Garry McIntosh puts Payneham Norwood Union in history books
Payneham Norwood Union was kept scoreless in the final term but held on to win its first Adelaide Footy League division one flag, beating Prince Alfred Old Collegians.
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Payneham Norwood Union created history claiming its first division one Adelaide Footy League premiership by four points in a thriller on Saturday.
The Falcons held off a strong comeback from Prince Alfred Old Collegians to prevail 12.4 (76) to 10.12 (72) at Thebarton Oval.
PNU’s flag was won despite registering no score in the final quarter.
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The Old Reds, meanwhile, fought back from being 48 points down midway through the second quarter and had plenty of chances to steal the game in that last term.
But they squandered too many opportunities inside 50.
Mack Haynes became the hero for the Falcons when he took a clutch mark right on PAC OC’s goal line late in the final stanza.
Ex-Norwood forward Liam Davis starred with four goals for PNU, while Anthony Giannini was also inspirational and won the best-on-ground medal.
Payneham Norwood Union had suffered heartbreaking division one grand final losses in 2015 and 2017 under coach Garry McIntosh.
McIntosh, a dual Magarey Medallist with Norwood, was emotional after the game and invited all the club’s juniors up to hand the senior players their premiership medals, saying the flag should been enjoyed by everyone.
“It’s a pretty special moment,” McIntosh said.
“We didn’t play that great in the last quarter, Prince Alfred missed a lot of shots and probably should’ve put us away.
“But my boys have a fair bit of resilience and they hung in there.
“It put a lot of pressure on my ticker but I thought they’d hold on — they hung in their tough and that’s what they do.”
PNU booked their place in the grand final after defeating Rostrevor Old Collegians last week, while PAC OC was the first team into the flag decider.
The Falcons were desperate to win after losing their two previous grand finals and that hunger shone through right from the first bounce.
They were too quick and too skilful and took a 30-point lead into quarter-time before pushing that advantage out to 48 points.
But the Old Reds were never going to give up easily and booted five unanswered goals from the 18th-minute mark of the second quarter, cutting the margin to just nine points in the third term.
Davis stemmed the flow and gave the Falcons a bit of breathing space with two quick majors, helping push the margin back 27 points at three-quarter time.
But PAC OC again refused to throw in the towel and stormed home hard but fell agonisingly short.
Jake Pitt, Will Dalwood, Craig Pitt and Tom Bartlett were best for the Old Reds.
PAC OC coach Brett Backwell was “gutted” after the match but proud of his side for mounting such a strong comeback.
“I’m obviously gutted but it was a cracking game of footy,” Backwell said.
“Grand finals, you’ve got a winner and a loser and unfortunately we couldn’t get it done.
“We had our opportunities, we missed some real easy ones in that last quarter when we were really coming hard.
“But they jumped us early and we struggled to adjust to the tempo and that was probably the story, really.”
