THE days leading up to a grand final can be nerve-racking for all involved. Some players find it hard to concentrate at work, while others barely sleep a wink the night before the big game.
Given all that, the footballers competing in today's Lexton Plains league grand final should be excused if they look a little bleary-eyed when they run out at Ballarat's Eureka Stadium.
Last Saturday, 42 players from Skipton and Lexton woke with butterflies in their stomachs, thinking about the prospect of winning a premiership. And it wasn't just any flag at stake. The LPFL is being wound up at the end of the season, because another bush footy restructure has recommended its clubs be moved to competitions with more promising long-term futures. As a result, the Emus and Tigers were preparing to do battle for the honour of being the last Lexton Plains league premier.
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But at 8am, as rain thundered down across central Victoria, they received the news: the big game was not going ahead.
It wasn't that the venue was unplayable. Rather, the flooding was so bad in the northern parts of the league that some players due to take part in the early games were unable to get to Ballarat.
That wasn't the only problem. Several volunteers from the Natte Bealiba Football Club, which had won the right to do the catering on the big day, were unable to leave their properties.
As a result, the Lexton Plains league's 12-season lifespan has been prolonged by another week, and its top two clubs have been forced to endure the longest build-up to a grand final that just about anyone in the region can remember.
''It's been a little bit mentally draining for some,'' says Skipton coach Tim McKay. ''Obviously a fair bit of preparation goes into it and players have their own things they go through. Some guys, especially the younger ones, were a little bit nervous and some were struggling to eat the night before. Finding out early on the Saturday morning that the game had been called off was a bit strange.''
Having defeated Skipton by eight points (11.5 to 8.15) in the second semi-final way back on August 21, the boys from Lexton haven't played a match for more than three weeks.
''It hasn't been ideal, of course,'' says Lexton president Mal Sargent, whose club has not won a senior premiership since 1992. ''There was a lull around the place earlier in the week. Everyone suffered a bit of a let-down. But the people are hyped up again now.
''Playing-wise, it's put us on the back foot a little bit. They boys have had a couple of fairly hard hitouts at training this week, because having 20 days off is not ideal to keep your body in shape for football.
''They've done a little bit of contesting work to get their bodies back in shape, so they should be ready to go. There are no excuses, as there's a lot to play for.''
The postponement of the grand final not only played havoc with the preparations for what happens on the field. Lexton's social committee had ordered plenty of food and beverages for the post-game celebration or commiseration.
Some of it ended up being consumed by the players at about the time they were meant to be slipping and sliding through the mud. The rest was taken care of last Sunday.
''We brought our best-and-fairest count forward a couple of weeks,'' Sargent explains. ''We had that to get everyone together for the day, the netballers as well.''
Unfortunately, some other things have proved a bit tougher to re-organise. ''We did have our footy trip booked for this week, and we're all supposed to be on the Gold Coast,'' Sargent says with a chuckle. ''That's cost the club a little bit of angst and money. Now some people are unavailable for the footy trip and netball trip, which have been put back to October. But there isn't a lot we can do about it, and I doubt whether it will ever happen again.''
Over at Skipton, the Emus have enjoyed the extra week off. After emerging from their eight-point preliminary final victory over Rokewood-Corindhap with plenty of sore bodies, the reigning premiers are refreshed and confident they can win their fifth flag in 10 seasons.
A week ago, the Skipton lads gathered as a team on the grand final day that wasn't.
''It was a bit of a quiet, morbid Saturday afternoon,'' says McKay. ''We ended up having a bit of a get-together and a barbecue at the footy club. Obviously the club had put a fair bit of time into preparing for the occasion, so we had all this food and everything to have there. It turned into a bit of a bonding session for a couple of hours.''
Since then, getting his players motivated again has been a big challenge for McKay, although his toughest task of the week was completed on Thursday night. While Lexton has stuck with the line-up it originally chose for the match, the weather bureau's forecast of a mostly dry afternoon led the Skipton coach to make one change to his team.
Wingman Brendan Partridge, who had played every game in the season but was dropped for the grand final, has earned a reprieve. Corey Fothergill now finds himself among the emergencies.
''As coach, you don't make too many friends at this time of the year,'' McKay acknowledges. ''Last week, the team was actually selected for the conditions, which we knew would be really wet and ordinary. All the players were aware of what was going on, and four or five missed out because of those conditions. Some of them get their opportunity now.''
Barring another intervention from mother nature, those lucky young men might be part of the first Skipton senior side to win consecutive premierships. And given it's the last match in the Lexton Plains league's short history, if they hold out the Tigers they'll even get to keep the perpetual trophy.
''We want to finish on a high,'' McKay says. ''We've had a pretty big decade and we'd like to cement ourselves as a strong club heading into our new competition next season.''
By Adam McNicol
Article first appeared The Sunday Age, September 12, 2010
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