Whittlesea upset Banyule to claim NFL Division 2 premiership and promotion straight back to top flight
Whittlesea is celebrating promotion straight back to the Northern Football League’s top tier after a brutal, thrilling Division 2 grand final victory over Banyule in the spring sunshine.
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Just 12 months after the disappointment of relegation from the Northern Football League Division 1, Whittlesea will return to the top flight in 2020.
The Eagles saved their best for the big stage — despite some inaccuracy — claiming a 27-point Division 2 grand final victory over Banyule on Saturday at Preston City Oval.
It wasn’t without a scare as the Bears mustered a final-quarter charge and narrowed the margin to just three points at the 16-minute mark.
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However, as they’d done all day, Whittlesea answered the challenge, piling on four goals in a premiership-winning burst to seal the 10.14 (74) to 6.11 (47) triumph.
Whittlesea coach Blair Harvey praised his players for standing up under immense pressure from Banyule with the game on the line.
“Our fitness was a real key for us, we knew our fitness would get over the top of them, we knew we could out run them,” he said.
“I was a bit nervous when we kept missing goals, I just thought it the boys kept attacking, I just thought our legs and run would get us over the line.”
Xavier Dimassi was awarded the best on ground medal after a dazzling display through midfield, pipping Jaron Murphy (four goals), who kicked one of the goals of the season with a four-bounce dash down the grandstand wing and finish from 40m.
Mitchell Andrews was best on ground at half-time with his dash off half-back, while 17-year-old defender Zach Molloy blanketed Bears goal-machine James Kroussoratis.
Banyule’s big names struggled to make an impact and only some brilliant defence from Devin McDonald and Jack Langford kept them in the contest early on.
Bears coach Paul Harris lamented the loss but took plenty of positives out of a dominant regular season.
“We’ve obviously really disappointed right now but our guys will regroup, they’re a really close group, and we’ll see what our next step is from there,” he said.
“A grand final loss can separate a group or make a group closer and I’ve no doubt it will make this group closer and really keen to get back and have another opportunity.”
Whittlesea were on top from the first bounce, keeping the minor premier goalless in the first term to take a 13-point lead into quarter-time.
Banyule slowly worked its way back into the contest and when Ben Embleton goaled mere seconds before the three-quarter-time siren, the Bears were within 10 points and looked ready to run over the top of Whittlesea.
Michael Italia’s second of the last quarter got the Bears within three points but the Eagles would not repeat Eltham’s collapse of a year ago.
Jaron Murphy kicked one of the great grand final goals to steer Whittlesea to the 2019 A Plus Labour Solutions Division 2 premiership. pic.twitter.com/D5ExlnUwYR
— Northern FNL (@northernfnl) September 15, 2019
Whittlesea can now start planning its return to Division 1, confident with a couple of additions it will avoid yo-yoing back down.
“We’re excited, we had 14 guys today that were under 23, so we think we’ve got a good balance of kids coming through,” Harvey said.
“We’ve got a three-year plan, the first step was to get out of Division 2 straight away, which we achieved today and now the hard work is ahead of us for Division 1.
“We’re definitely going to have to recruit some guys, find a few more bigger bodies, a few more talls but the core group of players will hold us in good stead.”
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