SWAN Hill’s talented under 14.5 team capped a perfect unbeaten season with a convincing Grand Final win over Lake Boga on Saturday morning.
The Swans put the Magpies to the sword on their home deck, running away to a 14.8.92 to 3.0.18 win.
Swans coach Cal Beasy said he was “super proud” of his team of young guns.
“(They are) a good bunch of young blokes who deserved the win,” Beasy said after the match.
The Swans have been a powerhouse all season, winning every match by the mercy rule throughout the regular season before completing a double over the Magpies in the finals with comfortable Semi-Final and Grand Final victories.
“They’re a talented lot who never got ahead of themselves,” Beasy said.
“They just wanted to get better week in and week out, and we kept managing to win comfortably, so it was a memorable season.”
It wasn’t the coronation many expected it to be early on as Lake Boga, aided by a strong wind, kicked three goals in the opening term to take a six-point lead into the first change.
“They brought a lot of pressure, but they were kicking with a five to six goal wind,” Beasy said.
“We haven’t needed to play a lot of defence this year, and to Boga’s credit, they came out firing, and it took our boys a while to adjust, but I was still pretty confident we’d do so eventually.”
From there, it was all the Swans.
The Magpies held on for dear life in the second quarter but couldn’t prevent the Swans from rattling on four goals to none.
It was by no means game over at the halftime break with the Swans only 21 points up, but they flexed their muscles in the third term and proved themselves as the superior side kicking three goals to none against the wind.
Swan Hill full forward Steven Polglase-Hincksman managed to do what no other key forward could do all Grand Final day and kick a bag.
He kicked two of the three goals for the quarter in a seven-goal performance.
“Stevie has a great set of hands and is an awesome kick for goals – the weather wasn’t good for full forwards, but he found a way – he’d have kicked well over 100 goals this year,” Beasy said.
It was all over at three-quarter time, and the Swans were able to lap up the best feeling in footy of knowing you have a Grand Final won heading into the last quarter.
“I did say to the boys, if you’re lucky enough to get well ahead, you need to enjoy it,” Beasy said.
“I didn’t think we played our best footy – the conditions were fairly trying – but it is a lot of pressure released when you know you have it in the bag, and you’re not that team that went through undefeated and dropped the Grand Final, so that was a relief.”
Lachlan Vrolijks was voted best afield, and Beasy had nothing but praise for his young star.
“Lachie has had an incredible year – he’s just outstanding in the contest, and that showed on Saturday,” he said.
