Billy Bolch
After 18 rounds and 2 weeks of finals, the Division 4 Men’s season came down to two teams, Swinburne University and La Trobe University. Both had met earlier in the year three times with La Trobe having a dominant win by 115 points on the first occasion. Their second meeting however was much closer with La Trobe only narrowly defeating the Razorbacks by 22 points. In the first week of finals, La Trobe won convincingly by 80 points. This match was truly anyone’s for the taking however, the Trobers would be considered favourites.
Both teams got off to a slow start with only 2 goals kicked for the quarter however both of those goals were kicked by La Trobe seeing them get out to an early 13-point lead at quarter time. The second quarter saw both teams start to attack with both sides kicking 3 goals in the second quarter. Heading into half-time, it was the Trobers that maintained a small 14-point lead.
Heading into the third quarter, the Razorbacks knew that if they were to be a chance, they had to have a huge third quarter and that they did. Swinburne dominated for the full 20 minutes with a 6-goal to 1 quarter, gaining momentum and taking a 17-point lead into the final term. La Trobe was on the back foot and after such an incredible season, they just needed to find another level for the final quarter and that they did. The Trobers took the game back, kicking an unanswered 5 goals to run away with the game and securing promotion and the club’s first senior men’s premiership since 2010.
Goal kickers for the Razorbacks were Trent Ryan, Aidan Vesty and Connor Tayler-Turner who all kicked 3 goals. Goalkickers for La Trobe included Riley Alexander (4), Ben Vicary (1), Bryce Dowler (1), Matthew Ogle (1), Darcy Thorn (1), Patrick Lindsay (1), Charlie Scanlon (1) and Tom Whelan (1). Amongst the best for the Razorbacks were Bradley Field, Thomas Hartney and Robert Barry, while for La Trobe, Matthew Ogle (awarded best on ground), Riley Alexander and Andy Castles were best.
La Trobe will now go up to Division 3 Men’s for the 2023 season in what will be a major step up, however after an incredible season it will be good to see how they fair. For Swinburne, if they go up to division 3 they too will be taking a major step up in competition however if they remain in division 4 they will go into next season being premiership favourites, hungry to raise the cup after the final siren of the seasons’ final match.
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