NFL Division 2 grand final: Lower Plenty shocks Eltham with last-gasp victory
WATCH the frantic final minute as Lower Plenty pulled off an incredible Northern Football League grand final win on Saturday after being goalless at three-quarter-time.
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LOWER Plenty won’t ever win another premiership like this.
Held goalless until three-quarter-time, the Bears kicked 3.7 and kept Eltham scoreless in the last quarter to prevail 3.10 (28) to 2.10 (22) in Saturday’s Northern Football League Division 2 grand final.
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Ben Paterson delivered the matchwinning moment barely a second before the final siren, snapping his second goal of the last term to send the Lower Plenty crowd into raptures.
The Bears had kicked six consecutive points before Paterson’s major, leaving the scores tied entering the last minute as extra-time loomed at Preston City Oval.
Thrust forward by coach Ben Turner to provide a spark in attack, Paterson gathered possession in the left forward pocket and threw the ball on his boot as the siren sounded.
Both sets of supporters took a deep breath as they waited for the umpire’s verdict on whether the ball had left Paterson’s boot in time.
When a goal was signalled, Bears fans clambered over the fence en masse and mobbed their jubilant players.
“I saw it hit his foot, because I knew a score was enough to put us in front,” Turner said. “Then obviously the ball is in flight and the siren goes. After that, just madness.”
Slippery conditions made scoring difficult for both teams and the first goal of the match took more than 55 minutes.
As a goalless first half seemed certain, Tim Currie capitalised on a freekick to give the Panthers an eight-point halftime lead in the last minute of the second term.
Gavan Connolley snapped the only major of the third quarter for Eltham, which led by 19 points at the last break.
Lower Plenty dominated territory for the final 10 minutes of the decider, but the Panthers crowded the ball in a valiant effort to deny their opposition further opportunities on goal.
Inspired by captain Patrick Flynn’s herculean efforts in the ruck and a brilliant second half from midfielder Tom Keys, the Bears secured their first premiership since 2011 in the nick of time.
Turner said securing the club’s passage back to Division 1 after it was relegated in 2016 was “unbelievable”.
“I don’t know if we expected this at the start of the season,” he said.
“We hoped we were building something really good. I can’t believe that’s the next phase for us.”
Disbelief was a common theme post-match.
Unbeaten after 15 games of the home-and-away season, Eltham will be left to rue a missed opportunity to clinch an immediate return to Division 1.
For Lower Plenty’s players, coaches and supporters, the dramatic circumstances in which the club triumphed will take some time to sink in.
Flynn, who was named best on ground, was at a loss to explain how his side had won.
“I knew the way we were playing in the last quarter, with that wind, if we just kept going and just kept pushing it was going to come,” he said.
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