Romsey stamps itself as genuine contender in RDFL with impressive win over Diggers Rest in grand final replay

ROMSEY stamped itself as a genuine contender to claim back-to-back premierships in the RDFL on Saturday with victory in its grand final rematch against Diggers Rest.

RDFL football: Romsey versus Diggers Rest at Romsey Reserve, Romsey. Romseys' Leigh McInnerney,13 Pictures:Angie Basdekis

ROMSEY was seldom mentioned during pre-season.

Everyone knew the reigning Riddell District Football League premier had lost about a dozen players from last year’s squad, leading some to predict it would not have a big impact on 2015.

Four rounds into the new campaign, it appears those predictions were well off the mark.

In the weekend’s grand final rematch against Diggers Rest, the Redbacks prevailed 15.12 (102) to 12.7 (79) to again stamp themselves as a genuine contender.

“Everyone spoke up Diggers and Sunbury pretty much all pre-season, but we’re not too worried about anyone else at this stage,” Romsey coach Dean Helmers said.

“We’re just more concentrating on getting our group to where we need to get them to.

“We did lose a lot of quality players but the club’s backed me 100 per cent to go with the young blokes and the beauty about coaching young blokes is they stick to the plan. You turn up with a plan to win and if they follow it you know that a lot of the time you’re going to get the result you’re after. I think we’re in pretty good shape.”

The home side controlled Saturday’s match at Romsey Park from the outset.

The Redbacks kicked three of the four goals scored in the opening term and held a 21-point advantage by half-time before blowing out the gap in the third term.

Romsey’s plan was to gain an advantage on the inside of the contest by playing three ruckmen — Ben Way, Cameron Wight and Steven James — and then expose Diggers Rest’s lack of speed outside on the big ground.

And the plan worked to perfection.

The Burras’ workrate was down, as were their skills, and it showed on the scoreboard.

“We’ve both got talented teams, but when it all boils down it’s just about effort and workrate really,” Diggers Rest coach Shaun Sims said.

“In all the important parts of the game they just played better. Whether it was five minutes or 10 minutes, they executed better than us and used skills better than us. They ran into space better, they spread better.

“At the moment we’re still a bit off where we should be.”

Brothers Zak and Walid Saad both had big games for Romsey while Bradley Mitchell (three goals) also impressed up forward.

Cameron McCabe, Jamie Lobb and Luke Smailes were three of too few standouts for the Burras.