FOOTBALL
GIPPSLAND LEAGUE
By LIAM DURKIN
Moe 16.6 (102) def Leongatha 15.8 (98)
IF getting there is the hardest part, Moe might just have passed its biggest test.
The Lions became the first team through to this year’s Gippsland League grand final at the weekend.
Just how they got there however would be thrown out even if it was presented to Steven Speilberg as a chance for him to turn a ‘based on a true story’ event into a blockbuster feature film.
He’d dismiss it because even he would think it’s too unrealistic.
That’s part of the reason why newspapers exist.
We’re here to tell you it really did happen.
Moe really did beat Leongatha 16.6 (102) to 15.8 (98).
As a spectacle, it had everything.
A high scoring second semi-final, two teams at absolute full strength, star quality on both sides, decided by a kick on the final siren.
There was six lead changes alone in the final term.
As a pure game of football, you would be hard-pressed to find a better display.
The first quarter alone was generally accepted as a VFL standard match. Both teams kicked six goals in slippery conditions, belying the gloom that shrouded Morwell Recreation Reserve.
Like all great games, there was also a multitude of subplots.
Dyson Heppell dominated early and just kept accumulating for Leongatha.
Granted local footy is a few rungs down from where he was playing two years ago, watching Heppell up close, it is staggering to think he still isn’t playing for Essendon. He is that good.
Equally staggering to consider Myles Poholke only cracked it for 16 games at the top level for Adelaide. The Moe midfielder slash forward slash everything, kicked seven goals in a truly herculean effort to propel his side over the line.
That the two best players on the park were local products was perhaps most telling.
Heppell’s connection to Leongatha is well-known. Poholke’s to Moe not so.
He was actually born in the old Moe hospital, just months before it was closed in 1998.
Much as his older brother, and current Moe senior coach Leigh, is associated with Sorrento, he too grew up in Moe, attending St Kieran’s Primary School, a mere five minute walk from Ted Summerton Reserve (yes, I’ve checked the enrolment records).
The Lions, with the ghost of previous finals failures looming large, were 22 points down in the third quarter.
Poholke put the team on his shoulders, kicking three goals in a matter of minutes to drag them up off the canvas.
He kicked the first goal of the game and the winner, seemingly getting a toenail on a left foot snap out of congestion at the croquet club end of the ground.
There would be no more score added for either team after that – although it came desperately close after a 50 metre penalty was paid in the dying seconds.
The free kick took Leongatha’s Fraser Phillips to the edge of the 50 metre arc. He kicked just as the final siren sounded, but fell five metres short, ensuring Moe held on, and made its first senior grand final since 2000.
What were you doing in 2000? Essendon was good back then, going through the season virtually undefeated.
Sydney also hosted the Olympics. A couple of current Moe players’ dads played in the grand final.
Jason Shields was one of them. His son Jordan was among the best players at the weekend.
The generational link didn’t necessarily stop there.
In the aftermath of the game, I sent a message to Helen Legge, descendent of the great Ron Legge, whose name supersedes the very establishment he operated – the Moe Hotel.
Everyone calls it Leggies. Should Moe win in a fortnight’s time, I said to Helen they’ll just about drink the place dry.
Moe player Ben Maslen’s grandfather Wilson built part of Leggies. He’s there just about every week supporting his two grandsons (James played in the reserves semi-final win last Sunday).
The Phillips miss did little to detract from the spectacle.
For a neutral at least, a long range goal after the siren would have been the only thing that could have made the game even better.
You honestly will not get a better game than this.
Speaking to South Gippsland Sentinel Times veteran reporter Michael Giles, he said it was the best game he’d seen since the 1997 Gippsland League grand final, when Rod Taylor kicked 10 goals in a losing cause for Morwell.
Phillips made up part of the all-star cast.
He was one of six players on the Leongatha side to have played at AFL/VFL level.
Moe had 11 – although five were homegrown products.
That in itself adds another facet to the story. Leongatha has been so strong, making every grand final since 2015, that it’s taken 11 AFL/VFL players to bring them down – and only then by four points.
The star quality wasn’t just confined to the players on the field.
One of Moe’s runners was Bailey Humphrey, the other, Riley Baldi.
Riley’s twin brother Trent had a good battle with prime Leongatha mover Kim Drew.
Moe power forward Riley D’Arcy’s suggestion to Drew that he purchase a pair of Havaianas was enough to provide momentary comic relief to an otherwise tense third quarter.
Even field umpire Lachlan Floyd couldn’t stop laughing. He later said it was the best game he’s ever seen.
The delivery of punchlines and football skills shone throughout.
A spinning move out of defence by Leongatha’s Tim Sauvarin led to him being named among the best, while Drew’s well-calculated set shot from outside 50 in the first enabled Leongatha to take a three-point lead into the first break.
The margin never got beyond four points at any of the changes of ends.
Harry Pepper kicked a timely goal for Moe after the Parrots had gone back-to-back. He judged the ball drop so perfectly, he took it laying flat on his back.
Moe appeared to rely on deep entries inside 50, while Leongatha worked to win the ball at ground level early.
Heppell continued to take the proverbial, palming the ball into the path of a teammate to run into the easiest of goals.
Smart passages played out in other ways as well, notably when Moe’s Max Woodall intercepted an inboard handball and kicked the ball out of midair through for a rushed behind deep in defence.
A match that ended the way it did required someone from Mirboo North, where sporting miracles are commonplace, to take part.
The second term settled down, with teams trading two goals each.
Again, the stars of the show came to town. James Harmes cut through a swath of midfielders to find Harri Sim inside 50, who cleanly dished off to Alex Dijkstra, resulting in a goal.
If you had of told the Bunyip local, who went two whole seasons without a win, that he’d be playing in a game of this quality, it’s doubtful he would have thought there was too many active braincells.
The game was everything a final should look like. Momentum traded, and moves were made to counter.
Moe started to break down a little in the second term across the middle of the ground, as Leongatha pressed high and tried to get the ball into open space out the back toward goal.
Woodall however beat the press with an excellent flying intercept to set up a forward fray.
Stars aren’t just the ones who have played at the highest level however.
Leongatha skipper Tom Marriott kicked a goal on the run to give the Parrots the lead after going coast-to-coast. Leongatha seemed go end-to-end on a number of occasions. Marriott’s very deliberate kicking style is for all occasions.
He isn’t the quickest, nor is he the most skilful, but he’s one of the most disciplined at playing to a team structure. The same could be said of his long-time teammate Sean Westaway, who was assigned the task of trying to quell Moe’s potent forward line of D’Arcy, Pepper and Ben Crocker.
While the trio kicked seven goals between them, the fact Poholke kicked that many by himself showed how unstoppable he was – or how poorly the match-up with Jackson Harry was.
Poholke completely demoralised Harry in the third term, marking on the lead, taking a hanger, and nabbing him holding the ball. All three acts led to goals.
“We’re back,” Poholke screamed after kicking his second for the quarter, after calling on the midfield group to stop getting ahead of the contest.
He also jokingly called on the young Moe supporters in the forward pocket to lift their voice.
“You’ve been useless,” he told them. Words of the same effect were directed at Harry, albeit with a much different tone.
Shields showed good temperment to win a crucial high ball at half-forward, and hit Nick Prowse inboard. The usual centre half-forward was moved into the ruck after the Parrots got out to a 22-point lead. Usual centre-half back Declan Keilty was moved to his natural habitat after spending most of the game forward.
Brotherly love aside, Leigh Poholke could sense Myles was on an absolute heater, and called on his charges to get the ball to him during his three quarter time address.
Leongatha coach Trent McMicking showed faith to keep Harry on the ground, and he responded by taking a very good mark when the game was on the line.
The ball lived in Leongatha’s front half for the first 10 minutes of the final term. Jack Hume goaled following a hit up from non-other than Heppell, as the first real sense that the game could go to extra time hung in the air.
Pressure was at an all-time high as the clock ticked into red time. So transfixed were players and supporters on the game, that even a nearby lightning strike came and went seemingly without ceremony.
Leongatha’s Jenson Garnham kicked one of his four goals at the 20 minute mark to give the Parrots a three point lead. Crocker followed from short range, after Maslen won the ball following a Shields mark at centre half back sitting under a high ball.
Moe called red time early at the 24 minute mark. Prowse mongrelled the ball out of a stoppage to score a point, which may have been handy, although it meant the ball went straight back to Leongatha.
Unbelievably, the Parrots went coast-to-coast, and Phillips kicked truly from 40 metres out on a slight angle at the 26 minute mark to regain the lead.
Leongatha supporters were begging timekeeper Tim to blow the siren. Only adding to the storyline, the accompanying timekeeper was Brad Law – son of Moe’s last premiership coach Alby. Brad was also club president when the Lions last played in a grand final.
With the ball back in the middle, it was an obvious case of next goal, or potentially next score, wins.
Moe was awarded a free kick for deliberate out of bounds, which then saw a flurry of players converge on the high ball coming in.
Poholke then had his crowning glory, scrambling through the winner at the 29 minute mark.
Surely that was it.
The Lions rolled an extra defender behind the ball, and all appeared safe until the final moment of madness right at the death.
Crocker ended the match with four goals to also rate a mention in the best, along with Dijkstra, Brock Smith and Prowse.
Best for Leongatha was Heppell, Drew, Sauvarin, Cade Maskell, Jack Sheridan and Garnham.
No disclaimer is needed to finish this tale.
What you just read really happened.
How great that our own Australian game can lend itself to moments that would otherwise be considered totally fanciful.
Warragul 12.10 (82) def Wonthaggi 13.3 (81)
WARRAGUL won by just one point on Sunday, with a chance to make it to their first Gippsland League decider since 1984.
A scoreboard blunder of the highest order was all that stood between Warragul and Wonthaggi continuing their seasons.
Local umpire Lachlan Floyd (who has officiated state level finals), said Saturday’s second semi-final was the best game he’s ever seen.
AFL legend and now Warragul coach Gary Ayres has surely never overseen a game quite like what he saw on Sunday.
I haven’t seen as much football as Ayres. I did, however, once see Wonthaggi come from 45 points down at three quarter time to win a preliminary final.
The Power completely bottled an advantage of similar numeric value at the weekend.
Latrobe Valley Umpires Association had front row seats to the whole saga at Leongatha Recreation Reserve.
The umps, so often the ones whom fingers are pointed, certainly weren’t to blame.
A free kick on the last line of defence paid to Warragul was incorrectly put down as a behind to Wonthaggi by the scoreboard operator early in the final quarter.
I was sitting in the forward pocket right next to where it happened. The ball did trickle through the goals, and the goal umpire did signal touched, but that was before the free kick was paid. He never actually signalled a behind or waved the flag.
Players went on completely oblivious to the fact, and thought they were headed to extra time when the final siren sounded and scores were level.
As is protocol for a tied match however, the goal umpires conferred, cross-checked their scorecards, and corrected the record.
Wonthaggi had a point taken off them, and the game went in favour of the Gulls.
Warragul, who’d lost four games in a row leading into the finals, and were generally thought to just be making up the numbers, are now only one win away from the biggest stage of the year.
That stage won’t be officiated by the South Gippsland Umpires Association.
Adding to the drama of the weekend, the association was told they hadn’t made the cut for Gippsland League grand final day in a fortnight’s time.
Their response? Throw the toys out of the cot and boycott the rest of the Gippsland League finals series.
Local umpires are assessed by someone who has been around the block a few times – former AFL 300 gamer and now Gippsland League Umpire Operations Peter Carey.
Carey umpired the 1989 VFL grand final, which Ayres played in. The game is universally acknowledged as one of, if not the best, grand final in AFL history.
In any case, given South Gippsland will be busy umpiring the West Gippsland competition on the same day as the Gippsland League grand final, its best umpires wouldn’t be available for the major league.
