D6
Hard to be too disappointed with the result. Pulteney were the stand out side all season, finished top, beat all before them. Ingle Farm did it the hard way - from Elimination final, to Grand Final was a tremendous effort. If you'd told me after 6 rounds that the Farmers would be playing off in the GF, I would've told you that you have rocks in your head.
Thought the Farmers started well enough, both sides backlines were strong, and the Farmers were able to create a few opportunities early - unfortunately 2 behinds and 1 out on the full meant they failed to capitilise on that early momentum. The Blues were forward and kicked the first goal, then won the midfield clearance and kicked another very quickly, and it was a little worrying the ease they were able to open up Ingle Farm at times.
Second quarter was telling. The Blues were strong, pushed up with their press and sucked Ingle Farm in with ease. A number of lazy performers for the Bulldogs meant the backline was under immense pressure, no one worked hard up and around the ground, and when Ingle Farm were able to work through the press and go forward, the Blues backline was able to clean up and expose a rather lazy forward line, switched and then ran straight back through the opposite side and middle with ease and generated another F50 entry. It was almost like a training drill at times the ease in which they moved from D50 to F50.
Cleveland was absolutely massive, dominated the ruck, and positioned himself behind the ball in front of the Ingle Farm forwards and cleaned up most that came his way. Took a number of contested marks, and everytime he took a mark his mate Dalton Tucker was lurking nearby, handball went to Tucker who then released Mattner or Currie and away they went.
Noble in the ruck was impressive as well, very athletic and strong performance.
Forbes was good up forward, Rowlands strong down back, and Tucker was best on by the length of Flemington. Pulteney were fit, quick and well structured and controlled the game pretty well from start to finish.
Few of the Ingle Farm lads dug in - despite being faced with two very good rucks, Gannell battled incredibly hard all day, his work rate and efforts around the ground are second to none, and Grae Grant showed patches of brilliance in the midfield, but was a bit of a lone soldier. Peter Bone would've made 20 tackles for the game, worked so hard, and provided the only real resistance as Pulteney came out of defence.
Mount, Sandery, Smart, Pope, Phillis did exceptionally well down back given the weight of entries, and continued to try and repel attacks. Mount keeping Giddings to a single goal - set shot from outside 50 - was an awesome effort.
All in all, the best team all year won, and deservedly so. We had probably played our Grand Final the week before, as a club we managed to achieve a goal that we set out to and which has taken us so long to reach, and that's get out of D6. On reflection, it's been a very successful season for our club. We have had some challenges and hurdles to overcome, and we've managed them and continued to move forward.
Now to begin preparations for 2018.
Congratulations to Pulteney, well deserved.