Cats claw a thriller

By Ken Moore
NEERIM NEERIM SOUTH got home with a sigh of relief over Nar Nar Goon in a see-sawing match.
After the two teams had played two draws during the season the game was expected to go down to the wire. And once again it turned into another epic encounter with, this time, the Cats prevailing by four points.
In an exciting last quarter Nar Nar Goon came from three points down at three-quarter time to hit the front with a goal by Brendan Hermann — before Neerim replied with majors by Tom Muir and Daniel Fusinato to wrest back an 11-point lead.
With a minute to go in the game Goon forward Dylan Hoeksema marked well and kicked his second goal to see the Goon creep within five points and set up tension filled climax.
The Goon won the last centre takeaway and drove the ball forward deep into its 50-metre attacking zone but the Cats produced some desperate defence to stop the Goon scoring with their final forward thrust and held on to a nail-biting four-point victory.
Neerim coach Peter Brooks said he was a relieved man after the game.
“Nar Nar Goon gave us fantastic competition all season and the result could have gone either way. They’ve been a great bunch to coach and are a disciplined lot and this is just reward,” Brooks said.
Tall Neerim centre-half forward Joel Whitford was awarded the best on ground medallion.
Fellow forward Tom Muir led and presented well all game, captain Tom Slate was always in the thick of the action and Tim Grogan did not take a backward step around the midfield packs.
Nar Nar Goon forwards Daniel Gaynor, Daniel Mason and Jesse Cribbes, all gave their midfielders a good target, captain Brendan Herman stood up to be counted while Bryce Henzen added plenty of life when he was introduced into the fray from the interchange bench.