Wayward St Bernard’s bundled out of VAFA Premier finals in straight sets by Collegians
SOMETIMES the yips can be contagious. And like a golfer who four-putted the opening hole in a major, St Bernard’s found their goalkicking woes difficult to shake in Saturday’s VAFA preliminary final.
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SOMETIMES the yips can be contagious.
And like a golfer who four-putted the opening hole in a major, St Bernard’s found their goalkicking woes difficult to shake in Saturday’s Victorian Amateur Football Association Premier Division preliminary final.
The Snowdogs never found their radar against Collegians at Sportscover Arena, kicking 1.7 in the opening quarter before going being beaten 14.8 (92) to 5.22 (52).
“We kicked 5.22, four out of bounds on the full and had nine more scoring shots, yet lost by 40 points,” St Bernard’s president Patrick Crabb said.
“Albeit, there was a couple of goals in junk time when it was all over.
“The way we look at it, while the day had a disappointing end, the year from a club standpoint was still a very strong year.”
Crabb said the club could reflect proudly on a year in which its seniors, reserves and thirds reached preliminary finals and its three under-19 teams made grand finals.
The Snowdogs secured one premiership on Sunday, when their under-19 Premier team beat St Kevin’s by 45 points at Trevor Barker Oval.
“While we were disappointed to only get one win out of the six games, overall for the club it has been a very strong year, one of the strongest in over a decade,” Crabb said.
Alexander McLeod, Nathan Kazuro and Simon Caven were the Snowdogs’ best players in the preliminary-final defeat.
Crabb said the club would switch its focus to retaining its players and coaching staff for next year.
He said he was hopeful senior coach Anthony Rock would remain at the helm.
“We’re very focused on retention of players and we’re also very focused on having a very strong under-19 program,” he said.
“We run a football academy over summer and we are optimistic we’ll keep the bulk of our list together.”
Uni Blacks will meet Collegians in this weekend’s Premier grand final, which starts at 2.30pm on Saturday at Sportscover Arena.
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