FOOTBALL
GIPPSLAND LEAGUE
By LIAM DURKIN
YOU can’t do much more than win every grand final you’re in.
Traralgon Football-Netball Club footballers did exactly that at the weekend.
The Maroons went three from three, winning the reserves, thirds and fourths premiership in the Gippsland League.
Adding to the success, Traralgon got to win all three flags on its home deck.
The reserves made up for last year’s bizarre shortcoming, defeating Leongatha by six points.
Victory was more of less assured with a few minutes remaining. The Parrots kicked a goal after the fulltime siren to officially make the scores 3.11 (29) to 3.5 (23).
In typical twos fashion, the game was low-scoring despite being played in perfect conditions.
Defence was high, with many stoppages adhering to the age old reserves rule of running down the clock.
Leongatha only kicked one goal up to three quarter time. While Traralgon only had three themselves, they’d registered 10 scoring shots to four by that stage.
The Maroons kept the Parrots scoreless in the second term, before keeping them to just two behinds in the third.
Fletcher Watts kicked two goals for the winners. Campbell Booth kicked the other, and was named in the best.
Traralgon’s Riley Adams was awarded the best-on-ground medal. Others to play well were Kade Duncan, Cohen Ruyters, Flynn Kenedy and Connor Scandrett.
Leongatha named Finn Donohue, Isaak Fox, Brok Davidson, Ben Willis, Sean Westaway and Aydan Williams as its best.
Those names give even more merit to Traralgon’s win.
Willis is a five-time senior flag winner for the Parrots. Westaway is the club’s senior games record holder.
They were eligible to play in the reserves by virtue of Leongatha also having its senior team in the grand final. The Parrots therefore had open selection.
Traralgon did not have that luxury, and could only pick players who hadn’t overqualified (players who play more than nine senior games can’t drop back and play reserves finals).
The win reversed last year’s grand final result, and also stopped Leongatha from winning five twos flags in a row.
The Maroons may feel vindicated, after going through last season undefeated, only to lose on grand final day in just about the worst conditions imaginable.
This time around, Traralgon came from second on the ladder, and knocked the Parrots off in the second semi-final.
Somewhat surprisingly given the context of history, it was Traralgon’s first reserves flag since 2016.
TRARALGON completed an undefeated season in the thirds.
The Maroons won the under 18 decider by 43 points, 12.7 (79) to 5.6 (36) over Maffra.
The home side kept the Eagles goalless in the second term, and stretched its lead at every change.
Melvey Podmore, Tacen Davidson, Lachlan Pass, Brodie Adams, Charlie Tatchell and Ford Gore (three goals) were judged best-on-ground for the Maroons.
Best players for Maffra were Maculey Pendergast, Angus Weatherley, Darcy Scott, Jack Halligan, Harper Walker and Jonah Linford.
Similar to the reserves, Traralgon also deserves extra credit for winning, given Maffra had Gippsland Power and senior players available.
Archer Stobie (eight games for Power this season) was part of the Eagles team, and played the majority of the season with Maffra’s seniors.
Traralgon went straight through to the grand final, and faced its hardest game in the second semi-final, where it narrowly defeated Moe by seven points.
The grand final presentation was not without incident, after the premiership cup fell off the stand due to a sudden gust of wind.
Amazingly, the trophy landed right side up.
CAN you be premiers and champions if you’ve had a draw?
Regardless, Traralgon also went through the season undefeated in under 16s.
The Maroons easily won the fourths grand final, beating Leongatha 12.9 (81) to 1.5 (11).
Traralgon had seven individual goal-kickers in the 70 point win.
Will Edgar, Jack Thomas (three goals), Hugo Macpherson (three goals), Levi Field, Tyler Siemens and Judd Sutton were best on.
Noah Bradley, Noah Cameron, Linc Chila, Archer Gee, Harrison Cooke and Mitchell Hogarth battled hard for Leongatha.
The Parrots had a very strange year in the under 16s, playing in three draws.
Traralgon was dominant in the home-and-away season, finishing with a percentage of 444.
The Gippsland League introduced time-on for the reserves, thirds and fourths finals this season – but only after halftime, and only after a goal was scored.
There was rarely a quarter that went longer than 22 minutes though.
It took at least one final for timekeepers to get accustomed. The first quarter of the fourths qualifying final at Ted Summerton Reserve, Moe went for 27 minutes, despite hardly any goals being kicked.
