Sandhurst rallies in final minutes of Bendigo Football League preliminary final to put Gisborne out of premiership race

GISBORNE conceded two goals in the final minutes of Saturday’s Bendigo Football League preliminary final against Sandhurst to bow out of the premiership race in heartbreaking fashion.

Bendigo Football League: Gisborne versus Kyneton at Gardiner Reserve in Gisborne. Kyneton's Harrison Huntley,8 and Gisbornes' Patrick Trotta,15. Pictures:Angie Basdekis

GISBORNE conceded two goals in the final minutes of Saturday’s Bendigo Football League preliminary final against Sandhurst to bow out of the premiership race in heartbreaking fashion.

The Dogs appeared destined to face Strathfieldsaye in this week’s grand final with two minutes left on the clock at Queen Elizabeth Oval before goals to Tom Broadbent and Mitch Dole lifted Sandhurst to a 13.14 (92) to 13.9 (87) win.

“Obviously a lot of emotions are going through straight after the game,” Gisborne coach Rod Sharp said.

“Disappointment, anger, but at the same time I’m very proud of the boys for their efforts this year.”

Gisborne rallied from 13 points behind at three-quarter-time, hitting the front midway through the final quarter.

But its efforts to snatch victory would be to no avail after Sandhurst found another gear in the dying moments of the contest.

Sharp described the defeat as “gut-wrenching”.

“They played some pretty good footy late in the third quarter and looked to take a bit of ascendancy,” he said.

“Our guys probably got a fortunate goal through Hamish Govan and then we kicked the next three goals.

“They kicked one, then we answered it, it was a frenetic last quarter.

“There wouldn’t have been more than two minutes to go and we were still eight points up (or) nine points up.”

Sharp, who has been reappointed as coach for 2015, said Gisborne needed to add depth to its list to take the next step.

“We’ll start moving forward pretty quick and try and rectify our depth issue at our footy club,” he said.

“We’ll try and get some people into the club that want to be better.

“We’ll probably try and attract some RDFL players that do want to step up a competition, put in some hard work and see where they sit in the scheme of things.”

He said Gisborne had shown a lot of character to go within five points of a grand final appearance with six under-18 players in its team.

“Any other side that’s playing in country Victoria in a premier competition like the Bendigo footy league that’s got six under-18s would just be laughed at,” he said.

Sharp said he would be surprised in Strathfieldsaye did not win this weekend’s grand final by 10 goals.