VFL 2018: Port Melbourne and Box Hill Hawks to continue their fierce rivalry in elimination final
CLASSIC finals, milestones, hits, sprays … Port Melbourne and Box Hill Hawks have forged a fierce rivalry in the past decade.
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IT was Liston Trophy night in 2009 and as guests gathered for the count at Etihad Stadium they began talking about one thing.
They weren’t discussing who would win the Liston (it ended up being Myles Sewell’s year). They were fizzing about the semi-final played the previous day between Port Melbourne and Box Hill Hawks at North Port Oval.
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Sandringham star Peter Summers told Port player Toby Pinwill he rarely watched football. But he tuned in to the match on ABC TV and was immediately enthralled. He said it was the best game he had seen. Compere Peter Donegan hailed it an “instant classic’’.
It was the match that thrilled the senses, and the masses. And it was the match that began an absorbing rivalry between the Borough and Box Hill. It continues this Saturday with an elimination final at North Port Oval.
Port won the 2009 semi by four points after a final quarter that was as exciting as the previous three, the ball zapping from one end to the other like a bolt of lightning.
The Hawks got out to a 10-point lead but the Borough kicked back through Cory McGrath and Adrian Bonaddio, who finished with five goals.
McGrath’s long left-foot produced another 50m goal for Port at the 27-minute mark.
The Hawks came again through Mark Williams, nerve-fraying tension all around the ground. The siren brought a release of emotions, jubilation for Port, dejection for the Hawks.
The following season Port Melbourne thundered home with six goals to one in the final quarter to pinch a three-point victory that club great Gary Brice declared one of the Borough’s best “for a long, long time’’. Dean Galea booted seven goals.
Then came the 2010 semi-final. Remarkably, it was of the same gold standard as the semi 12 months earlier. This time the result went Box Hill’s way: in woeful conditions it won by six points after little Jayden Hoegel got away a right-foot snap from a pack.
That was the game when Pinwill was sensationally sent from the ground in the second quarter after being reported twice.
The umpires nabbed the Port hard man for charging after a crude tackle on Garry Moss in the first minute of the game and for planting his elbow in Liam Shiels’s chin in the second quarter. Pinwill’s uncle Tony, the Box Hill president, was presumably not amused.
Since then the clubs have played out some sterling home-and-away matches and two more finals.
In 2014 the Borough finished the home-and-away series as minor premiers and with only two losses. But the Hawks stitched them up in the qualifying final and went on to play Footscray Bulldogs in the grand final.
In Round 7 last season the teams had a draw at North Port. In the return game Pinwill played his 200th match and Port triumphed by 28 points at the City Oval. Two weeks later they met at the City Oval again in a qualifying final and the Hawks won by 13 points. But Port went on to win the premiership.
Port and Box Hill Hawks have played each other 19 times since 2009. Port holds the head-to-head advantage 11-7 (one draw), but the Hawks lead the finals count 3-1.
“It’s amazing how in the past 10 years or so we’ve always seemed to play each other in important games,’’ the now-retired Pinwill said today.
“Important times in home-and-away games, big finals. And they’re not dour games. Sometimes they’re high-scoring close ones, other times they’re low-scoring but just as tight.
“We’ve had milestones fall against them too, my 200th, I think Dean Galea I had one, Tommy O’Sullivan had his 100th this year.’’
Pinwill said the 2009 semi-final against Box Hill was probably the most exciting match he played in. “Lots of goals, it was tough, it was fast, the lead changed about five times,’’ he said.
“We’d get a couple of goals up, they’d get a couple of goals up. So many swings.’’
Mood swings were the order at the day when the clubs met at the City Oval in 2013.
Incensed that Pinwill had flattened Hawk Sam Iles, Hawthorn coach Alastair Clarkson rounded on him at quarter time, giving him a sustained spray. Port skipper John Baird wore some of the shrapnel.
AFL Victoria directed the coach to apologise. It was an incident that added to the rivalry.
The game had been transferred to Box Hill because Port’s ground was unplayable. Box Hill had lost three straight entering the game but came from four goals down at half time to win.
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It was the start of a run of eight consecutive victories that culminated in the 2013 premiership coached by Damian Carroll.
The fact that Box Hill finished higher on the ladder than Port this year but still must play at North Port Oval adds some spice to this Saturday’s affair.
The VFL traditionally fixtures both elimination finals at North Port to accommodate TV coverage.
But Channel 7 is broadcasting Saturday night’s qualifying final at Punt Rd, not the elimination final at Port Melbourne.
Asked about the schedule, a testy AFL Victoria competitions manager John Hook said the VFL guaranteed home finals only to the top two teams. He said the Punt Rd final had been signed off only last week and that the Box Hill ground had been booked for local finals.
It’s believed Hawthorn queried the fixturing. But the questions will be a lot tougher when these two fierce rivals take the ground at 2.10pm.
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