Lake Boga’s under 14.5’s team capped off the perfect season, defeating Tooleybuc-Manangatang by 24 points in Saturday’s grand final.
The Magpies went through the home-and-away season undefeated, with the Saints their only real challenger throughout the season.
But even they were no match when it counted, as Lake Boga won every quarter on the way to a 9.4 (58) to 5.4 (34) win.
It was redemption for coach Blake Anderson and several players, who lost last year’s grand final to Swan Hill.
Anderson was full of praise for his playing group after the match.
“It’s fantastic, I’m pretty impressed and really proud, and a bit lost for words at the moment to tell the truth,” Anderson said post-match.
“I’ve been a part of two winning ones, but I’ve also been a part of four losing ones, and that’s never a good feeling.
“It’s hard with kids when you have two byes in three weeks, it was all about just keeping the ball in their hand and keeping them moving.
“Training was really hard and I probably need to apologise to the kids for how hard it was, but our focus was always on playing our structures and to keep trying to get fitter.”
Lake Boga’s Max O’Reilly was adjudged best on ground in a dominant four quarter performance, while Jarra Kelly kicked five goals to help steer his team to victory.
Also among the Magpies better players were Archer Hartland, Kye Fleming and Willem Holmes, while Tooleybuc-Manangatang were best served by Rydar Morris, Julian Muir, Campbell Fisher and Connor Hazlett.
After leading by just two goals at half-time, Lake Boga managed to kick away in the third quarter to open up a match winning 23-point lead by the final break.
“I thought early on we were a bit rusty and it might have been a bit of dew on the ground, but we were just a bit off at the start,” Anderson said.
“They have a couple of good, big midfielders, and once we got on top of them and started to use the ball and switch the play and swing it wide, our skills got us through,
“Once we got the ball deep forward, we have a dangerous forward line, especially with Jarra (Kelly) down there, but in the end it was all about work rate.
“The way I coach, it’s not about your best five players or your bottom five players, everyone has a role and they all have to go on the ground and play that role.
“I teach structure and I’m very hard on it, but you can see the results, when they run onto the ground, it doesn’t matter how big or small each individual is, they all know their role.
“That just gives you options and means you can rotate your bench and rotate your midfield a lot more.
“For me, it’s pretty important to teach all the kids, all the skills of the game.”
