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Dragons win through to 2001 Grand Final

SANDHURST stormed into the 2001 BFL grand final with an emphatic win over Kangaroo Flat in the second semi-final.

The Dragons firmed as premiership favorites with their clinical 58-point victory while the Golden Square juggernaut continued to gather momentum at South Bendigo’s expense in the first semi-final.

The Bulldogs ended the Bloods’ season with a hard-fought 23-point win in the Sunday semi.

Sandhurst senior coach Mark Ellis was a relieved man following his side’s triumph in the big game.

“It’s always hard to win your first final, and if you can do that it will give you momentum,” he said.

“That was probably the best footy we have played in a long time because we had a lot to prove from the last few weeks and the boys hit back pretty well.”

Ben Sexton dominated at centre half-forward in the Dragons’ 16.9 to 6.11 victory.

The Roos were rocked by the withdrawals of star players David Lancaster and Brett Gloury before the game. Then when Wayne Landry was sidelined with a back injury during the match the Roos were in real strife.

HEADING into the second semi-final Kangaroo Flat coach Derrick Filo felt his players had developed the right mind-set.

Golden Square’s 77-point demolition job on the Roos in round 17 was the wake-up call they needed, he said.

“The guys had to work really hard for the eight or nine games before that to get the double chance and we thought we had it all stitched up.

“They got a bit casual and the game against Square was all over at half-time.”

However, the Roos rebounded the following week reversing their performance to snap Sandhurst’s 13-game winning streak to secure a spot in the top two.

Seven years ago the lead-up scenario to week two of the finals series was changed. Heavy rain on the Friday meant that smaller players and those who were constantly at the fall of the ball seemed to be the ones who would dictate term.

On the Thursday night, the Flat made no change to the team which had accounted for South a week earlier while Sandhurst had to replace the suspended Eamon Smith and dropped Michael Young.

Brandt Fleming, Matt Keown, Matt Smith and Peter Angove were named in a squad of 22.

South Bendigo playing coach Simon McLean wasn’t happy with the finals system then in place. The Bloods were given one less day than Golden Square to recover despite finishing higher on the end-of-season ladder.

”Last year, even when the draw favored us, I said that the league had to change the draw so the higher placed teams were favoured in the finals,” he said.

“Every other major league does it the opposite way to Bendigo, but we can’t do anything about it now.”

For the first semi-final South Bendigo omitted Simon Cluff and brought in Nathan McNally. Golden Square named Brad Wood, Matt Sawyer and Matt Webster in an expanded squad.

AS IT turned out Golden Square won its ninth, straight game and consigned South to a straight sets exit from the finals series.

The Bulldogs completely dominated the first quarter as they raced to a 5.10 (40) to a 1.0 (6) lead. Goals to Gary Learmonth, Dillon Anderson and Heath Neville had the Square 20 points up after just 11 minutes.

But after Neville booted his second six-pointer, the goal-kicking yips set in. The Dogs had posted 4.7 before Ryan Connaughton snagged South’s first goal.

Even though the Bloods lifted in the second quarter with goals to Devin Brown, Connaughton and Ross Maxted, the Dogs still led by 11 points at half-time.

Square full-back Daniel Van den Ham outplayed the dangerous Phil Hetherington in the first half and held him to one goal overall for the semi-final.

The Bulldog defence led by Greg Cox, Van den Ham and Jody Van Eekelen held the Bloods to 1.1 in the third quarter.

The Bulldogs led 8.14 to 7.3 at the last change and ended up winning 10.16 (76) to South Bendigo’s 8.5 (53).

McLean was extremely disappointed his players had bowed out of the finals with two, successive losses and felt the club had under-achieved for 2001.

Square coach Brian Walsh was relieved the first quarter misses didn’t end up costing his side the game.

“We should have been eight goals up at least at quarter-time and were definitely under the pump at three-quarter-time. We had to be more desperate and play smarter and in the end this was a really good win,” he said.

ON THE back of a Ben Sexton best afield performance Sandhurst bounced back from a final round belting at Dower Park, downing the Flat 16.9 (105) to 6.11 (47).

Rocked by the late withdrawals of gun spearhead David Lancaster and key defender Brett “Growler” Gloury the undermanned Roos were under the pump from the first bounce.

The damp conditions didn’t bother the Dragon talls. Their backline of Paul Sexton, Vin Harrop, Brock Pinner, Robert Campbell, Matt Sexton and Malcolm Borchard were in charge right from the outset.

After Roo Warren McKenzie goaled from a clever snap out of a pack early in the first term the Hurst defensive six helped set up the side’s first four goals.

In an interesting match-up Matt Sexton nullified Flat coach Filo every time he went forward. Campbell saw off four Roo forward line opponents during the semi-final.

The move of Filo into the centre early in the second term paid off as Kangaroo Flat trimmed the margin to two goals.

But then the Dragons asserted complete control once more. A 10-minute burst in which Tony Graham, Wayne Mitrovic, Peter Angove, Nathan Kelly and Ben Sexton kicked majors blew the match wide open and the Roos never recovered.

Wayne Landry did not re-appear after half-time. He had crashed heavily in a marking contest and had injured his back.

The Dragons resisted the temptation to ease the pressure. They ended up winning all four quarters with Angove and Mitrovic contributing three goals each while Ben Sexton and Harrop nailed two apiece.

The Roos had six individual goal-scorers in their meagre six-goal tally.

But as history was to show just two, short weeks later Golden Square became one of the few clubs to ever win a Bendigo league premiership from the elimination final, downing the Dragons in a great 2001 grand final.

Richard’s tips for finals, week 2: Eaglehawk, South Bendigo. Progress tally: 62.

By Richard Jones

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