By Ken Moore
BEFORE the senior grand final the crowd was treated to a series of highstandard, close encounters involving five different clubs, after which Buln Buln, Nar Nar Goon and Catani have new flags to hang.
The day started and finished well for Catani. It was double celebration time for the Blues as its under13 side won the club’s first junior flag. The match finished in dramatic circumstances with the Blues coming from two goals down and Jeremy Monckton kicking the winning point after the siren. Captain Luke Failla, defenders Kryton Knaap and Andrew Sabbatucci all impressed, Mitchell Edwards did well and Cameron Hill was awarded bestonground honours.
Nar Nar Goon had a tremendous day and served warning that it has the best depth and young talent coming through the ranks when it won both the under15 and under17 flags. In the under15s the Goon led all game and ran out comfortable winners. Vicecaptain Steve Marson paved the way with a bestonground performance and three goals and was lent good support by midfielders Brent Hughes, Jacob Sweeney, ruckman Travis Simpkin and defenders Nicholas Fromhold and Lachlan White. For runnersup Buln Buln the best included its onball brigade of Mitch Nobelius, Thomas Denholm, Sam Downie and Ryan Adamiak.
In the thirds Nar Nar Goon finished too strongly for Bunyip to win by 20 points in a highstandard game. Goon captain Philip Hicks was awarded the bestonground honours, ruckman Nigel Benn won kicks all round the field and Andrew Oldmeadow won plenty of possessions across the forward line in a good team effort. For the Bulldogs captain Michael Whyte, Sean Murphy, Leigh Carmody, Sam Wright and Matt Giblin were prominent.
In the reserves Buln Buln held a fourpoint threequartertime lead over Longwarry and the game looked set for a thrilling finish, however in the last quarter the Lyrebirds kept the Crows scoreless and with goals by Damian Bibby and Garry Nooy sealed victory. Fellow veteran Michael Baker was awarded the bestonground honours and Dan Bramstedt, Andy Musgrove, Kane Bartlett and Shane Watson all made handy contributions. Longwarry’s veterans John Lehmann, Darren Pope and Jason Ronalds went fulltilt all match and youngsters Brad Jose and Brodie Rundell won plenty of possessions around the packs.
