Juniors
North 1.2, 2.2, 4.5, 4.5 (29)
Grassy 2.2, 7.2, 9.3, 13.11 (89)
Goals, North: B. Rainbow 3, L. Bell
Grassy:M. Laskey 5, J. Taylor 3, B. Blomfield-Forrest 3, L. Lancaster, L. Frosi
Best, North: B. Rainbow, G. Wright, H. Johnstone, S. Potter, E. Hill, B. Mallinson, C. Raff, I. Davis, M. Button
Grassy: M. Laskey, J. Taylor, R. Frosi, L. Frosi, B. Blomfield-Forrest, B. Mead, L. Lancaster, R. Fisher.
Coach James Hill wished to thank the Currie top up players and said it was a good all round team effort.
Seniors
North 1.1, 8.14, 10.18, 13.22 (100)
Grassy 7.6, 10.7, 16.11, 20.15 (135)
Goals, North: Jeremy Summers 5, R. Sutton 2, Justin Summers, Jye Summers, K. Barry, B. Mullin, A. Cole, E. Holloway
Grassy: A. Wardlaw 4, T. Forrest 4, S. Newsom 4, R. Berkin 3, F. Tatawaqa 2, D. Rhodes, R. Smith, M. Monson
Best, North: Jye Summers, Jeremy Summers, Justin Summers, K. Barry, B. Mullin, J. Lumsden
Grassy: S. Newsom, A. Wardlaw, M. Monson, T. Rhodes, R. Berkin, B. Reed
These two sides games this season had been reasonably close except for their last meeting where North won by 131 points, but Grassy were missing a few players so on paper it looked like it was going to be a close game.
We had 68 year old Phillip Forsythe from Hamilton and 41 year old Brett Gent from Frankston come over from Victoria and umpire with our Wayne Hamer. Phillip has been umpiring for 47 years and has umpired in the Western Border league, Hampden League, South West League and Mininera District League having umpired more finals than he could remember. Brett has been umpiring for 28 years and was training with the AFL umpires till injury forced him out. He is a member of the Southern Umpires association and umpires in the Mornington, Casey and Peninsular leagues and has umpired 6 senior grand finals. He is also the assistant umpires coach and is the umpires selector having to appoint approximately 140 umpires each week to games.
There was a good six goal wind blowing and when North won the toss we were surprised to see that they elected to kick against it. The first ten minutes was a tight affair with Grassy getting the ball forward a bit but North’s defense was working well and kept repelling the ball. Grassy finally kicked the first goal of the game through Aaron Wardlaw and then they got their act together using the wind well to kick the next six goals. Tristan Forrest was moving well round the forward line to see him kick 2 while the rest were shared between Duncan Rhodes, Rob Smith, Marty Monson and Roy Berkin. Some undisciplined play late in the quarter saw Richard Sutton get an easy free and kicked North’s only goal for the quarter right on the siren to see them 41 points down.
North were out to make amends for their poor first quarter and were quick to get a score on the board with Jeremy Summers taking a nice mark and kicked truly. He did the same again and now North really started to dominate the game. Justin Summers kicked their next goal and it looked like North were going to run away with the game, but Grassy were starting to work better in defense and worked the ball forward to see Forrest kick his third. Grassy were able to work the ball forward to see Freddy Tatawaqa kick a nice goal. Jeremy kicked his third for the quarter after getting a free in front of goal and then Kyle Barry kicked a nice goal. Jeremy got into the act again to see him kick his fourth before Grassy slowed things down to see Forrest kick his fourth. Jye Summers finished the quarter off with a goal for North and really North could have really put their stamp on the game had they kicked straight as they had a staggering 20 shots at goal and only managed to kick 7 goals which saw them just 5 points down at half time.
Grassy started well in the third with the wind and were quick to score through Roy Berkin. Sam Newsom who had been doing a great job for Grassy in the back line went forward and kicked the next two goals. Freddy chipped in for his second and then Berkin got a free in front of goal to see him kick his third. Things got a bit heated then as something happened to Arron Wardlaw and players came in from everywhere to have a good old push and shove session which saw the umpires work well to get players to concentrate on the game again. Wardlaw got a 50 meter penalty to see him kick his second for the game. North steadied a bit to see Jeremy kick his fifth which was followed with one to Beau Mullin to see Grassy up by 29 points at three quarter time.
North started the last quarter well with an easy goal to Sutton but Grassy were working well against the wind to see Newsom benefit from some sloppy play by North to run away and kick his third for the game. Wardlaw took a strong mark up forward and kicked his third for the game and got his fourth from a nice pass from Tyler Rhodes. North lost two players in James Lumsden and Beau Mullin and they were finding it hard to score with the wind. The Grassy mid field were working well along with their back line players which saw them work the ball forward nicely to score. Adrian Cole got North back on the score board and this was followed up with a great goal from Eric Holloway, but it was too late as Grassy pretty much had the game under control. Newsom finished the game off with a nice running goal to see Grassy book a berth in the grand final against Currie next week winning by 35 points.