VAFA 2018: Old Brighton’s season ends with defeat to Old Trinity in Premier semi-final
OLD Brighton’s brave season back in VAFA Premier ended with a 40-point loss to Old Trinity at Eslternwick Park.
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A surprising and at times mesmerising year from top-flight returnee Old Brighton had its final act on Sunday at Elsternwick Park.
The Tonners, promoted from Premier B as a result of their 2017 premiership triumph, bowed out in the first semi-final of the Premier grade having spent the entire day chasing Old Trinity Grammarians following a costly — and ultimately fatal — opening quarter.
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Old Brighton was outscored 5.6 to 1.3 in the first 30 minutes and that deficit remained fairly constant the rest of the way, with Old Trinity eventually prevailing 13.19 (97) to 7.15 (57).
“They were pretty sharp (in the opening term),” said Tonners coach Greg Hutchison of the opposition. “Their kicking skills were good and they made us pay a bit on turnovers.
“We were up for it, but they were just too neat and polished around the footy.
“We had a few chances in the second quarter when we missed a couple of goals. We had opportunities to apply scoreboard pressure, but didn’t.
“Then we hit the post twice in the first five minutes of the third quarter and so we couldn’t claw our way back into it.
“If we had pulled one more goal back in the third I think we would have been a reasonable chance (in the final term),” he said.
“Our blokes gave it everything they had and unfortunately just weren’t good enough on the day.”
Hutchison was satisfied with how Old Brighton had set the table for its finals foray.
“We were really healthy and our availability was terrific so we had no excuses in that regard, albeit a few guys who had been out for a period of time weren’t at the fitness level we would have liked,” he said.
“But in terms of personnel we had a really solid side out there.”
And he lauded his young outfit for producing an excellent season of football.
“The group has been outstanding,” Hutchison said. “They’ve delivered 12 wins in A-Grade coming off a B-Grade grand final.
“I guess the challenge for the boys is to be able to front up and do it all again (next year). It’s hard work and there are no guarantees.
“To finish third on the ladder and fourth (following the finals) in a tough competition is a terrific result for the club.
“This was only the second time in the club’s history that they’ve played in an A-Grade final so it was a significant event.”
The Tonners’ 22 on Sunday featured six players who were still eligible for the under-19s and a further half-dozen under the age of 22.
“So in terms of where the list is at, it’s really healthy,” said Hutchison, while offering up a perfect example of the future from the Tonners’ best players against Old Trinity.
“Young Tom Yorgey, who’s played every (senior) game this year as an 18 or 19-year-old was a good contributor again, starting forward then going back in the second half.”
Old Brighton was also well served by co-captain Dylan Verney, Nick Pavlou and ruckman Ben Jarick.
“We had several good players, but obviously not enough on the day,” Hutchison said.
The Tonners’ bayside neighbours Hampton Rovers are through to the Division 1 grand final.
It would have been easy for Rovers to become victims of the classic “straight sets” scenario on Saturday given a gritty Oakleigh was within three points at the final break.
But the minor premiers shook off the lingering effects of the previous week’s poor second semi-final performance — and the aforementioned Oakleigh — to win the division one preliminary final 14.11 (95) to 9.8 (62) at Trevor Barker Oval.
Rovers held their opponents scoreless in the last stanza while piling on 4.6 themselves to both guarantee promotion back to Premier C next year and earn another crack at Ormond in this Saturday’s season decider.
“It is just such a relief (to secure promotion),” said Rovers coach Anthony Quon. “My main aim for the year was just to get us back up and then worry about winning a grand final.
“The club was super disappointed about being relegated last year as winning six games should keep you up.
“And no disrespect to division one, but we didn’t think we were a division one side.
“This a good reward for everyone. As I said to the guys, prelim finals are for the club and grand final days are for the players.”
Oakleigh certainly didn’t make it easy for Hampton Rovers to rebound from the defeat by Ormond.
Rovers only led by four points, eight points and three points at the respective changes on Saturday.
“It was very tight and there were a lot of stoppages,” Quon said.
“Almost all the goals in the first three quarters were down to whoever won the centre clearances. It was quite amazing really in that regard.
“But in the last quarter we got our hands on it and just used the ball a bit better.”
The Rovers had made four changes to their line-up, including one at 10am on the morning of the game.
“One of our medium-sized forwards pulled out due to gastro and Scott Ebbott came in and did really well,” Quon said.
“He’s an in-and-under type from the under-19s and his tackling and surging the ball (forward) was excellent.
“We went a lot smaller and quicker (balance-wise) after looking slow the previous week and those guys (the inclusions) really stepped up.”
Daniel Corp (three goals) was a marking machine for Hampton Rovers while Anthony Folino was explosive out of the middle.
Christian Carnovale and Campbell Hetherington also managed three-goal returns, with the latter taking a massive pack mark before converting in the decisive final stanza.
“A couple of guys who had jobs on Oakleigh’s better players did really well, too,” Quon said.
“Josh Pavlou kept (century goalkicker) Aaron Cloke to three goals, Liam McCartney did well on Patrick Ioannides, who’s a good player, and Ben Kneebush was great against James Hunt in the middle.”
Now Rovers must confront Ormond for the third time in four weeks (including a Round 18 meeting) having gone 0-2 up to this point.
“I feel the second semi-final was an aberration,” Quon said. “We just had a lot of guys who didn’t play well and this week they all played really well.
“Hopefully it was just one of those games that you have to have, we get a bit of momentum now with the win and we go again.”
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Caulfield Grammarians’ 2018 campaign may have been snuffed out on Sunday, but only after their resilient group burned brightly for more than three quarters.
The Fields led the heavily favoured University Blacks — a side four wins better on paper — by 15 points at the last change in the Premier B first semi-final before finally being overwhelmed by serious injuries, sheer exhaustion and a six-goal-to-one final stanza.
In the end the underdogs had to settle for a brave 16.11 (107) to 12.16 (88) defeat at Trevor Barker Oval.
“We’ve had a really good year,” said Caulfield Grammarians coach Simon Williams. “We had to work our backsides off to make the finals and that probably also told on us in that last quarter.
“I’m really happy … nothing’s lost, that’s for sure. In the past three years the club has shown massive improvement.
“We finished top (in Premier C in 2016) but didn’t make the grand final, then we did make the grand final (in 2017), albeit lost it, and went up to B-Grade, and this year we’ve played finals again.
“If we can keep that bubbling away then we’re in a good position to challenge for where the club wants to be eventually, which is back in A-Grade after a long time away.”
The Fields were 17 points up at halftime on Sunday despite losing their captain Tim Nixon to a terrible injury.
“Tim Nixon dislocated his ankle and broke his leg in a nasty incident during the second quarter that required an ambulance to come on to the field,” Williams said.
“Then we lost another guy unfortunately, Jack Wallace, so we had two of them at The Alfred by 10 minutes into the third term.
“He’s got a nasty cut on his top lip that extends all the way from his nose down to his mouth.”
University Blacks understandably kicked a few unanswered goals midway through that third stanza before Caulfield Grammarians somehow rallied again.
“When the ambulance came out the boys were a bit shell-shocked for a while, but we did recover and that showed really good maturity,” Williams said.
“We fired back late on (in the third term) and had some momentum, but we just ran out of legs in the last and to their credit they ran over us.
“They were very good in the final quarter; they took their opportunities and kicked goals. We still had a few shots, but just couldn’t score.”
Chris Diggle was a rock in the back half for the Fields, Will Barker shone as a high half forward and Nick Baltas booted three goals.
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