Uni Blues save their best for last to record thumping VAFA Premier B grand final win over Old Carey

UNIVERSITY Blues will take the tag of reigning premier into Victorian Amateur Football Association Premier Division after hammering Old Carey by 75 points on Saturday.

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UNIVERSITY Blues will take the tag of reigning premier into Victorian Amateur Football Association Premier Division after hammering Old Carey by 75 points on Saturday.

The Blues were at their ruthless best at Sportscover Arena in the Premier B decider, leading at every change as Thomas Mackenzie, Jeremy Mugavin and Jack Townley dominated around the ground.

Coach Quinton Gleeson said he sensed his side had broken Old Carey’s resistance when it lead by about six goals early in the final quarter.

“Probably about the five or six-minute mark you could tell that they were off their feet,” Gleeson said.

“Even though we’d only probably kicked two goals and they’d kicked one, we controlled all the play and knew we had another round of rotations to come on.

“Blokes were feeling fresh, it just felt like the game was slipping from their hands and falling into ours.”

The Blues eventually won 20.22 (142) to 10.7 (67), powering away in the last term to put an exclamation mark on their 2014 campaign.

Mackenzie, who was named best afield after booting six goals, combined with fellow talls Cameron Williams and Josh Caldow to run Old Carey ragged.

“We had (Thomas) rotating through the ruck actually,” Gleeson said.

“We wanted to stretch them up forward, we had three ruckman.

“We rotated one off the bench, one up forward and one in the ruck and we got reward, particularly with Mackenzie up forward.”

Gleeson said the premiership was just reward for his players after their brilliant home-and-away campaign.

“The way we did it was the way we’ve done it all year,” he said.

“We slowly but surely broke down the side that we were playing against.

“Old Carey only had 16 or 17 shots against us in the grand final, you’re going to win the majority of games if that’s the case.

“I think we had 42 in the end, so it was a pretty resounding victory.”

The Blues will look to bolster their list over the off-season to ensure they make a successful step up to Premier Division.

“What we have established is a winning culture again,” Gleeson said.

Gleeson is expected to continue as coach, but said he was eyeing a succession plan to hand assistant coach James Walker the reins after 2015.