to be tiring and anything could happen.
The Boys came out firing in the first 3 minutes with 3 goals reducing the margin to 2 points before the Dogs settled and kicked a couple of goals to take the margin back out to 15 points. Salty copped a late pump and unfortunately was knocked out. With the ambulance required to take him to hospital this resulted in the game being halted. AFL Mackay and the umpires then decided that Moranbah would be awarded the game with 3-4 minutes left on the clock due to the game being stopped for around 30 minutes. An unfortunate way to finish the game for both sides but with Moranbah being in front when play was stopped they were crowned 2014 Senior Premiers 2014 ending a 36 year drought.
Nathan Holohan played a great game in a tagging role keeping 1 of Moranbah's best players quite for much of the day. Desy Hayes played another super game along with Ruckman Anthony Kilmartin who gave the onballers first use of the footy.
Moranbah 12.8 80
Hawks 9.11 65
Goals: M Bessell 2, B Saltmarsh 2, D Hayes 1, T Bone 1, J Garrett 1, A Wade 1
Best: N Holohan, D Hayes, A Kilmartin,
In what was an end of an era for the Hawks senior team with a number of retirements and players moving on it was disappointing to not be able to send them off with a Premiership. A Special mention to retiring 3-time premiership players Heath Brown and Jason Ellard on great careers for the Hawks.
Coach David Johnstone also coached his last game for the Club. In his 4 year stint he coached 4 Senior Grand Finals for 3 Premierships and 1 runner-up. His win-loss-draw record was 58 wins, 2 Draws, 9 Losses. Fantastic effort Mate and all the best for the future from all your mates at the Hawks.
Last Modified on 16/09/2014 23:04