EFNL 2024: Scoresby wins Division 4 grand final as Adam Amin kicks 100th goal of season
Scoresby is toasting its first senior cup in almost two decades after a merciless mauling of the Whitehorse Pioneers, as a star spearhead snagged his 100th goal of the season.
Eastern
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SCORESBY could smell blood at the half as coach Craig McKenzie implored his group to hunt down its prey in the premiership quarter.
The Magpies dashed an 18-year flag drought with a stunning 16.13 (109) to 3.10 (28) rout of the Whitehorse Pioneers in the Eastern league Division 4 grand final on Sunday.
Front and centre was Scoresby spearhead Adam Amin whose second goal of the match cracked his 100th major of the season to send his side 22 points ahead – and the crowd into raptures.
Despite an error-riddled opening term from the Magpies, Amin’s ton would prove the precipice of Whitehorse’s demise ahead of a second-half avalanche of goals.
With the Pioneers failing to find the big sticks after the eight-minute mark of the second quarter, McKenzie’s men didn’t look back, piling on six unanswered majors in the third to all but seal the deal with a 52-point buffer.
“At half-time, I spoke to them (and said): ‘It’s time to pounce – right now’,” McKenzie said.
“In the third quarter, we broke them.
“The boys just did everything I asked – and then some. I couldn’t have been happier.”
Amin would finish with four goals, alongside Scoresby centre half-forward Mason Storr who won the medal for best afield, kicking a major in every quarter.
While Amin’s triple-figure milestone earned the quintessential ground invasion, there was to be no disruption to play with the half-time siren ringing out over East Ringwood Reserve as the Sherrin sailed through.
The moment might have arrived sooner had it not been for an unselfish Amin handball to teammate Cooper Frith, who goaled on the run at the 18-minute mark of the second term to extend the margin to 15 points.
Ten minutes later, the centurion’s time had arrived, kicking truly following a free kick for high contact.
“It couldn’t have come at a better time – it was perfect,” McKenzie said of Amin’s milestone.
“He said to me after the game: ‘You didn’t acknowledge me on my handball’, and I said, ‘Mate, I was in shock!’
“In all honesty, he’s a larger-than-life character, but he was all about getting that job done for the team.
“We’re absolutely stoked for him – 100 goals is a huge achievement in a season and he thoroughly deserves it.
“He’s the type of guy that puts a lot of pressure on himself but at the same time, brings out the best in other people as well.”
Emotions spilt over at the final siren with celebrations extending into the night at Scoresby – McKenzie and an army of rusted-on supporters toasting the club’s first senior cup since 2006.
The Magpies had weathered a slippery slide down the divisions across the past decade, dropping from the league’s top-flight.
At the end of 2022, the club was relegated a fourth time in eight years, from Division 3 into the bottom tier just ahead of McKenzie’s appointment as coach.
Promotion to Division 3 awaits next season.
“You could not wipe the smile off anyone’s face at the club last night – it was just phenomenal,” McKenzie said.
“If I’m being honest, the main feeling was relief.
“Like anyone, you work really hard for it, but we couldn’t have been any more set up for achieving this.”
McKenzie paid tribute to Storr’s best-on-ground performance, with the centre half-forward also drifting back, as he had done most quarters this season.
“We just want to give the opposition nothing in the last few minutes of a quarter and so Mason from centre half-forward would always play higher up the ground and help us defensively,” he said.
“He’s a beautiful set of hands and knows how to read the ball in flight.”
Defence has become a trademark of a Scoresby outfit which finished the home-and-away season on top of the ladder with a 13-3 record and a runaway percentage of 210. The next-best? The Pioneers with 153.
Putting the clamps on the Pioneers’ often heavy scoring power became a by-product of the Magpies’ stingy defence which conceded more than 200 points fewer than any other team this year.
McKenzie said it was a stranglehold which ran the length of the ground.
“We pride ourselves on (defending) right from the full-forward line, all the way back,” he said.
“Whitehorse like to switch the ball from one side of the ground to the other in the back line, and a lot of teams do that, but a lot of the time they moved it and wanted to bring it forward, we managed to intercept before the ball even got past centre wing.
“We were set up for it – we were ready to hold our ground and intercept where we had to.”
And the driver? None other than captain Tim De Geest.
“He’s one of the most selfless people going around – he does anything and everything for everyone.”
Scoresby 3.2, 7.4, 13.11, 16.13 (109)
Whitehorse Pioneers 2.4, 3.6, 3.9, 3.10 (28)
Goals
Scoresby: Adam Amin, Mason Storr (4), Declan McBean (2), Moomen Amin, Daniel Coulthard, Aaron Findlay, Cooper Frith, Ryan Hicks, Luke Plumridge
Whitehorse: Tom Young (2), Daniel Horvat
Best players
Scoresby: Mason Storr, Ryan Hicks, Dale Hehir, Jacob Delrayne, Aaron Findlay, Samir Kazizada
Whitehorse: not supplied.
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