FOOTBALL
MID GIPPSLAND
By BLAKE METCALF-HOLT
MEMBERS of the Mirboo North Football-Netball Club gathered recently to see six Tigers premiership sides celebrated and reunited 10 and 20 years on.
Headlining the July 20 function was the Tigers’ 2014 Mid Gippsland Senior flag, which was won in spectacular fashion.
The year 2014 was a momentous one in Mirboo North’s club history, as they went four-for-four on Grand Final day at Ronald Reserve, with the Seniors and Thirds football, and A Grade and B Grade netball all saluting.
Adding to all the premiership reunions, AFL great Gary Ablett Junior made an appearance at the club for an auction fundraiser to support the club following the disastrous storm that affected the town last February.
Ablett brought along his iconic number 29 jumper (worn during his first time at the Cats), a bottle of Ablett Family Shiraz signed by Gary Ablett Snr and J and a bottle of Joel Selwood premiership wine signed by the former Geelong skipper.
The match-winner in 2014, Mirboo North cult hero Shane Peters, even provided Ablett with a memorable item to be taken home himself – a signed Tigers singlet from the 250 gamer.
Looking back on Mirboo North’s 2014 triumph is quite the story.
The Tigers were hunting back-to-back flags coming into the 2014 season, after handing their eventual second-time-around nemesis, Newborough a three-point loss in the 2013 decider.
Reminiscing on 2014, premiership coach Troy Hamilton (now coaching Traralgon) said the senior side didn’t really get started until Round 2 of that year.
“In 2014, we had Matt Holland’s wedding, the first time we had ever had a Mid Gippy season start in March, so we had a lot of guys go to that including myself, so we didn’t actually play Round 1,” he said (Mirboo North fielded a severely depleted team in the seniors).
In that ‘Grand Final Rematch’, the Bulldogs beat Mirboo North to the tune of 130 points on the Tigers home deck.
Newborough also beat Mirboo North, this time with more players available, later in the season by 22 points.
The reigning premier finished the year in third position with 14 wins and four losses behind Newborough and Yinnar.
Come finals time is where the Tigers made their name, and that was more than true after they defeated Yinnar in the Qualifying Final by 10 points to welcome another Newborough match-up for the fourth time in under a year.
The Bulldogs proved to be way too strong on that semi-final day out at Thorpdale, winning by 90 points.
Mirboo North bounced back quickly to earn a spot in their fifth Grand Final in nine years, while Newborough was attempting to capture glory after two straight premierships lost by under seven points.
Heading into the game, the Tigers were more than confident despite the Bulldogs seeming to have their number during the year.
“Newborough were a powerhouse at the time and that team was a very big side and powerful with (Adam) Kennedy, (Darryl) Disito and (Glenn) Michie, but we had ours as well and we went in with a plan to try and clog it up a bit down back and went really small forward,” Hamilton said.
The first half of the Grand Final was all Mirboo North supporters could have asked for and everything Newborough would have dreaded. The Bulldogs didn’t kick a goal until the dying stages of the first half, while the Tigers added 5.7 (37) to enter the main break up by 23 points.
Most of their success getting the ball forward stemmed from Hamilton’s decision to bring leading Tigers goal kicker Tim Traill up further afield to allow quicker ball movement.
Hamilton recalls still being quite unhappy with how they concluded the half, having almost kept Newborough goalless for an entire half and unable to complete all of their opportunities in front of the big sticks.
He would have been less pleased with how the third quarter went, as the Bulldogs came out of the changerooms as a completely different side, kicking nine goals for the term (seven unanswered) to take a shocking 13-point lead heading into the final term.
Entering the fourth, Newborough flooded forward, pressuring the ball early and kicked the opening goal of the last quarter to go up by 21 points.
The Tigers answered with three of the next four goals, including two from Kallum Nash, which brought the game back within eight points.
Traill was reintroduced into the Tigers’ forward line, with the many forward 50 re-entries for Mirboo North resulting in a five-point game with just minutes remaining.
Josh Taylor then produced a piece of magic, gathering a bouncing ball at full pace to centre Peters, who settled and booted the winner for the Tigers to hand Newborough their third consecutive Grand Final loss by the barest of margins.
Hamilton pieced together the sides ‘never give in’ mentality during that period that saw them win five flags in 12 seasons (being a part of all as either a coach or player).
“You’ve got to have that belief and you just keep coming and then you end up winning a close one which is like what Leongatha’s doing at the moment,” he said.
“I think it just breeds confidence and (a) level of certainty which is what we had.
“Definitely through that era we had great comradery and a great group of guys.”
Premiership captain, now turned senior coach, Damien Turner echoed Hamilton’s group analysis.
“Around that 2012/13 era we just got this ‘never say die’ type attitude,” he said.
“We just got this knack of never giving up and it’s a pretty contagious thing, if one bloke does it, the next bloke, all of a sudden you’ve got 21 blokes that just fight and fight.
“You have to learn to win a bit, and I think Mirboo North have learnt to win the tough ones and stick at it.”
Turner captained the side to three senior flags including their Cinderella win on the 2017 Grand Final over Yinnar.
That earlier Holland wedding that decimating the Tigers in their Round 1 game against the Bulldogs turned out to be a silver lining as the couple saw equally heart-pounding wins, with Matt triumphant on the football field while wife Jess helped the A Grade side win by a single goal in overtime against Boolarra.
The Thirds were victorious over Newborough as well on the day, winning 12.9 (81) to 10.6 (66).
