The Premier C finals race: as you were then..

Hugh MacLean

The excitement heading into the last round turned out to be a falsehood as in the end, owing to excellent performances by those in possession of the finals places, none of those places actually changed.

Hampton Rovers’ recent form has been patchy at best, and here they faced an Old Geelong side that, given the stakes involved, were not there for a haircut.  In an opening quarter shootout they took the early lead, kicking seven goals to four in the first term, and even though Hampton all-but levelled at the half, a six goal to one third quarter meant that the Geelong boys knew their work was all but done by the last change. They only registered a point in the last stanza but in keeping Hampton Rovers to two goals, they confirmed the win and in doing so kept their season alive.  Chris Hatzis took his season goal tally to 39 with five, with Connor Dixon registering three goals for Old Geelong.  Ben Marron kicked three for the Rovers, with Ned Gray and Harrison McIntyre their best.

UHS-VU were never going to give Mazenod an easy afternoon, but the Nodders worked hard and did what they needed to do to secure third place with a 39-point win.  The Uni went goal-for-goal with Mazenod early but were a goal down going into the first change.  The win was set up in the second quarter as Mazenod took control, kicking five goals to one to be comfortable at the main break.  UHS-VU took advantage of the scoring end to close to within 16 points at the last change, but Mazenod were not to be denied.  Led by Shaun Lovell and the consistent Jack Caspersz with three goals each, they kicked seven goals to three in the final term to kick away and move on to next week.  Fraser Allen and Brandon Jackson each kicked two for UHS-VU, for whom Pat Brookes was excellent.

The Parkdale Vultures dominated the local derby, with an 84-point win over Old Mentonians to no avail owing to results elsewhere.  Parkdale opened up a five-goal break in the first quarter despite a certain degree of inaccurate kicking, and extended the margin by another two goals in the second term.  With the match over as a contest, only the margin was to be decided, and although Old Mentonians fought hard in the third quarter, the Vultures kicked the only six goals of the last term to complete a convincing victory.  Sam Hart kicked four goals and Jai Elcock three for the Vultures, for whom Jack Love was excellent.  Tom Morecroft played a lone hand in front of goal for Old Mentonians, kicking four of their six goals, while Darcy Brown was a handful for his Parkdale opponents.

Ormond came from behind with a withering last-quarter burst to finish their season on a high at Marcellin College.  Marcellin started with a nine-point lead at quarter time, and for the next two quarters the two sides went goal-for-goal as there was never much between the two sides.  It was Ormond that finished the match the stronger though, their four goals to two proving decisive as Marcellin could not quite land the killer blow before the final siren sounded.  Ormond finished the season in fighting form, leaving them wondering what could have been.  Lachlan Rush kicked three goals for Marcellin, with Zac Tolley and Daniel di Paola contributing two each.  Matt Oaten contributed three goals to the winners’ cause, with Henry Simon and Sam Mason registering two each.

This was a match of all-out attack as Old Ivanhoe chased a miracle, but this led to profligate kicking, a malaise that also spread to their Preston opponents.  The Ivanhoe boys scored twelve times to just once by Preston in the first term, but a return of 3.9 kept their lead to just 26 points.  The trend continued for the entire day, with Old Ivanhoe keeping the goals coming but registering miss after miss between each major.  Preston didn’t get their scoring boots on until the last quarter, by which time they were already 62 points adrift, but a return of 5.9 for them for the term meant that they were not able to make major inroads as Old Ivanhoe won by 51 points.  Luke Scuderi kicked six more goals to top the goalkicking charts with 64, while Nick Varcica starred for Old Ivanhoe.  Liam McLeod and Conor Howard kicked two each for Preston, for whom Rory Howard stood out.